Opinion: The disestablishment of Te Aka Whai Ora – the Māori Health Authority, under urgency and with a Waitangi Tribunal hearing last week, is the most egregious example yet of this Government riding roughshod over its Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations.
Māori people in this country die on average seven years earlier than non-Māori. Report after report has found that a primary cause is institutional racism. We have a health system that is set up to systematically deny Māori our right to an adequate standard of healthcare.
Te Aka Whai Ora was established in an attempt to rectify this. It was possibly the most significant example New Zealand has seen of a government-led initiative attempting to address Māori inequities structurally. It wasn’t perfect, but it was an important milestone, making its demise a devastating setback.
What makes it even harder to swallow is that the Waitangi Tribunal had agreed to hold an urgent inquiry into the disestablishment of Te Aka Whai Ora. The Tribunal was due to hold a two-day hearing beginning on February 29 and had promised to report back by the end of the following week. This is an incredibly compressed timeframe for such a significant issue.
Despite the Tribunal’s timeframe, without warning, the Government brought forward the introduction of the Bill to disestablish Te Aka Whai Ora.
In my view, the only plausible explanation for doing so was to ensure the Government avoided scrutiny from the Tribunal until after the Bill became law (the Treaty of Waitangi Act prohibits the Tribunal from examining an issue currently before Parliament). The Bill was not even on Parliament’s order paper at the beginning of the week. Its introduction was an incredibly cynical move.
Time and again, this Government has been willing to not just disregard its Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations but to actively ignore advice about what those obligations entail.
Reports last month of a leaked memo regarding the Treaty Principles Bill discussed advice from officials that the proposed law change would breach both the text and the spirit of Te Tiriti. This week, RNZ reported that Associate Health Minister Casey Costello ignored similar advice regarding the repeal of smokefree legislation.
It’s not that the Government is making informed decisions some people disagree with; it’s refusing to even consider information and evidence. It’s irresponsible, it’s arrogant and, given the severe impacts that many of these changes will have on Māori, in my view it’s deeply racist.
I believe its actions are also a further breach of Te Tiriti in and of itself. There is no good faith here, no attempt at partnership, and no regard whatsoever to the guarantee of Māori tino rangatiratanga over our whenua, kainga, and taonga.
In 2019, the Waitangi Tribunal released its first report on the health system, which found Māori health providers were expressions of tino rangatiratanga. The Tribunal said the failure to support these organisations, alongside several other failures in our laws, policies, and funding arrangements, amounted to a major breach of Te Tiriti by the Crown.
Given the circumstances in which it has happened, the disestablishment of Te Aka Whai Ora almost certainly amounts to a similar breach.
Responsible governance requires listening to feedback, considering broader impacts, and governing for all, not just appeasing those who voted for you. The current Government has shown no appetite for any of that. And regardless of what its election policies were, no government ever has a mandate to completely ignore its Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations.
The disestablishment of Te Aka Whai Ora, under these circumstances, is a new low for a Government determined to ignore its Te Tiriti obligations. It is a step back for our health system and it is a step back for Te Tiriti justice. My view is that the Government will one day look back and hang its head in shame about what it is doing right now. As it so should.
