There has been an outcry in recent weeks about the race-based differentiation of access to, and allocation of, health services. The spotlight on health came from the confirmation that identifying as Maori is a factor in determining a patient’s position on surgical waiting lists.

This discrimination is not new but has been escalated by the establishment of the Maori Health Authority. 

The severing of our health system into two was opposed and challenged by academics, health professionals, and those of us who believe all New Zealanders should be treated equally and that allocation of services should be based on need, not race.

And wouldn't you know it, all of our concerns, fears, and submissions have come to fruition in a review of the Maori Health Authority released by the Ministry of Health at the end of last week.

I won't bore you with all 36 pages of review, but there are some excerpts of interest. In particular, the document reveals multiple pressure points where the views of Te Aka Whai Ora (Maori Health Authority), Te Whatu Ora (Health NZ), and Manatū Hauora (Ministry of Health) have tensions and disagreements. Despite splitting our health system in two there are concerns that the existence of the MHA might take away from Health NZ's "Māori capability". 

"...challenges arose in the relationship between those Te Aka Whai Ora and Manatū Hauora managers due to differing views on how the strategy development process should run. This has yet to be resolved."

"Tension surfaced between Te Aka Whai Ora and Manatū Hauora with regard to their respective roles of monitoring in the system...

"The interim Hauora Māori Strategy is expected to be delivered by June 2023. However, tensions described between Manatū Hauora and Te Aka Whai Ora teams working on this require an intentional reset of the ways of working."

"Concerns were raised about staff transfers not being focused on the critical skills and expertise needed, and on the potential for the focus on Māori personnel / team transfers to diminish Te Whatu Ora’s own Māori capability."

Additionally, the review found that the promised gains in outcomes were not going to eventuate due to a number of issues:

"The Board appears to have made little progress in establishing a governance level risk monitoring and management framework, despite repeated requests."

"Te Aka Whai Ora staff have significant workloads and are struggling with forward planning."

"Projected underspend from finance of approximately $66m means the highly anticipated boost in services for Māori will not be fully realised in FY22/23."

"Organisation-wide planning and prioritisation work for FY22/23 is evident, but below the level of the SOI and SPE..."

"...discretionary choices made by the Board and/or executive have occasionally detracted from Te Aka Whai Ora’s delivery of its core functions."

"...there have been delays in the development of the monitoring framework due to insufficient deployment of resource (capacity) and capability to date, and this area not being sufficiently prioritised."

"...we tried to source a Board-approved implementation plan that outlined the Year One priorities for Te Aka Whai Ora and set out the detail on how these will be planned, delivered, managed and monitored...There appears to be no such overarching plan." 

David Seymour called it “a damning assessment of the Maori Health Authority that shows that it has failed on every level." While, National's Dr Shane Reti said:

“Labour’s bureaucratic health restructure has cost taxpayers half a billion dollars, and for there to be no plans or details for a whole year on how to better improve Maori health is shocking. No other public service would be allowed to operate like this.”

The defence that it is early days for the Authority should be rejected outright as the criticism is not limited to outcomes but also notes failure to even establish targets and performance indicators.

Of course, the Maori Health Authority is doomed to fail as there is simply no empirical evidence that outcomes are impacted due to systemic racism or, more fundamentally, because they are Maori.

The New Zealand Initiative completed a detailed review on the matter and made the case for equal treatment. 

In the foreword of the Initiative's report, Emeritus Professor Des Gormon, professor of medicine at the University of Auckland, says:

“We can all agree that the time to address the underlying causes of this [health outcome] inequality is well overdue. However, what is needed are objective data about what leads to improved outcomes rather than political rhetoric."

Another report, produced last month by Tailrisk Economics’ Ian Harrison, highlights the same lack of evidence.

Read the Tailrisk Economics Report here.

The research report concludes with an extract from the 'Waitangi Tribunal 2000 Napier Hospital Report' which states:

“The chief difficulty with the claimants’ position is not the goal of equal health outcomes but the one-track focus on healthcare services as the means to achieve it. More ambulances under the cliff cannot remove the factors causing people to fall off.”

This Government has staunchly held their position that racism is the cause of all failure to improve Maori outcomes and have refused to listen to medical professionals and academics with evidence to the contrary.

In April 2022, co-leader of the Maori Party, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer also promoted the idea that the MHA would be a fix-all: 

“With the establishment of the Māori Health Authority a new era in Māori health is arriving. It’s crucial that this is done right, and there is no other way of guaranteeing that than letting Māori lead. We must not have a situation where the Māori Health Authority can be vetoed or underfunded by Pākehā bureaucrats.”

Despite the establishment of this Maori Health Authority, in the general health system wait-listing has become race-based, grocery vouchers have been offered to Maori women in exchange for getting mammograms, and, most recently, $100 worth of Prezzy cards to entice pregnant Maori women to attend two prenatal appointments.

Maybe Minister of Maori Development, Willie Jackson was correct when he stated in May:

“Most Maori are not attached to a lot of our Maori organisations.”

And yet, the Government is ploughing on with these separatist systems.

As a nation, we were sold the importance of co-governance as being THEsolution for resolving inequity. 

Friday’s MHA report demonstrates everything we have criticised in co-governance – added cost, increased bureaucracy, lack of accountability – and NO IMPROVEMENT IN OUTCOME.

