Waitangi Tribunal accepts urgency for claim against scrapping of Māori Health Authority, criticises ‘problematic’ government approach

National Urban Māori Authority chairwoman Lady Tureiti Moxon, one of the parties asking for an urgent Waitangi Tribunal claim into the disestablishment of Te Aka Whai Ora (the Māori Health Authority).

The Waitangi Tribunal has accepted there are grounds for an urgent inquiry into the scrapping of Te Aka Whai Ora (the Māori Health Authority).

The final decision about when any inquiry is held has been adjourned, until the Government provides more information, including when exactly it will introduce legislation to disestablish the authority.

Te Aka Whai Ora came into effect on July 1, 2022, in a bid to shift decades-long health inequities, which contribute to Māori dying younger and living with worse illness.

The independent authority’s remit included ensuring existing services worked for Māori as well as others (research shows this is often not the case), and investing in services grounded in te ao Māori.

Health Minister Shane Reti plans to disestablish Te Aka Whai Ora (the Māori Health Authority). Photo / Michael Craig

National campaigned on its disestablishment, with now Health Minister Dr Shane Reti saying it was a failure of “more bureaucracy”, and his government would instead “have a strong Māori health directorate inside the Ministry of Health”.

A claim by Lady Tureiti Moxon and Janice Kuka was filed in the Waitangi Tribunal in December, seeking an urgent inquiry into this action, described by Moxon as “yet another breach by the Crown who do not regard Māori as equals or partners under Te Tiriti”.

The application was opposed by the Crown, which said an urgent inquiry would be “premature as the implications of the decision cannot be properly ascertained and evaluated”.

In a January 19 decision, Waitangi Tribunal members noted the Crown had conceded Māori weren’t consulted on the proposal to disestablish Te Aka Whai Ora.

The Government’s announced plan to disestablish the authority before any alternative is outlined is “problematic”, they stated.

“Crown counsel argues that ‘there are more effective ways’ to improve health outcomes for Māori, yet concedes that the coalition government is not in a position to articulate how.

“In general terms, it is difficult to understand how the coalition government can be sure that there is a more effective way to improve health outcomes for Māori without knowing what that way is. In Treaty terms, the disestablishment of a tino rangatiratanga-compliant model for something unknown is, on its face, prejudicial.

“We are therefore satisfied that the claimants are suffering, or will likely suffer, significant and irreversible prejudice through the proposed disestablishment of Te Aka Whai Ora. The grounds for urgency are made out.”

The grounds for urgency were satisfied, the members wrote in the decision, but the final decision on the application was adjourned until the Crown files, by January 31, more information including the nature of its alternative plans.

The tribunal also wants to know when the Government will introduce legislation to disestablish the authority, and whether it is prepared to give sufficient notice of this, “to enable the tribunal to undertake an urgent hearing then”.

Waitangi Tribunal decisions are not binding on the Government, but they can build political and public pressure.

Yesterday’s decision was released on the same day a draft paper from the Ministry of Justice was leaked, and which said the coalition government’s proposed legislation to define the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi could be “highly contentious”.

More than 10,000 people are today attending a national hui, organised by the Māori king, at Tūrangawaewae Marae in Ngāruawāhia to unify Māori and discuss the potential impact of the new government’s policies.