February 29, 2024
Te Aka Whai Ora axing treaty breach
A lecturer in Māori law and the Treaty of Waitangi says the scrapping of Te Aka Whai Ora is a clear breach of the treaty because it removes a Māori solution for poor health outcomes.
Health Minister Shane Reti’s bill to disestablish the Māori Health Authority passed a third reading vote of 68 to 54 under urgency yesterday.
Carwyn Jones, who teaches at Victoria University and Te Wananga o Raukawa, says the authority was a response to Waitangi Tribunal findings the health system wasn’t working for Māori.
He says Dr Reti still hasn’t made clear what he will replace it with.
“We haven’t really seen what the crown is intending to do. At the moment, these functions are primarily just going to go back into the mainstream health system if you like, and we know what the outcomes are like for that. We know that Māori end up dying seven years earlier than non-Māori in that situation. So that is certainly a breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It’s a breach of the principles of the treaty as well,” Dr Jones says.