“Reports that Health New Zealand is encouraging staff to incorporate a karakia into their workday is a complete distraction from the important work New Zealanders require that department to do”, says ACT’s health spokesperson Todd Stephenson.

“A leaked email to staff reads:

‘We encourage everyone to incorporate karakia daily. To help support you with this we have created some pre-recorded videos to learn karakia. Our resource is designed to give you some options that will enable you to learn and develop your confidence and skills. Note over time we will be adding more recordings for you to choose from.’

“Health New Zealand has perhaps the most important job of any government department: turning around the performance of our health system. It should have a single-minded focus on delivering better health outcomes for New Zealanders.

“Encouraging staff to pray during work hours detracts from that goal and is paid for by struggling taxpayers.

“To be clear, if someone wants to pray on their own time, that is their business. But they shouldn’t be paid, or encouraged, to do it by a government department.

“ACT has heard many unconfirmed reports that government departments are encouraging staff to do karakia. If true, it is outrageous.

“Some workers will feel uncomfortable saying no, and in other cases workers will feel their right to choose to follow their own beliefs has been denied.

“Some senior bureaucrats have forgotten their job is to deliver core services to the people who pay their wages, not to undertake a social engineering project from Wellington.

“Imagine if senior bureaucrats were encouraging employees to incorporate a Christian prayer into their workday. It would be seen as deeply inappropriate – and rightly so.”

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