Election 2026
Why NZSTA is advocating?
Speech-language therapists are essential to a fair, safe and accessible Aotearoa New Zealand. Every day, New Zealand Speech-language Therapists' Association (NZSTA) members support people to communicate, eat and drink safely, learn, work, participate, connect with whānau, exercise rights, influence decisions and live with dignity.
Access to speech-language therapy is not experienced equally. Workforce shortages and service gaps affect communities across Aotearoa New Zealand, but they can be felt more acutely by Māori, Pacific peoples, disabled people, rural communities, people experiencing deprivation, and whānau who already face barriers in health, education, disability and aged care systems.
NZSTA’s advocacy is grounded in Te Tiriti o Waitangi and in a commitment to equitable access. This means advocating for services that are designed with communities, responsive to whānau aspirations, culturally safe, and available before communication and swallowing needs become points of crisis.
Te Tiriti and equitable access
NZSTA’s advocacy is grounded in Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the need for equitable access to speech-language therapy across Aotearoa New Zealand.
Communication and swallowing support are not optional extras. They affect safety, dignity, participation, learning, connection with whānau, and the ability to influence decisions. When services are difficult to access, under-funded, or not designed with communities, inequities are reinforced.
For Māori, this means recognising that access challenges may be experienced more acutely and that services must be culturally safe, whānau-centred, and responsive to Māori aspirations for wellbeing. NZSTA supports approaches that strengthen partnership, improve access, and enable services to be designed with Māori, not just for Māori.
Advocacy framing: communication is the pathway to citizenship
A strong advocacy message is not only that people need access to speech-language therapy. It is that people need communication access so they can understand information, express preferences, make decisions, report harm, challenge systems, build relationships, participate in communities and influence the direction of their own lives.
For members, this means shifting the conversation from "was the person present or consulted?" to "was the person genuinely able to understand, contribute and influence the outcome?"
This framing strengthens NZSTA's election message: grow the speech-language therapy workforce so people across Aotearoa New Zealand are safe to eat, free to communicate, and able to exercise choice, control, citizenship and influence.
NZSTA election priorities
Grow the speech-language therapy workforce so people and whānau across Aotearoa New Zealand have equitable access to the support they need to be safe to eat and free to communicate.
1. Improve access to assistive technology and AAC
Communication assistive technology, including augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), is not just equipment. People need assessment, setup, modelling, communication partner training, review, and ongoing support so that AAC becomes a real pathway to choice, self-determination, and influence.
Without this, devices can sit unused, whānau and support workers may not know how to support communication, and people may be left without a reliable way to express needs, choices, pain, distress, consent, identity or preferences.
NZSTA is asking decision-makers to fund AAC as a full communication support pathway, not simply as a device, so that people are not only given a tool but also supported to use it to participate, make decisions, and be heard.
2. Strengthen dementia care
Dementia affects communication, eating, drinking, participation, identity, relationships, autonomy and safety. Speech-language therapists support people with dementia and their whānau to maintain connection, reduce distress, support safe eating and drinking, understand choices and preserve dignity.
Dementia care must include communication support, swallowing safety, whānau education, supported decision-making and staff training.
NZSTA is asking decision-makers to include speech-language therapy in dementia care planning, funding and service design.
3. Improve residential services for disabled people under 65
Disabled people under 65 living in residential services may have significant communication and swallowing support needs. In busy residential settings, these needs are not always visible or consistently identified, particularly where staff do not have ready access to speech-language therapy advice, AAC support, communication partner training or dysphagia guidance.
When communication and swallowing needs are not well supported, people can experience reduced choice, autonomy, safety, participation and influence in everyday decisions.
NZSTA is asking decision-makers to ensure disabled people under 65 in residential services have timely access to speech-language therapy, AAC, communication partner training and swallowing support. Communication access and safe eating and drinking should be built into quality, safeguarding, workforce development and service design.
Practical ways members can advocate
Choose one action. Members do not need to be policy experts. Real examples from practice are powerful, especially when they show how communication access enables safety, choice, influence and participation.
- Invite a candidate or MP to visit your service
- Write to your local MP or candidate, customising the suggested template
- Ask one question at a public election meeting
- Ask a candidate how they will make meetings, consultations and services communication-accessible, including enough time for people to process information and respond
- Share an NZSTA social media post
- Provide NZSTA with one de-identified example of unmet communication or swallowing need
- Speak with your workplace about hosting a candidate visit
- Tell NZSTA about local workforce or service access gaps
1. What will your party do to grow the speech-language therapy workforce so people and whānau across Aotearoa New Zealand have equitable access to the support they need to be safe to eat and free to communicate? affect their lives?
2. How will your party improve equitable access to augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and communication assistive technology, including assessment, training, implementation and review?
3. How will your party ensure dementia care includes communication support, swallowing safety and whānau-centred care?
4. How will your party improve services for disabled people under 65 living in residential settings, including access to communication and swallowing support?
5. How will your party ensure communication access is built into health, education, disability, justice and aged care services, including accessible information, plain language, enough time and flexible participation?
