Grey Power Federation ended 2025 in a series of rigorous advocacy meetings with Parliamentarians. Delegates left with some renewed hope for more action to assist New Zealanders as they age.
The Grey Power delegation included national president, Gayle Chambers, vice-president, David Marshall and secretary, Margaret Hope.
They met with Deputy Prime Minster, David Seymour; Health Minister, Simeon Brown; the Minister for Energy Simon Watts; Makeri Lee from the Health and Disability Advocacy Service;
Matthew Kenning, from NZ Post and the Minister for Transport and for Housing, Chris Bishop (see report on the Chris Bishop meeting, page 8).
Meeting with Deputy Prime Minister, David Seymour
Gayle Chambers raised PHARMAC and Grey Power concerns that the free Shingles vaccination was available only to those aged 65 years but not older.
She pointed out that proven research showed ongoing health effects were higher if contracting shingles in one’s later years.
Although acknowledging that the Minister could not influence this age-restrictive decision, Mrs Chambers asked for his support to extend the vaccination age to all people over 65 years should there be future discussions with PHARMAC.
On the Act Party’s future policy regarding seniors, Minister Seymour advised that if the Coalition kept the economy growing then New Zealand superannuants would also benefit because increases were aligned to the average wage.
Meeting with Minister for Health, Simeon Brown
Although pressed for time, Minister Brown confirmed he had received electronic copies of two Grey Power surveys, one on domestic care provision disparities and the other on long waiting times for orthopaedic surgeries.
On presenting him with hard copies of the survey, Mrs Chambers outlined that ‘lack of communication’ was a recurring theme in both surveys as were concerns about wait times for diagnostic tests before surgical procedures could take place.
In acknowledging the seriousness of the latter, Minister Brown said funds had already been allocated to train more radiographers. However, he was unable to provide a definitive answer when asked if aged care funding and service improvements had been covered in the Aged Care Review.
Mrs Chambers also stressed the need for accountability steps to be included in new Aged Care Providers contracts to ensure clients received the intended support allocated.
Meeting with Makeri Lee from the Health and Disability Advocacy Service
At an hour-long meeting, Makeri Lee provided extensive information on many relevant issues, including outlining the Code of Health and Disability Services, consumer rights and the hierarchy of the service.
This information was extremely helpful as the Federation is frequently contacted by members about some of the issues Ms Lee addressed. She also offered to send information for use in our magazine.
Meeting with Matthew Kenning from NZ Post
Addressing Grey Power concerns about the closure of several postal outlets throughout New Zealand, Mr Kenning outlined changes within the post office which had facilitated the closures. However, he assured the delegation he would follow up on points raised including:
- Cost of postage increasing.
- Drop in the number of letters being sent and the reduction of delivery days.
- Proposed use of couriers for parcel deliveries.
- Proposed Cluster Boxes instead of individual house boxes for new housing developments
- A $2.50 fee for paying a household bill at Post Shops.
See more on Parliamentary visit – Grey Power challenges Minister over rising power bills