February 04, 2020
Spat over Whanau Ora role


The chair of the North Island Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency says the Minister for Whānau Ora doesn’t understand what the scheme is supposed to do.
In a newspaper opinion piece responding to a Waitangi Tribunal claim lodged by the agency, Peeni Henare said Whānau Ora has strayed from original intentions, and the ideals of cross-government buy-in and cross-sector collaboration to lift whānau wellbeing were never realised.
But Merepeka Raukawa-Tait says the Minister seems to believe commissioning agencies should put services together and tell whānau they are what they need.
"That’s not it. Our services are based around what whanau tell us what they need and they tell us how they can be supported They identify through their providers what their priorities are, so clearly he does not understand what whanau ora is. He thinks we're a government department. He doesn't understand what a commissioning agency is all about," she says.
Merepeka Raukawa Tait
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