April 09, 2024
Hawkesby censured for Māori health slur
Broadcasting Standards Authority has found comments by Newstalk ZB radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting Māori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory.
It upheld a complaint the remarks breached the accuracy and discrimination and denigration standards and ordered broadcaster NZME to air a statement summarising the decision and to pay the Crown costs of $1,500.
The decision relates to a 19 June 2023 broadcast in which Ms Hawkesby discussed Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand’s new Equity Adjustor Score in the Auckland region which uses five categories to place patients on the non-urgent surgical waitlist, including clinical priority, time spent waiting, location, deprivation level and ethnicity.
Her statements that Māori and Pacific people were being “moved to the top of surgery waitlists” gave the misleading impression ethnicity was the only, or the key factor, involved in the assessment.
They also played into the stereotype that Māori and Pacific peoples disproportionately take up resources and are given undeserved special treatment in Aotearoa New Zealand’s society, at the expense of other ethnicities.
“While not said explicitly, in our view, the exaggerated and misleading nature of Hawkesby’s comments had the effect of evoking this type of prejudicial bias,” the BSA said.