Health Minister Shane Reti fronts the media before the first reading of the Pae Ora (Disestablishment of the Māori Health Authority) Amendment Bill.
Video / Mark Mitchell
The Government has been accused of treating Māori as “expendable” after it began dismantling the Māori Health Authority just 18 months after it was set up.
Parliament began debating a law change under urgency this afternoon which would abolish the authority - an election promise made by National, Act and NZ First and included in the coalition Government’s 100-day plan.
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti said all of the Māori Health Authority’s (MHA) roles and functions would transfer to Health NZ - Te Whatu Ora and the Ministry of Health by the end of March. The authority would no longer exist from June 30.
Speaking in Parliament, he said the Government remained committed to improving Māori health outcomes.
Reti outlined a vision to create an “outcomes-driven” health system, giving decision-making to local communities and delivering care “as close to the home and hapu” as possible.
He dismissed the suggestion that the MHA was still “in its infancy”, saying it had a transition period of 18 months and then had been in force for another 18 months.
“This infant needed to be up on its feet and walking. Despite the best efforts of its staff, it was not.”
In an emotional debate, Opposition MPs said the Government was acting against the advice of experts and breaching its Treaty of Waitangi obligations.
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer attacked the Government's law change in the House this afternoon. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
“We have learned from this Government that Māori are expendable,” said Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer.
She highlighted that Māori life expectancy was seven years lower than non-Māori in New Zealand.
“The health system has completely failed my kaumatua, my own generation, and my mokopuna. We have not failed. We have had to endure a system that was forced on us.”
Labour Party associate health spokesman Peeni Henare said Māori had faced health inequity for decades.
During Covid-19, he had to travel around the country to “wring the DHBs by the neck” and urge them to provide better services to Māori, he said.
“That is why the work to reshape the health sector was undertaken - because Covid sorely exposed the holes in the health sector to show that there are further inequities that are suffered by Māori, particularly in times of crisis.”
He added: “We oppose this bill, vehemently.”
Labour MP Peeni Henare said today that the abolition of the MHA went against expert advice and the Government's Treaty obligations. Photo / Peter de Graaf / RNZ
“Today is day one of the recolonisation of Hauora Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand,” said Green Party health spokeswoman Hūhana Lyndon.
She echoed the comments of Waitangi Tribunal claimants who said that the Māori Health Authority was “the closest model of tino rangitiratanga [self-determination]… in history.”
The Green Party was “outraged” that the Government would abolish an organisation which was established through a Waitangi Tribunal inquiry and Health and Disability Review, which both concluded that New Zealand had unacceptable Māori health inequities.
“We never got to see the waka grow and realise its potential,” Lyndon said.
Act Party MP Todd Stephenson, explaining his party’s position, said that having a system “predicated entirely on race” was “wrong” and “simplistic”.
“It creates division and isn’t the way we want to go forward.”
He highlighted a review of the MHA which took place after nine months, which found Māori were being “underserved”.
Earlier today, Reti said said Iwi-Māori Partnership Boards, which advocate for whānau within their communities, would remain in place. The Hauora Māori Advisory Committee would also remain in place.
“The Government will continue working with both groups to chart a new direction for Māori health. Their voices may evolve but both can have a role.”
The scrapping of the MHA will take place just days before a Waitangi Tribunal hearing on an urgent claim over the issue on Thursday.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has said the timing was not deliberate, but it would not affect the decision to scrap the MHA. He said it was something all three parties had campaigned on.
“We opposed the Māori Health Authority from the beginning because we don’t believe more bureaucracy is the way to provide improved outcomes for Māori,” he told reporters this morning.
Luxon said that funding would continue to be targeted at Māori health initiatives - such as a $50 million boost for immunising Māori children announced in December.
But he would not confirm whether all of the $750m a year allocated to the MHA would be used for this purpose.
The previous Labour Government established the authority at the recommendation of the Health and Disability Review in 2020.
A Waitangi Tribunal report on health services for Māori in 2019 also recommended the creation of a standalone entity after identifying a number of inequities for Māori within the health system.
Isaac Davison is an Auckland-based reporter who covers health issues. He joined the Herald in 2008 and has previously covered the environment, politics, and social issues.
