Dramatic overhaul of Whānau Ora contracts includes John Tamihere-led agency

Senior Reporter, Health·NZ Herald·

9 Mar, 2025 04:00 PM5 mins to read

Around 600 of the roles to be lost as part of the Whānau Ora overhaul are linked to a John Tamihere-led agency for the North Island. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

The three original Whānau Ora commissioning agencies have lost their contracts in a tender process, including the John Tamihere-led North Island agency.
Four new agencies will take over in July and Ngāti Toa and Ngāi Tahu have confirmed they are among the successful bidders.
Some Whānau Ora leaders say successful services are being “dismantled” with little explanation.

Whānau Ora leaders are alarmed at the decision to drop the three original commissioning agencies and “dramatically” change the approach of the organisation in an overhaul that will impact $155 million of contracts.

An estimated 1000 jobs are at risk following the decision to award the contracts to new providers. While some of those workers could be rehired by newly-chosen agencies, leaders warned about the huge upheaval and the potential loss of trust among Māori communities.

Around 600 of those roles are linked to the John Tamihere-led agency for the North Island, which said it was “gutted” at the failure to have its contract renewed.

Whānau Ora was created in 2010 by the National-led Government and under the leadership of the late Dame Tariana Turia, in recognition that social and health services were not delivering for Māori. The commissioning agencies were set up in 2014 and work with community providers on Māori-led social services, health and education.

Te Puni Kokiri, the Māori Development agency, has been running a tender process for the Whānau Ora Commissioning agencies and informed bidders of the outcome on Friday.

All three of the inaugural commissioning agencies have lost out on the contracts – the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency in the North Island, Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu in the South Island, and Pasifika Futures, which worked with Pacific families.

They will be replaced by four new commissioning agencies – two for the North Island, one for the South Island, and one for Pacific, beginning in July.

Ngāti Toa said on its Facebook page that it had secured one of the North Island roles.

Ngāi Tahu will take over the South Island commissioning agency, the iwi confirmed on its website. The other successful bidders are not yet publicly known.

Tamihere referred questions to Merepeka Raukawa-Tait, who chairs the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency. She said she was “absolutely gutted” to lose the contract.

“After 10 years of delivering to whānau in vulnerable communities, we couldn’t believe the decision,” she told the Herald.

Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency chairwoman Merepeka Raukawa-Tait said the organisation had received little explanation for why it had lost the tender after 10 years. Photo / Andrew Warner

The providers which the agency worked with had built up trust within hard-to-reach communities for a decade, she said. Many of those people had significant input into the services they received.

“There is a real risk that whānau throughout the motu will think ‘Here we go again, do we even want to be bothered?’ They may choose to engage or they may choose to say we’ve had enough of this interference in what was doing well for us.”

Māori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said Whānau Ora was being “dismantled” and that the changes were “a political attack on the very existence of Māori-led solutions”.

“Whānau Ora has consistently outperformed government agencies. It has shown that when Māori lead, Māori thrive. That success should have been recognised and expanded, not gutted.”

She said more than 500 Whānau Ora workers would be affected by the changes. Some estimated that job losses could be as high as 1000.

Te Puni Kokiri secretary for Māori development Dave Samuels said in a statement on Friday that it was “timely” that the contracts were put out to the market after 10 years.

He also indicated a change in direction for Whānau Ora, including a greater focus on data-driven outcomes and more frontline delivery of services. Its $155m budget remained unchanged.

Helen Leahy, who previously led the Whānau Ora commissioning agency for the South Island, said she was “astounded” at the changes and that Te Puni Kokiri was “fixing what was not broken”.

Helen Leahy, former head of the Whānau Ora commissioning agency for the South Island.

She said it was still unclear what was driving the changes. Numerous reviews and audits had found that Whānau Ora worked and was good value for money but that the public service had been “negligent in its lack of responsiveness”. Instead of tackling the public service failings, Te Puni Kokiri had instead “dismantled” the agencies who were chosen through an open tender in 2014, Leahy said.

She was also concerned about the “dramatic” change of focus at Whānau Ora under the new agencies.

“For whānau, what makes a good life isn’t just about immunisation and truancy rates. It’s also about their connection to one another, their understanding of identity, their feeling of confidence and being able to participate in society, to contribute.

“There are a range of factors that lead whānau on a pathway that aren’t necessarily going to be picked up by the data that will be part of the new regime.”

Maori Development Minister Tama Potaka said the priority was to ensure continuity of services. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka said the procurement process was an operational matter and referred inquiries to Te Puni Kokiri.

He said public announcements about the future commissioning agencies would be made when contracts had been signed at the end of April, and the priority was to ensure continuity of services for whānau.