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November 12, 2021
Ngāi Tahu ‘warlord’ blocking vaccine push
Adam Gifford
Posted On November 12, 2021
Download AudioWaipareira boss John Tamihere says Ngāi Tahu should not be allowed to block the Health Ministry giving Māori data to the North Island Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency.
Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says iwi concerns are one of the reasons the ministry won’t hand over data for all of Te Ika a Maui.
Mr Tamihere says iwi leaders don’t own their people.
He says Ngāi Tahu, which is the iwi identified in ministry briefing papers as opposing the data share, does nothing for its own people in the North Island and nothing for non-Ngāi Tahu in Te Waipounamu.
“In all health data, NHI data, there is no iwi identifier there. Who do you think looks after Ngāi Tahu prisoners on their way out, their babies up here? Ngāi Tahu doesn’t. So I am not having one stupid little warlord from Ngāi Tahu block the right of our people to get vaccinations in the North Island,” he says.
Mr Tamihere says if Waipareira and its whānau ora partners had the names and addresses of unvaccinated Māori, they could have doubled the number of people they vaccinated this week in Te Taitokerau.
There were 201 new community cases of Covid-19 reported today.
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