New Zealand 2026 general election manifesto released

Sent to the leaders and health spokespeople of all parties currently in the New Zealand Parliament, as well as the Opportunity Party, the manifesto was compiled following extensive consultation across ANZCA in New Zealand, but also the wider college.

It calls on all political parties and candidates to commit to evidence-based policies that secure a strong, sustainable anaesthesia and pain medicine workforce, strengthen perioperative and pain services, and protect the wellbeing of our specialist doctors and trainees.

Our priorities for the incoming New Zealand government are set out across six areas:

• Health policy and system design.
• Maintain and strengthen high standards of anaesthesia, sedation and training.
• Make anaesthesia and pain medicine careers attractive, sustainable and culturally safe.
• Secure a strong training pipeline and protect trainee welfare.
• Increase access to pain services while reducing the burden of pain through system-level reform.
• Elevate perioperative medicine as a national strategy for quality, efficiency and training.

The manifesto aligns with our 2026 election questionnaire, sent to the same political parties, giving each the opportunity to outline their health policies ahead of the election. 

The responses of those parties who replied were distributed to New Zealand fellows and trainees in the October Te hā e-news.