‘Best to fund iwi for own health needs’

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Many Māori are nervous about what the change in Government will mean for them, so it was interesting former Māori Party co-leader Dame Tariana Turia telling Whakaata Māori/Māori Television last week that she believes more can be accomplished for Māori health under a National Government.

She said this based in large part on her experience working with the National Government of 2008-2017, saying Sir John Key and Sir Bill English were “amazing to work with”.

“They didn’t want to manage us, they wanted to know what we wanted for ourselves. I liked the freedom to be. I’ve never liked to be under somebody. They were more lateral thinkers, more believing in people to do for themselves. I really liked them.”

In contrast, Labour “wants to keep everybody in the same boat”, “don’t take into account the differences in the way people view things”, and “try (to) have more authority over us”.

It is noteworthy here that Dame Tariana backed her relative, National’s Harete Hipango, in Te Tai Hauāuru — while saying she still supported Māori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, who won the seat.

National and its two potential coalition partners, Act and NZ First, all want to disband Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority established in July last year to manage Māori health policies, services and outcomes in a newly centralised health system.

They want a needs-based system rather than government services being provided on ethnic grounds, while National leader Christopher Luxon has said he wants to increase support for “by Māori, for Māori” programmes, delivered under one public service.

Dame Tariana said she would rather see funding given directly to iwi to enable iwi to resource their own health needs, “because in all the years that I’ve worked in the health sector, I’ve never seen the change that we needed”. She was Labour’s associate health minister from 1999-2004 (before quitting over its foreshore and seabed legislation), when there was a powerful Māori health directorate that created the enduring He Korowai Oranga — Māori Health Strategy.

National’s health spokesman Dr Shane Reti has said a strong Māori health directorate inside the Ministry of Health would be strategic rather than operational, and iwi-Māori partnership boards would be the regional operational entities.

“Personally, I believe that the money should go as close as possible to the people,” Dame Tariana said. “You know, we’ve got to learn to be an authority to ourselves and not for other people to be having authority over us. And I think it’s really important that our people are really clear about what it is that we need to be doing for ourselves. Or do we always want to be beholden to a government or someone else?”