For better outcomes, and for New Zealand, we must end co-governance. 

Sign our petition for equality in healthcare.

P.S. Take a moment to check out our billboard, now live in Lower Hutt. Thank you for your ongoing support in making this possible... let’s make sure everyone knows what is at stake this election.

Authorised by: Hobson’s Pledge, Suite 311, 184 Symonds Street, Auckland 1010

New Zealanders are being led to believe that co-governance is necessary, inevitable, and does not impact our democracy.

It is nothing to be scared about, according to our current Prime Minister. One person, one vote is too simplistic, says the Prime Minister before him.

WE ARE BEING LIED TO. 

Co-governance is not co-operation and consultation as we are being told. It is division and discrimination.

Co-governance is the appointment of the unelected onto councils and in roles that make important decisions simply because they are Maori. Democracy does not exist where 50% of the decision makers are not elected. Nor where 20% or 1% are not elected.

Democracy is equal suffrage. Equal voting rights. You can't have a partial democracy. It is all or nothing.

As highly respected economist Thomas Sowell says:

“It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.”

When decisions are made by those who cannot be voted out when they get it wrong, and who have no mandate through a democratic process, our democracy is lost.

I will say it again: co-governance is the appointment of the unelected, to make decisions that will affect us all.

This election we are voting to protect our rights to make sure the power of government remains with those who are elected by the people of New Zealand.

Never before has it been more important to have your voice heard.

You will hear a lot of discussion about co-governance in the weeks leading up to the election and you will hear lots of commentary about democracy. You may even spot a billboard or two...

We will be working to counter the false and sanitising narrative that co-governance is an obligation and therefore a done deal. 

New interpretations of the Treaty are used to make outrageous claims about what the Government 'owes' Maori, but we have an existing system to deal with historic wrongs and we should be avoiding racialising the future of our country at all costs. 

Co-governance isn't a power tussle between Maori and white New Zealanders. It isn't just those with European ancestry who are on the other side of this division of our country. It also involves every single New Zealander from any one of the around 200 ethnicities represented here. 

Why should any New Zealander - of any ancestry - have less of a say in electing representatives and decision makers?

In the next few weeks Hobson’s Pledge is rolling out a plan to empower you to fight alongside us to defend our democracy.

Our first tool is coming next week. It will allow you to easily and quickly send a message to the candidates for your electorate to inform them that a commitment to ending co-governance is your bottom line. It also will lay out for you the positions of each party on co-governance. 

Please use the tool and then please share it around your friends and family. 

We will also be spreading the 'End Co-governance' message throughout the country on billboards, radio, and print media.

Thank you for all you have done to make this action possible. Everything is at stake. I will be in touch next week with the Bottom Line tool.

With all that has happened this week, and with the focus on the election, I am asking you to take a moment to speak up for equal speech rights.

The Department of Internal Affairs released a proposal for a new way to regulate social media and traditional media platforms.

Like any proposal that comes from this Government, the recommendations in this document are yet another departure from equality before the law. Among the many proposed changes, there are specific protections proposed for Maori to be able to speak freely without the limitations applied to others.

This is an outrageous affront to the human rights of every New Zealander who does not have Maori heritage. It is vital that we respond to these proposals with strong opposition. 

We have provided some information and suggested comments on our website and a link to the tool on the Free Speech Union website.

It is clear that there is an intention to restrict open dialogue in media and on online platforms. What is very important for Hobson's Pledge supporters like you to know, is that these kinds of restrictions would apply directly to the communications from advocacy groups. We cannot allow ideological regulators the power to shut down the work that we do.

I know this is yet another submission tool, but this is about what information you will be able to see online in the future. It is about what groups like Hobson's Pledge will be able to talk to supporters about. It is not an exaggeration to say that this is another attack on the fundamentals of democratic engagement.

Please make a submission today. 

Do it today. There are just five days until submissions close.

As we defend our democracy this election, the reality is that without the ability to share information and engage in public discourse we would have already lost.

Please take the time to make your voice heard, before it is too late.

As you probably heard over the weekend, our spokesperson Casey Costello has announced her intention to run for a seat in Parliament.

She has fronted for Hobson’s Pledge on many challenging issues and we are in no doubt that she would make a fantastic Member of Parliament, taking up the issues we all care about to those in power.

We are so proud of Casey for her boldness and the principled way in which she has represented us, and for having the courage to put her hand up for this next challenge.

As Hobson’s Pledge isn’t aligned to any political party, Casey has stepped down as our spokesperson and as a trustee. I’m sure you will join me in thanking her for her service.

The fight goes on and with 82 days until Election Day we are kicking things up a notch!

You will be hearing more from me over the next few months. We have a full plan for how we can maximise the time we have left to persuade New Zealanders we must act now to save our democracy.

We will be providing you with tools to reach your candidates and with advice on how to talk to the people in your life. We will also be running awareness and education campaigns online to reach New Zealanders who still don’t understand what co-governance is and why it is a terrible problem.

The costs of this all add up. We cannot defeat our well-resourced opponents without resourcing ourselves as best we can.

If you feel strongly, as we do, that this election is make or break for New Zealand, please consider donating what you can afford to this cause.

New Zealand is relying on us to demand that our politicians reverse the path of division and return us to a democratic state of equal rights before the law.

82 days. We have to throw everything at them.