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New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says the health system needs urgent reform, but he’s pouring cold water on a proposal for a Māori health authority.
Mr Peters says any changes coming out of the Health and Disability Services Review led by Heather Simpson must be bipartisan, based on principles and capable of surviving a change of government because it is the best system.
He agrees with its recommendation to halve the number of district health boards, but not to create a new bureaucracy based around Māori.
He says people are using poor Māori health statistics to advocate separatism.
"I see some people using it as a chance for again the Māori Brown Table to take the taxpayers' money on the basis they are going to deliver a better health system for their brothers and sisters in the Māori world when they have no capacity to do that at all and I have looked back over time and I have seen a number of people in the Māori health system who have done sterling work and they have never called for a separatist system."
Winston Peters says Māori need a system that is responsive to their needs and delivers timely diagnosis and treatment.
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