New Zealand nurses are being told that holding the “wrong” views, or expressing them in the “wrong” way, could cost them their careers.
The Nursing Council’s proposed new Code of Conduct goes well beyond ensuring patient safety or professional competence. It pushes nurses into ideological compliance, policing speech, beliefs, and expression that have nothing to do with clinical care.
This is not what professional regulation is for!
The Free Speech Union is standing up for nurses and for every New Zealander who believes you should not lose your livelihood for expressing lawful views and that it is okay to be a bit "unprofessional" when you are off the clock.
The Nursing Council is proposing a new Code that:
Removes the line between professional and personal conduct so nurses are never "off duty"
Requires nurses to affirm contested social and political ideas
Treats disagreement or dissent as potential misconduct
Creates uncertainty about what nurses can safely say online or offline
This is not about stopping abuse or protecting patients.
Those protections already exist.
This is about expanding regulatory power into ideology and speech without a democratic mandate.
Professional regulators exist because Parliament created them to do specific, limited jobs.
They were never authorised to:
Enforce political or cultural worldviews
Police lawful speech
Act as social regulators
If this shift is allowed to stand, it won’t stop with nurses.
Teachers. Doctors. Psychologists. Engineers. Lawyers.
Any profession governed by a regulator could be next.
This is how quiet censorship spreads; through unelected bodies expanding their remit without accountability.
The Free Speech Union is:
Supporting nurses who are already facing disciplinary action, such as Cath Simpson.
Making formal submissions challenging the Council’s overreach
Engaging media and the public to expose what’s really happening
Preparing legal pathways if regulators persist in ideological enforcement
This work takes time, expertise, and resources and it relies entirely on public support.
Standing up to a professional regulator is not easy.
Regulators have institutional power, expensive legal teams, and already entrenched powers.
Individual nurses do not.
Your support helps ensure that:
Nurses are not left isolated or intimidated
Regulators are challenged when they exceed their authority
Professional standards are neutral, fair, and lawful
If you believe nurses should not lose their careers for lawful speech, regulators should not impose ideology, and professional standards must remain neutral and accountable, join us in standing up for nurses.
Every contribution matters.
Donations can be made by credit card on this page or directly credited to our bank account.
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Free Speech Union (NZ) Incorporated
ANZ 06-0323-0706649-00
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