Venu Menon
Wellington, February 28,2024
The Disestablishment of the Maori Health Authority (Amendment) Bill, which had its third and final reading under urgency, was passed by Parliament today amid pushback from Opposition parties.
Minister of Health Shane Reti, in his closing remarks, proclaimed a new vision for the health authority that was “outcome-focused, driven by need, and with decisions made closer to the home and hapu.”
The minister acknowledged the disparities in Maori health outcomes, which were highlighted by speaker after speaker during the debate on the bill.
“When we focus on need, we very quickly find that it is Maori who have the greatest need in most areas of health,” Reti noted, adding that the bill retained the iwi-Maori partnership boards which “have a role in planning and delivery of healthcare in their communities.”
The minister listed the key changes in the bill, including the transfer of Maori Health Authority staff to Health New Zealand and the Ministry of health.
ACT’s Todd Stephenson reaffirmed his party’s view that “dividing New Zealanders into two ethnic groups to receive public services does not help us deliver better public services.”
But Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, co-leader of Te Pati Maori, asserted the need for Maori to have a separate authority because “we are dying earlier than everyone else.”
Packer said the question was not about race or ethnicity. “It’s about rights,” she told the House, adding, “We have rights and interests under Te Tiriti.”
She accused the government of lacking the courage to “follow through on solutions that tangata whenua came up with for themselves.”
Packer harked on colonial history to describe a system “designed by the very people who took our land, our language. It’s designed by the tools of colonisation.”
National’s Sam Uffindell acknowledged that Maori “are overrepresented in need.” He said the government wanted to empower the iwi-Maori partnership boards and believed “local situations require local solutions.”
But Peeni Henare (Labour) said the bill was “taking the Maori people backward.” Advocating resistance, he advised his compatriots: “Don’t die passively like the octopus. Die fighting like a shark.”
Huhana Lyndon (Green) questioned the government’s motive in passing the bill under urgency, instead of waiting for two more days for the Waitangi Tribunal to hear a submission brought before it on the disestablishment of the Maori Health Authority.
“I have to ask the Minister, his officials and the Government: ‘Why do you believe that mainstream has the solutions for Maori? Why do you believe that we should be parked right back into a system that has deprived us of thriving lives, and only increased health inequalities for the people of te iwi Maori, let alone our tangata whaikaha, let alone our rainbow communities, let alone migrants, and immigrants, and our refugees,” she queried the health minister.
Lyndon cited the difficulty Maori staff faced “working in mainstream, being the one Maori in the team, and the battle it is for [Maori] to articulate our Maori perspectives in a mainstream machine.”
Laura Trask (ACT)countered by saying that “all New Zealanders should have the same level of access to healthcare, no matter what ethnic group you belong to or where you live in our country.” She said the “previous health system had many shortcomings and didn’t address local issues such as those of iwi. The Maori Health Authority provided another level of bureaucracy, another central government organisation that was failing to prove its worth.”
Jenny Marcroft (NZ First) emphasised the need to ensure “equity of access and good, positive healthcare for all New Zealanders.” She said New Zealand First and the coalition government “remain committed to improving Maori health outcomes.”
Willie Jackson (Labour), addressing the Maori in government, said :“You have no standing in the Maori community,” and added, “Winston Peters and David Seymour have dragged [Prime Minister] Christopher Luxon all the way to the right.”
Venu Menon is an Indian Newslink reporter based in Wellington
