Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: Te Aka Whai Ora was the answer for Māori health

OPINION:

An 18-month run was all it took for the then opposition and now Government, to run the Māori Health Authority to the ground and this week, introduce a bill for its disestablishment.

It will be the fastest-ever dissolution of a government department that has hardly had the time to recruit kaimahi, let alone run its course to show its potential.

Māori health statistics are livered with stark disparities.

It should be common knowledge that Māori die 7.4 years earlier compared to our non-Māori comrades. We experience higher rates of chronic disease like diabetes and cardiovascular conditions, and once diagnosed, are 60 per cent more likely to die from cancer.

The list goes on.

These statistics underscore the urgent need for targeted interventions, culturally responsive care, and systemic changes to address the root causes of health inequities faced by Māori in Aotearoa.

However you digest it, a health system that has since 1847, allowed for the premature death among its indigenous peoples, is a system that is flawed and has failed.

If the one-size-fits-all approach has led to these stark health inequities in the first instance, then what truly does its resurrection tell us about the Government’s intent and agenda when it comes to Māori health?

This short-lived existence undermines the authority’s ability to enact meaningful change and develop sustainable solutions tailored to Māori needs.

The move lacks transparency. It will be abolished under the use and abuse of urgency that has seen this Government ram-raid public, judicial and legislative participation.

Meanwhile, the Government has not fronted with their alternative plans to address Māori health disparities. This leaves many questioning the Government’s commitment to genuine partnership and equity-based health solutions.

When a decision is made to get rid of something, one would think it would be evidence-based screaming that it is broken, and not working.

Health Minister Shane Reti during his speech before signing of the Memorandum of Understanding for a third medical school, Parliament, Wellington in February. Photo / Mark Mitchell

That would be true for many government departments like Oranga Tamariki that are continuously failing the taxpayer, and most importantly our children, report after report.

The abuse of children in state care is the highest it has been since its establishment. They’re failing to follow their own laws in place to protect our tamariki. Forty per cent of children in care are not getting the social interventions that the department promises.

These just some of the most recent failings.

Yet despite the glowing card of failures, the Government and its minister have the audacity to continue to back and support a failing ministry, at the misery of tamariki Māori.

Te Aka Whai Ora was the answer for Māori health. An empowered solution to addressing inequities across the health system for Māori.

As the Prime Minister himself shared, When Māori thrive, the nation thrives.

Backed by our Māori communities and health champions, Lady Tureiti Moxon will tomorrow front the defence for the Waitangi Tribunal claim 3307 against the Government and the disestablishment.

You see, Māori have limited avenues available to us to stand up for our rights as promised in Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

We take to the streets through protest, we whai kōrero, we sing waiata and haka, all to get our message across, which was beautifully on display at the Kapa Haka regionals which kicked off last weekend.

But perhaps more influential, with its treaty judicial function, is the Waitangi Tribunal which has seen an influx of claims since the new Government took office.

The Crown admitted in response to its tribunal summonings to the 3307 hearing that it blatantly left the Treaty partner out of any discussion about the disestablishment of the Māori Health Authority.

To make matters worse, the government on Tuesday brought forward the bill to be introduced two days ahead of the hearing, which stops the tribunal’s judicial hearing.

It is clear that this is a government that has no intention of consultation, discussion and kōrero with the communities its policies will impact most.

An insult to the constitutional state, one that is becoming a dictatorship, is an attack on Māori, unprecedented since the Muldoon era.

This is a government that has not an ounce of understanding of anything outside of the privileges they’ve been protected by.

Whilst Māori communities once again are used for political point-scoring and prepare to go back to a system that has kept us unhealthy and dying, we echo the calls from around the nation - what is this Government’s plan?

It appears as though there simply isn’t one.

So my appeal to Minister Reti is to front up to his people he shares whakapapa with. Have wānanga with us, speak to the communities who are struggling, and make evidence-based decisions when it comes to Māori health.

For choosing to ignore the realities Māori face in his broken health system is committing the people he shares whakapapa with to an early death.