Don’t miss your chance to ask political parties about their plans to tackle dementia

We hope you can join us in September to ask each political party what their plan is to tackle dementia in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Register now

We’ve invited current health party spokespeople to be part of the panel. So far, five parties have accepted the invitation to participate:

• NZ First – Health and Seniors spokesperson Hon Casey Costello
• National Party – Chair of the Health Select Committee Sam Uffindell
• ACT New Zealand – Health spokesperson Todd Stephenson
• NZ Labour Party – Seniors and Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary
• Green Party New Zealand – Seniors spokesperson Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan

We hope to hear back from Te Pati Māori soon.

“Alarming research shows three New Zealanders develop dementia mate wareware every hour and this is only set to get worse!” says Alzheimers NZ Chief Executive Catherine Hall.

“The time to get ahead of this is well past and the challenge is now urgent with tens of thousands of families struggling to live with dementia with little to no support.

“Please join us to put your burning questions to party representatives – it may be your last chance to speak directly to the health spokespeople in the lead up to the 2026 General Election.”

Questions

We asked each political party five questions in preparation for this panel.

We’ve received answers to these questions from one party so far and will add these to our website as other parties provide their answers: :

• Will you fund and deliver the priority actions in the Action Plan within the next term of Government? If so, what specifically will you prioritise, and if not, why not?
• Will you provide fair and sustainable funding for community-based dementia services? If so, what will this look like in practice?
• What specific, funded actions will you take to reduce dementia risk and support earlier intervention, and how will you measure success?
• What will you do to better support and recognise unpaid care partners of people living with dementia, and how will you ensure those supports are accessible and adequately funded?
• With no new dementia funding in Budget 2026, what will you do to ensure dementia care doesn’t fall through the cracks of mental health and aged‑care reform?

“We think these are the all parties should already be thinking about given the gravity of the dementia situation facing New Zealand.  Let’s see what answers we get,” says Catherine.

The panel will be held on Tuesday 1 September from 6pm to mark the start of World Alzheimers Month. Our 2026 conference will be held at the end of the month. Please note you need to register for each event separately.

Register now to join either in person at National Library, Wellington or online.