September 21, 2023
Māori health authority too good to lose
The former chair of Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand, Rob Campbell, says the continuous failure of the system to meet the health needs of Māori should be core to this election.
Both National and ACT have made Māori health an issue, with ACT characterising efforts to address inequity as creating race-based systems, and National promising to scrap the Māori health authority Te Aka Whai Ora and go back to just a Māori unit in the Ministry of Health.
Mr Campbell, who was sacked for a social media post calling National leader Christopher Luxon’s statements on co-governance ‘dog whistling,’ told Radio Waatea’s Te Wero election programme what small progress has been made under Labour is likely to be reversed.
“I can’t imagine any outcome for the health system that anyone would regard as satisfactory or fair which did not involve a really substantive lift in not only Māori health outcomes but Māori access and Māori control of their own health services,” he says.
Mr Campbell says the iwi-Māori partnership boards which advise Te Aka Whai Ora are an important step to better outcomes, and any effort to roll back to the old system should be strongly resisted.