NZNO seeks your feedback on this bill which reforms the Privacy Act 1993. The intent of the Bill is to promote people's confidence that their personal information is secure and will be treated properly, given changes to the way this is used with the rise of the Internet and the digital economy. The Bill implements recommendations made in the Law Commission's 2011 review of the Act including reforms that give the Privacy Commissioner a stronger role and help address privacy risks earlier. The key changes are:

• mandatory reporting of privacy breaches to the Privacy Commissioner and to affected individuals;
• the Commissioner will be able to issue compliance notices;
• strengthening cross-border data flow protections;
• new criminal offences: it will be an offence to mislead an agency in a way that affects someone else’s information and to knowingly destroy documents containing personal information where a request has been made for it;
• Commissioner making binding decisions on access to information requests; and
• strengthening the Privacy Commissioner’s information gathering power.

Please find the Bill here: https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/bills-and-laws/bills-proposed-laws/document/BILL_77618/privacy-bill

Send feedback to marilynh@nzno.org.nz by 17 May 2018.

NZNO seeks your feedback on this Bill which amends the Coroners Act 2006 (the Act) to “require” coroners when determining whether a person should be allowed to remain with the tūpāpaku to also consider tikanga Māori and the expectations of other cultures. This Bill strengthens the issues raised during the Māori Affairs Select Committee inquiry into whānau access to and management of Tūpāpaku, which Te Rūnanga have submitted on.

Currently, the Act allows coroners to have the discretion to take cultural considerations into account, but they are not mandatorily required to.  

We welcome your feedback on the proposed amendment which enshrines the importance of recognising and supporting all cultural beliefs in Aotearoa New Zealand, to the extent possible.

Send feedback to leannem@nzno.org.nz by 18 May 2018.

The Law Commission is reviewing the current abortion law to see how it could be made consistent with treating abortion as a health issue. NZNO is seeking feedback from members and nurses working in women’s health services on the current process and delivery of abortion services, and the impact on women’s health.

For an explanation of the current law and the process for receiving abortion services please see: http://abortionlaw.lawcom.govt.nz/

Please send feedback to marilynh@nzno.org.nz by 11 May 2018

NZNO seeks your feedback on this Bill which includes changes to employment law which may impact on your working situation. Triangular employment is where an employer, for example a DHB, contracts the services of their employee to a secondary employer, for example a nursing agency.

There are two parts to the Bill.

1. The first part ensures collective coverage, if you have more than one employer. This is provided you are a member of a union and that union has a Collective Agreement with your secondary employer. Should you be bound by a Collective Agreement with your primary employer you would not be covered by the secondary employer’s collective.
2. The second part focuses on your rights to allege personal grievances if you have more than one employer. Nurses employed by one “primary employer” but working for another “secondary employer” as well, will still have a right to allege a personal grievance. So if you have an employment issue with your secondary employer, while you are outsourced to that employer, this Bill will enable both your primary and secondary employer to be jointly named as respondents to a personal grievance.

Please find the bill attached here: https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/bills-and-laws/bills-proposed-laws/document/BILL_76281/employment-relations-triangular-employment-amendment

Send feedback to marilynh@nzno.org.nz by 4 May 2018.

NZNO seeks your feedback on this bill which would increase the penalty for selling or supplying psychoactive substances that are not approved products.

The intent of the bill is to increase the penalty associated with the supply of non-approved products in line with the penalties for the supply of Class C drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975.

The bill can be found here: https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/bills-and-laws/bills-proposed-laws/document/BILL_76278/psychoactive-substances-increasing-penalty-for-supply

Send feedback to marilynh@nzno.org.nz by 27 April 2018.

NZNO seeks your feedback on proposed legislation for the National Cervical Screening Programme (NCSP) relating to disclosure of information from the NCSP register.

The key change is to more clearly identify health providers able to have access to information from the Register. Currently, smear takers in primary care need to wait for clinical information to be faxed to them.  In particular, these amendments will allow smear takers to have direct (look-up) access to the Register, and for this access to be incorporated into the future re-design of the Register.

The people provided with direct access to the Register would remain subject to the Privacy Act 1993, the Health Information Privacy Code 1994, health professional regulatory constraints and relevant employment and contract law. 

Please note we have some concerns about the role of the Kaitiaki group and welcome any feedback you may have about access to Māori women's data.

Please find the bill attached below:

http://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2018/0026/latest/LMS13671.html

Send feedback to leannem@nzno.org.nz 26 April 2018.

NZNO seeks your feedback on the Draft Medication Guidelines for Home and Community Support Services prepared by the Ministry of Health (on behalf of the Home and Community Support Services Working Group).
 

The aim is to provide medication guidelines specific to the Home and Community Support Services sector that will ensure best possible outcomes for clients and staff.

The draft guidelines are available at the link  below:

http://www.hcha.org.nz/page-15/medication-guidelines-for-home-support-under-consultation

Send feedback to sueg@nzno.org.nz by 20 April 2018.

