Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority, has come under close examination after just nine months of operation but Whānau Ora health reforms director Lance Norman asserts the authority is facing unjust scrutiny during its initial phase and Māori health is being treated as a “political football”.
Norman says less than two per cent of the $26 billion health care funding goes to Te Aka Whai Ora and asks why reviewer EY didn’t review the Ministry of Health or study the Disabilities Ministry to assess their effectiveness? “It seems very short-sighted to focus solely on the Māori authority after just nine months of actual work, with six of those months being a transitional period. It’s all rather odd to me.”
Te Aka Whai Ora encountered well-publicised challenges. On July 1, 2022, it had only one full-time staff member, the chief executive. All other staff were employed temporarily to allow for potential reorganisation after the formal establishment of the entity.
Staff from the old Ministry of Health and district health boards were brought in, as mandated by the union, to protect jobs, resulting in everyone working in a temporary or acting capacity for the initial three to six months. This measure was taken to create a baseline workforce and ensure staff continuity.
Review ‘pointless’
Norman says from January 2023, the newly formed executive team has been diligently working to implement the Māori health strategy. It launched the New Zealand Health Strategy with Te Whatu Ora and developed the significant Workforce Development Plan, addressing one of the most significant challenges in health, he says.
On the review, Norman draws an analogy to the All Blacks’ recent three-point win over the Wallabies, saying, “It’s like watching the All Blacks and doing a review after 60 minutes and we are down 16-3 and we win the game! Like surely you base that game based on the end result rather than 60 minutes into a game, I don’t know why you would do a review six months in.”
Norman, who is also the secretary and treasurer of Te Pāti Māori, emphasises the creation of the Māori Health Authority was meant to address health disparities between Māori and non-Māori, and a government review at this stage seems “pointless”.