6. How will your party make supported decision-making real for people who need communication support, including people with intellectual disability, dementia, acquired communication disability or complex communication needs?
7. How will your party ensure SLT expertise is present early in policy, funding, service design, quality and safeguarding work, rather than being brought in only after harm or exclusion has occurred?
If you plan to share a case study with NZSTA, share short, de-identified examples using these prompts:
- What communication or swallowing need was not recognised early enough?
- What was the impact on the person, whānau, school, workplace, service or community?
- What difference did SLT involvement make, or what difference could it have made?
- What system barrier contributed to the issue, such as inaccessible information, lack of time, unclear roles, no AAC pathway, poor staff training or delayed referral?
- What would have helped the person understand, decide, participate, report concern or influence the outcome?
- Was the person present or consulted, but not genuinely able to shape the decision? What would have changed that?
Please do not include names, identifying details, dates, locations or information that could identify a person, whānau, service or clinician. NZSTA may use themes from examples to support election advocacy but will not publish individual stories without specific permission.
Subject: Speech-language therapy access matters in this election
Kia ora [Name],
I am writing as a speech-language therapist and member of the New Zealand Speech-language Therapists’ Association (NZSTA).
Speech-language therapists support people to communicate, eat and drink safely, learn, work, participate, connect with whānau, exercise rights and live with dignity. These are fundamental to safety, wellbeing, inclusion and citizenship.
In my work, I see the impact when communication and swallowing needs are not recognised early enough. Delayed access to speech-language therapy can lead to preventable harm, distress, exclusion, avoidable hospital pressure, reduced independence and people being unable to influence decisions that affect them.
NZSTA is asking decision-makers to grow the speech-language therapy workforce, so people across Aotearoa New Zealand are safe to eat, free to communicate, and able to understand, participate in and influence the decisions that affect their lives.
In particular, I ask you to support:
- improved access to augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and communication assistive technology, including assessment, training and review
- speech-language therapy in dementia care planning
- Better access to communication and swallowing support for disabled people under 65 in residential services, as well as those in older people's residential care.
- communication accessibility built into service design, consultations, safeguarding systems and policy implementation
- workforce planning that recognises speech-language therapy as essential to public safety, safeguarding, participation and supported decision-making
I would welcome the opportunity to discuss what this looks like in our community.
Ngā mihi,
[Name]
NZSTA member
[Optional workplace/region]
|
Talking point |
Why it matters |
Ask candidates |
|
Communication access is essential |
Communication access is essential to safety, equity, self-determination and citizenship. Without communication support, people may not be able to understand information, express needs, consent, make choices, report harm, challenge decisions or influence outcomes. |
What will your party do to improve equitable access to communication support, AAC and accessible information? |
|
Swallowing safety prevents harm |
Eating and drinking safely is a basic issue of safety and dignity. Dysphagia can lead to choking, aspiration pneumonia, malnutrition, dehydration, hospital admission and distress. |
What will your party do to ensure swallowing safety is recognised in health, disability and aged care planning? |
|
AAC is more than equipment |
AAC works when people receive assessments, setup, modelling, partner training, implementation support and review. A device without support does not guarantee communication, choice or influence. |
Will your party fund AAC as a full communication support pathway, not just a piece of equipment? |
|
Dementia care must include communication and swallowing |
Dementia affects communication, eating, drinking, autonomy, safety and relationships. SLTs support people with dementia and their whānau to maintain connection, reduce distress, support safe eating and drinking, and enable supported decision-making. |
Will your party include speech-language therapy in dementia care planning and service design? |
|
Workforce investment is public safety |
Without enough SLTs, people wait too long or miss out completely. Workforce shortages affect children, disabled people, older people, rural communities and people with complex health needs. Workforce shortages affect communities across Aotearoa New Zealand, with access barriers often experienced more acutely by Māori, Pacific peoples, disabled people, older people, rural communities and people with complex health needs. |
How will your party grow and retain the speech-language therapy workforce? |
|
Supported decision-making must be real |
Choice and control only work when people have the communication conditions they need to understand options, ask questions, express preferences, disagree, negotiate and influence the outcome. |
How will your party make supported decision-making real for people with communication support needs? |
|
Communication accessibility is system design |
Communication barriers are often invisible. Accessible information, plain language, accessible meetings, enough time and flexible participation should be built into services from the start, not added after people are excluded. |
How will your party ensure communication accessibility is built into legislation, policy, funding, services and community consultation? |
Elevator pitch for members
Speech-language therapists help people communicate, eat and drink safely, learn, work, connect with whānau, exercise rights and participate in their communities. These are not optional extras - they are fundamental to safety, dignity, wellbeing and citizenship.Too many people in Aotearoa New Zealand wait too long for support, miss out on AAC, or have communication and swallowing needs overlooked in health, education, disability, aged care and residential services. When communication is not enabled, people may be present but not influential, consulted but not heard, or offered choices they cannot meaningfully exercise.
NZSTA is asking decision-makers to grow the speech-language therapy workforce, so people across Aotearoa New Zealand are safe to eat, free to communicate, and able to understand, participate in and influence the decisions that affect their lives.