Whānau Ora naming stoush: Minister Peeni Henare speaks as legal action is imminent

Whānau Ora minister Peeni Henare has given his position on the meaning of Whānau Ora prior to a likely legal battle regarding the use of the term. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The Whānau Ora minister is wading in on the issue of organisations using "Whānau Ora" in their name amid a stoush between two prominent health and social services providers that could soon end up in the High Court.

The head of Whānau Ora Community Clinic is ignoring a request by the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency to cease and desist using Whānau Ora in its name, with the latter planning to proceed to litigation.

The Whānau Ora Community Clinic is a private provider that does not receive any funding from and is not an accredited provider of the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency.

Clinic director George Ngatai says his organisation and its name were registered well before the agency and he claims the distinction between the clinic and the agency is disclosed in funding applications.

Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency chief executive John Tamihere wants the Whānau Ora Community Clinic to drop the "Whānau Ora" from its name. Photo / Alex Burton

Agency chief executive John Tamihere claims Ngatai is benefiting from the goodwill earned through the work of accredited Whānau Ora providers and believes the clinic should drop Whānau Ora from its name.

It comes after the Herald revealed the clinic's non-clinical national manager - Rick Southey - is under review for his part in last week's Parliament protest where he dressed up like a judge and "convicted" the Government of crimes against humanity in a mock trial, led by Brian Tamaki.

The Ministry of Social Development has also requested an explanation from the clinic why it wasn't informed of Southey's protest involvement, given he manages an employment provider contracted to the Ministry.

Whānau Ora describes a kaupapa Māori approach to improve the wellbeing of whānau as a group, addressing individual needs within the context of whānau or families and their culture and is implemented across several Government agencies.

Whānau Ora Minister Peeni Henare did not comment on Southey, saying it was an employment matter.

While he was aware of the issue raised by Tamihere, he did not wish to comment at this time.

However, he noted Whānau Ora as a concept "cannot be owned or appropriated by any single person or organisation".

"Every person or organisation with a legitimate interest in Whānau Ora should be free to use the words, names and terminology relating to Whānau Ora in appropriate ways."

Peeni Henare, also Minister of Defence, believes you cannot own the kaupapa of Whānau Ora. Photo / Mark Mitchell

He was confident the reputation of those working with a Whānau Ora approach would not be affected by the issue.

Henare's position was reflected almost verbatim by Ngatai in his defence of the clinic's name.

"Whānau ora is a kaupapa and you can't actually copyright a kaupapa - it's just like saying Air New Zealand wants the koru to be its koru, it's not."

Ngatai said Tamihere sent him an email with the cease and desist request about three weeks ago, but it had been effectively ignored.

"We thought if John's going to persist with that then that's his prerogative, at the end of the day, we were just going to continue delivering a service."

The clinic and its name were registered in 2014, four years earlier than the agency.

George Ngatai, director of Whānau Ora Community Clinic. Photo / Adam Pearse

Ngatai claimed he discussed the matter before 2014 with Dame Tariana Turia, the first Whānau Ora minister, when he said he overlooked a lack of funding to implement such an approach.

"If there was a change in Government and the mainstream didn't know what Whānau Ora looked like, then there was a likelihood that the kaupapa would be lost and so therefore from our perspective, we were always looking at it from a kaupapa point of view."

He said applications for funding had disclosed the distinction between the clinic and the agency and that the clinic received no agency funding.

Ngatai also claimed there were more than 20 other organisations that used Whānau Ora in their names and believed Tamihere should be going after them as well if he persisted with legal action against the clinic.

Tamihere, who was reluctant to go into specifics ahead of litigation, welcomed Minister Henare's view but disagreed it applied with reference to the clinic.

"From a cultural context and perspective, I agree with Mr Henare but I do not agree that once we've embarked on a journey in regard to a whole wellness programme that's been carefully documented, that somebody can come along and make out that they're the same."

Whānau Ora Community Clinic staffer Rick Southey is in hot water for taking part in a Parliament protest where he acted as a judge in a mock trial of the Government. Photo / George Heard

He said the legal challenge concerned the concept of passing off, which generally refers to when an entity passes itself or its products off as the entity or product of a rival.

Tamihere said he had seen no evidence of the clinic disclosing the distinction.

"So long as people think you're part of the Whānau Ora network, you get kudos from all the good work that other providers who are fully accredited have rolled out and that's what [Ngatai] is doing."

Asked for evidence of this, Tamihere said he wouldn't debate it in the media ahead of legal action he expected would take place in Auckland's High Court.

Tamihere said the Southey scandal was the very reason why he was protective over the name.

To be an accredited provider, Ngatai would need to provide the organisation's financial audited records for the last four years, show which marae it was affiliated with and supply details on its governance, Tamihere said in a recent interview with New Zealand Doctor.