NZNO seeks your input on ways to improve the current tax system to inform future developments in tax and ensure tax works for the  wellbeing of New Zealanders.  It is an opportunity to have input on how tax could work for public health concerns such as income inequality, living standards and healthy behaviours (for example through removing GST from essential items or the use of alcohol, tobacco and sugar tax). It also a chance to have input on any other ways in which you are affected by the current tax system.

Please see the background paper attached below: https://taxworkinggroup.govt.nz/resources/future-tax-submissions-background-paper

Please note NZNO and NZMA  are co-hosting Alcohol HealthWatch’s public forums on three submission opportunities for alcohol related policy:

• Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Renewal of Licences) Amendment Bill – improving local community control to reduce the number of alcohol outlets in our communities
• Tax Working Group Review increasing the tax of alcohol is aligned with a social justice
• Mental Health and Addictions Inquiry -strong alcohol policies can improve mental health

 We recommend these forums in Wellington, Thursday 5th April  Auckland 9^th April, and Christchurch, 11th April to your attention. To register email Suzanne: ahw@ahw.org.nz

Send feedback to marilynh@nzno.org.nz by 20 April 2018

FEEDBACK DUE:
Please send feedback to sueg@nzno.org.nz by April 9th 2018

Following the first round of consultation late in 2017, and feedback from Dr Jill Wilkinson these guidelines (see the table of changes below) warrant another brief consultation. Please consider these changes as you read the document.

Summary table of changes:
Length of document:
At 50+ pages long the document was becoming unwieldly and repetitive.

Removal of material that was not directly associated with nurses administering medicines (including reference to Nurse Practitioners and designated prescribers for whom a specific guideline will be developed).

Reference to midwives responsibilities in administering medicines has also been removed as this is clearly described by the Midwifery Council of New Zealand.

Detail of standing orders and transcribing have also been removed but links created to the existing NZNO publications that address these practices.

New additions:
Nurse-initiated medicines (6.8)
Automated medication dispensing devices now in common use (6.13)
Oxygen and other medical gases (7.3)

Updates:
Glossary (8)
References (9)
list of relevant legislation and regulation (9.1)

NZNO seeks your feedback on NZQA’s proposal to recognise micro-credentials, alongside other qualifications, from July. Micro-credentials are usually smaller than a qualification and recognise a defined set of skills and knowledge by an industry or community.

Read or download: Micro-credential Consultation document 

NZNO seeks member feedback on this Plan and new funding model intended to give:

“communities equity of access to different types of pharmacist services, in different ways and places, which are tailored to individual need. This means that some services in future could be provided outside of the pharmacy. District Health Boards will focus on improving health outcomes for Māori and Pasifika, and four other groups, which are also set out in the Pharmacy Action Plan:

• consumers with chronic conditions.
• frail and elderly.
• mental health consumers.
• giving every child a healthy start.”

NZNO is interested in your feedback on the Plan and in particular your views on how this will affect the:

• integration of pharmacists in community health care and
• delivery of, and equal access, to  primary health care and nurse-led services.

A good overview of the plan is provided here:

https://tas.health.nz/assets/Publications/Pharmacy-Documents/Integrated-pharmacists-in-the-community/FINAL-Integrated-Pharmacist-Vision-Booklet.pdf

Feedback to marilynh@nzno.org.nz by 3 April 2018

NZNO seeks member feedback on this bill regarding its impact on nursing education including:

1. a requirement that the councils of tertiary institutions and councils of polytechnics have at least one elected permanent member of staff and at least one elected student  and
2. its support of the introduction of free tertiary education through creating a  new offence of making a false representation in an application for free tertiary education.

This bill amends the Education Act 1989 and the Education (Update) Amendment Act 2017.

Please find a link below to the bill:

http://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2018/0015/latest/LMS8532.html

Feedback to sueg@nzno.org.nz by 6 April 2018.

NZNO welcomes your feedback on this Bill. Its intent is to help achieve a significant and sustained reduction in child poverty and to enhance the overall wellbeing of children.

The purpose of this bill is to:

• encourage a focus on child poverty reduction,
• facilitate political accountability against published targets,
• require transparent reporting on child poverty levels, and
• create a greater commitment by Government to address child well-being.

The bill and bills digest can be found here:

https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/bills-and-laws/bills-proposed-laws/document/BILL_76267/child-poverty-reduction-bill

Feedback to leannem@nzno.org.nz by 28 March 2018.

NZNO seeks member feedback on the above bill which  aims to provide:

• better visibility of decisions about practitioner practice
• greater recognition of the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and co-operation
• better workforce information.

We strongly recommend that you read the Bill’s Digest

https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/bills-and-laws/bills-digests/document/52PLLaw25401/health-practitioners-competence-assurance-amendment-bill which summarises amendments to the HPCA Act affecting : 

• Competence and fitness to practice (Part 3)
• Complaints and discipline (Part 4)
• Structure of authorities (Part 6)
• Naming Policy (Part 7)

The Bill can be found here: https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/bills-and-laws/bills-proposed-laws/document/BILL_76354/health-practitioners-competence-assurance-amendment-bill

Feedback due to policyanalysts@nzno.org.nz by 29 March 2018.