Maori Party pledges more health subsidies if elected

HEALTH LAUNCH: Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell launching his party's health policy at Tipu Ora in Ohinemutu. PHOTO/STEPHEN PARKER 120914SP10

Under 18-year-olds receiving free health care and prescriptions and scrapping GST on healthy foods is part of the Maori Party health policy launched in Rotorua.

Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell made their announcement yesterday at health and social service provider Tipu Ora in Ohinemutu. He said poverty was a major underlying cause of ill health.

"Because of the committee, we were able to negotiate the insulation of 100,000 homes, free GP visits for under-13s, kick-start breakfast available in every school and fund the prevention and treatment of rheumatic fever. You can't make those kind of gains on the Opposition benches," Mr Flavell said.

Mr Flavell said Tipu Ora embodied the Maori Party's approach to improving the nation's health.

"Our policy is focused on creating and enabling wellness. So we will continue to support whanau and communities to grow their own maara kai (vegetable gardens) and harvest kaimoana (seafood). We want to revisit the scrapping of GST on healthy foods such as fruit and vegetables and the viability of taxing sugar-sweetened beverages like soft drinks."

"I want to assure the public and health groups that if Maori Party MPs and I are elected into the next Parliament we will do everything within our power to uphold and build on the gains we've made in health," Mr Flavell said.