Te Pāti Māori stands with the claimants Te Puna Ora o Mataatua and Te Kōhao Health who are in High Court today challenging the Crown’s decision to abolish Te Aka Whai Ora. This Government has shown its fragility in all things Māori, tearing down Māori solutions, silencing Māori voices, and oppressing Māori wellbeing.
Māori die up to seven years earlier than non-Māori and carry higher rates of preventable disease. These inequities are the direct result of systemic racism, chronic underfunding, and being locked out of decisions about our own health.
In its defence, the Government points to Iwi-Māori Partnership Boards and the Hauora Māori Advisory Committee as proof of Māori participation. The reality is these bodies are Crown-controlled, underfunded, and powerless. Worse, the Pae Ora legislation that created them is currently being rewritten in Select Committee to strip away what little influence Māori had.
To abolish Te Aka Whai Ora with no consultation and no plan is not just bad policy, it is pure evil.
“This Government’s obsession with dismantling Māori progress is killing our people. Their fragility and fear of Māori power is costing lives. We will not allow our hauora, our tino rangatiratanga, or our future to be erased,” said Te Pāti Māori Co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer.
Te Pāti Māori will put it right. We will establish a Māori Health Authority that is iwi led, enduring, and properly resourced to finally end Māori health inequities once and for all.