Urban iwi score health bill win

By AUDREY YOUNG

The new district health boards will no longer have to form partnerships with "mana whenua" (iwi of the area) if the health select committee considering the bill picks up changes endorsed by the Labour and Alliance caucuses.

Instead the boards will be required to form partnerships simply with "Maori" - which could include organisations such as the Waipareira Trust in West Auckland and the Maori Women's Welfare League, as well as any iwi of the region.

The change represents a victory for urban Maori advocate MPs John Tamihere and Willie Jackson over iwi traditionalist policy pursued by Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia.

It is understood that Mrs Turia and Te Tai Tonga MP Mahara Okeroa were the only two Labour MPs who were keen to retain the reference to "mana whenua."

The Public Health and Disability Bill, which sets up 21 elected district boards to replace the Health Funding Authority, is expected to retain its Treaty of Waitangi clause but with a rider.

The clause - the first time a treaty clause has appeared in social legislation - states: "This act is to be interpreted in a manner that is consistent with the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi."

Labour has approved a rider saying the clause it is not intended to provide Maori with preferential health treatment.

The Alliance and Green parties have discussed the clause but not yet signed off the changes.

Mr Okeroa said he was disappointed at the changes.

"I'm a strong supporter of mana whenua. I come out of that milieu," said the MP, who was raised at Parihaka in Taranaki.

But the changes would not exclude any group exercising mana whenua from having a partnership with a health board.

Mr Jackson said that unless the mana whenua clause had been replaced, the bill allowed for boards to have exclusive relationships with just a few Maori.

"That is not palatable in today's modern society.

"We have got to have some recognition of where Maori society is at."