Associate Health Minister Casey Costello introduced the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Amendment Bill on 27 February 2024, repealing three components of the previous Labour government's smokefree law: the retail reduction scheme, denicotinisation, and the smokefree generation ban on tobacco sales to anyone born after January 1, 2009. The government said it remained committed to the Smokefree 2025 goal but favoured a different regulatory approach. Public health groups including Action for Smokefree 2025 (ASH NZ) opposed the repeal, which the Opportunity Party's Healthy People policy explicitly pledges to reverse.

The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (RNZCGP) published its GP Future Workforce Requirements Report finding New Zealand had approximately 74 GPs per 100,000 people — compared with 116 in Australia and 122 in Canada — and was already 485 GPs short. The report projected the ratio would fall further to 70 per 100,000 by 2031 without intervention, noting that adding 10 GPs per 100,000 could prevent roughly 30 deaths annually from cancer, respiratory and cardiovascular conditions. The shortage disproportionately affects Māori and Pasifika communities. These findings directly underpin the Opportunity Party's call for "properly funding" GP services and expanding training placements.

The 2024/25 New Zealand Health Survey found 6.8% of adults were daily smokers — above the Smokefree 2025 target of less than 5% for all groups. Maori daily smoking stood at 15.0% (down only marginally from prior years and statistically unchanged year-on-year), while Pacific peoples stood at 10.3%. Professor Chris Bullen of the National Institute for Health Innovation said the evidence was "not heading in the right direction fast enough" and that the endgame measures repealed by the coalition government could have made a significant difference. Action for Smokefree 2025 (ASH NZ) reported about 300,000 daily smokers remain in New Zealand, with large inequities persisting for Maori and high-deprivation communities. The Opportunity Party proposes restoring the repealed smokefree generation and denicotinisation measures.

Nurses (NZNO) and senior doctors (ASMS) both entered 2026 without settled collective agreements, having bargained since late 2024 and mid-2024 respectively. ASMS chief executive Sarah Dalton said the gap was "closing" but multiple offers were rejected through 2025, with significant strike action including a "Mega Strike" on October 23, 2025. Allied Health workers (PSA) settled in December 2025 with a 2.5% rise. Nurses finally accepted a settlement in May 2026 (2.5% year one, 2% year two), as did senior doctors at a cumulative 5.9% over two years. The Opportunity Party Healthy People policy cites the workforce stress as evidence of structural underfunding and calls for improved pay and working conditions as a pillar.

The Opportunity Party (formerly The Opportunities Party, rebranded late 2025) published its Healthy People policy under new leader Qiulae Wong. The five-point platform called for a cross-party ten-year health planning process, spend-to-save primary and prevention investment incorporating AI and digital health tools, proper funding of ambulances and GPs, improved health worker pay and training, and restoration of the smokefree 2025 legislation repealed by the coalition government in February 2024.

Budget 2026 increased health spending to $34.2 billion — about 10% above the 2025 figure — with major investments in hospital redevelopments (Palmerston North, Tauranga, Hawke's Bay), 158 new beds at Whangarei Hospital, $930 million in clinical equipment, and $35 million over four years for ambulance services. However, primary care received no dedicated funding uplift despite evidence showing every $1 invested in primary care returns between $13 and $15 in secondary care savings. ProCare chief executive Bindi Norwell said general practice "continues to be funded as if it is an afterthought" and warned the system cannot "hospitalise our way out of this." The Opportunity Party published its Healthy People policy in direct contrast to this approach, calling for spend-to-save primary care investment.

A 1News Verian poll in 2026 placed the Opportunity Party at 4.6% — just below the 5% MMP threshold needed to enter Parliament without winning an electorate seat. Leader Qiulae Wong, who took over in late 2025 after Raf Manji resigned, described the Healthy People platform as part of a broader "prevention first" economic case, connecting health investment to productivity and the party's central citizens income and tax reset policies. The party has not previously entered Parliament, with its peak of 2.6% coming in 2017; its 2026 platform of cross-party health planning and spend-to-save prevention is designed to differentiate it from both major parties.

Public discussion broadly supports the prevention-over-hospitals argument, with strong feeling among health workers and advocates that primary care has been chronically short-changed; debate is sharper on whether smokefree legislation should be restored or whether harm-reduction vaping approaches are preferable. See the conversation:

• X: "Opportunity Party Healthy People"
• X: "NZ primary care underfunded"
• Facebook: "Opportunity Party health policy"
• LinkedIn posts: "NZ primary care prevention"
• TikTok: "NZ health policy 2026"
• Instagram: "smokefree NZ"
• Reddit: "New Zealand health system primary care"

Aggregated — individual posts are not cited.