Closing the Gaps divisive, says Race Conciliator

By AUDREY YOUNG and MONIQUE DEVEREUX

The Race Relations Conciliator has warned of racial division, resentment and anger if the Government implements pro-Maori health policies which are part of its Closing the Gaps programme.

In a submission on the Health and Disability Bill, Dr Rajen Prasad said affirmative-action policies targeting Maori, such as hepatitis B programmes, diabetes testing, smoking cessation and free contraceptive advice, were divisive.

He also wanted the Treaty of Waitangi clause in the health restructuring bill removed because he said it was open to interpretation and could be seen as giving privileges to Maori.

Dr Prasad was speaking in Auckland yesterday to a parliamentary committee considering the legislation, which establishes 22 partly elected health boards.

He raised doubts about affirmative-action healthcare.

Later, he said he had received complaints from people who had been turned away from hepatitis B testing caravans because they were not Maori.

One complainant said Maori children were able to access the services but their Pakeha parent was not.

Dr Prasad cited the case of two neighbours, one Maori, one Pakeha, who had the same health needs but the Maori was able to access a mobile service down the street.

"The Pakeha person, who needs the same service, has to catch a bus and travel 30 or 40km. At that point these policies become very divisive."

Risk areas should be targeted. If there is a prevalence of diabetes in Otara, then target that area.

"That way you don't discriminate. All the international conventions to which we are signatories make it very clear that health should not be provided in a discriminatory fashion. It is so basic."

Dr Prasad said the Treaty of Waitangi clauses were raising anxiety in the community. The Government should spell out more clearly what it intended by them.

He believed the clause providing for at least two Maori representatives on each health board was open to legal challenge on the grounds that jobs were being awarded on the basis of race.

Plunket chief executive Paul Baigent said closing the gaps between Maori and others could not be achieved without looking at poverty as well as ethnicity.

Plunket was aware of an increasing link between poor health and lower incomes, rather than poor health and ethnicity, he said.

Prime Minister Helen Clark reiterated last night that the intention of the bill was not to provide preferential treatment for Maori.

She had said many times that no such preferential treatment was intended. "The legislation in its final form will make that crystal clear.

"I think [Dr Prasad's] submission should have taken account of what the Government has been saying about it. This is like a day-one reaction. A lot of water had gone under the bridge."

Helen Clark said the intent of the treaty clause was "to signal that Maori must be involved in the planning and providing of services, which seems perfectly reasonable."

"Mainstreaming, one-suit-fits-all hasn't had great results. Look at the Maori health statistics."

Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia said the clause was there to ensure Maori "equal access" and she urged Maori to make submissions supporting the legislation.

Many iwi had not made submissions because they supported the bill. "They did not realise that the voices of those who do make submissions against the bill could change those provisions."

National's health spokesman, Wyatt Creech, said Dr Prasad had delivered a sobering and courageous warning in a "politically correct" world.