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September 24, 2021
Team in place to target health budget
Ellyce McLeod
Posted On September 24, 2021
Download AudioAssociate Health Minister Peeni Henare says the Māori Health Authority needs to fight for its share of the $20 billion health budget.
The new agency comes with a $270 million set-up pūtea, including $100 million to build its infrastructure, $120 million in a kaupapa Māori innovation fund and additional funding for community development.
He says that’s there to turn the lights on and get things rolling.
“Minister (Andrew) Little and the Finance Minister Grant Robertson have been clear that to shift the inequities we suffer is going to take significant resource and my job and the job of the Māori ministers and the Māori caucus here is to push for a big budget and an ongoing budget, not just a flash in the pan, to get a budget that is going to at least start turning those dials of Māori health inequities,”
Peeni Henare says up to 68 percent of some current DHB budgets goes to building up hospital infrastructure, whereas investment in whānau and community to bring down rates of diabetes and heart disease could bring down the need for that spend.
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