The Government is being urged to urgently partner with tāngata whaikaha Māori after the Waitangi Tribunal found significant parts of Aotearoa’s disability system continue to disadvantage Māori and expose whānau to culturally unsafe care.
The New Zealand Nurses Organisation says the findings in Hauwhaikaha – The Disability System Report amount to a damning assessment of a system that has failed to adequately recognise Māori as both Māori and disabled people.
Released on September 3 as part of the Wai 2575 Health Services and Outcomes Kaupapa Inquiry, the report found the Crown had failed to properly provide for tino rangatiratanga, partnership, equity and Māori participation in disability decision-making.
MĀORI FACING A SYSTEM THAT DOESN’T WORK FOR THEM
The Tribunal’s investigation was extensive, involving 48 claimants, 13 interested parties and 11 weeks of hearings between 2022 and 2024.
It found Māori have a significantly higher prevalence of disability than non-Māori, while tāngata whaikaha Māori experience greater unmet need and systemic barriers to accessing disability support.
Evidence presented to the Tribunal described a disability system that is fragmented, complicated and difficult for whānau to navigate.
The Crown itself accepted tāngata whaikaha Māori experience higher unmet need and are frequently marginalised within the health and disability system.
The Tribunal found the Crown had historically failed to properly involve tāngata whaikaha Māori in designing disability services, policies, strategies and action plans.
It also found Māori had not been sufficiently supported or resourced to participate in system-level decision-making.
CULTURALLY UNSAFE CARE CAUSING HARM
NZNO kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku says the findings reinforce concerns Māori nurses and whānau have raised for years about the importance of cultural safety.
The Tribunal found Crown training and professional development had failed to ensure the disability workforce was culturally competent, resulting in too many cases where tāngata whaikaha Māori received culturally unsafe care.
Māori are also under-represented within the health and disability workforce, affecting the cultural capability of services and the experiences of those receiving care.
The findings are particularly significant as debates over cultural safety continue across the health sector.
NZNO argues cultural safety cannot be reduced to occasional competency training and that the Tribunal’s findings demonstrate the real consequences when services fail to understand the cultural identity and needs of the people receiving care.
KAUPAPA MĀORI PROVIDERS LEFT UNDERFUNDED
The Tribunal also found kaupapa Māori providers are not receiving sufficient funding or support to deliver the culturally appropriate services tāngata whaikaha Māori need.
Those providers were recognised as essential to sustaining hauora Māori and as expressions of tino rangatiratanga.
Funding barriers can leave whānau struggling to obtain timely, sustainable and appropriate services, while Māori living in rural communities can face additional barriers including long travel distances, fewer services and greater costs.
The report also identified racism and discrimination as barriers experienced within the disability system.
SOME COMMUNITIES PARTICULARLY BADLY SERVED
The Tribunal made specific findings concerning Kāpō Māori, including Māori who are blind, deafblind or vision-impaired; Tāngata Turi, Māori who are deaf or hard of hearing; and Māori living with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.
For Kāpō Māori, the Tribunal identified inadequate funding for culturally appropriate services and problems created by a system primarily centred around individual rather than collective and whānau-centred support.
For Tāngata Turi, it found inequitable health outcomes and insufficient action to increase the availability of trilingual interpreters.
For Māori affected by FASD, it found significant gaps in access to disability services and recommended changes including reviewing eligibility criteria and developing Māori community-led services.
NURSES CALL FOR MĀORI-CROWN PARTNERSHIP
NZNO is now calling for the Government to act on the findings rather than allowing another major Waitangi Tribunal report to gather dust.
Among the changes it wants progressed are co-designed Māori-Crown disability services, greater Māori representation in governance and management, stronger monitoring of cultural safety, transparent reporting of inequitable outcomes and explicit Te Tiriti and equity requirements within Crown service contracts.
It also wants the monitoring of Māori health and disability outcomes previously undertaken by Te Aka Whai Ora restored in some form.
That issue was specifically addressed by the Tribunal, which recommended appropriate replacements for the monitoring role previously held by the now-disestablished Māori Health Authority, including monitoring health services delivered within prisons.
GOVERNMENT RESPONSE WILL TAKE TIME
Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston’s office says consideration of the Tribunal’s findings will take time because a response needs to be coordinated across several government agencies.
Those agencies include Health, Social Development, Māori Development, Corrections, Education and ACC.
But for tāngata whaikaha Māori and their whānau, the findings follow years of evidence, lived experience and advocacy.
The Tribunal has now formally concluded that the state disability system does not properly recognise or provide for the tino rangatiratanga and mana motuhake of tāngata whaikaha Māori.
Its recommendations call for viable partnership models co-designed with Māori and meaningful Māori participation in the design and delivery of disability services.
The challenge now moves from establishing whether inequity exists to determining what the Government intends to do about it.
#TangataWhaikahaMaori #DisabilityRights #MaoriDisability #Hauwhaikaha #Wai2575 #WaitangiTribunal #NZNO #KerriNuku #TeTiriti #TinoRangatiratanga #ManaMotuhake #CulturalSafety #HealthEquity #HauoraMaori #MaoriHealth #KaupapaMaori #KaapoMaori #TangataTuri #FASD #DisabilityServices #HealthWorkforce #Whanau #Accessibility #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs #Aotearoa #NZHealth #NZNews #MaoriNews #WaateaNews #RadioWaatea
