September 09, 2021
Rangatahi voice needed for next stage of vaccine uptake


Māori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa Packer wants to see rangatahi brought into the campaign to encourage their peers to take the COVID-19 vaccination.
She’s concerned about polling showing almost a third of rangatahi may be sceptical about the vaccine.
She says that may be part of a generalised scepticism among the young, which may be compounded by the way they have been left out of the communication strategy.
“There’s an opportunity though for the government and everyone to bring in the rangatahi opinions and voices and make sure they are able to lead this, and this is the problem, a centralised approach by one group of bureaucrats in Wellington will never work. They have to learn to share the power, particularly in a pandemic,” Ms Ngarewa Packer says.