Time is running out to make your submission against the racist Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Bill that is currently being rushed through Parliament. The Bill will replace the New Zealand Health and Disability Act 2000 with an apartheid structure presented as Treaty partnership in action while claiming it will achieve equitable outcomes for Maori health.
Diagrams on pages five and six of the health reform white paper show the racially separate structure with the new Maori Health Authority (by Maori for Maori) on one side, and Health New Zealand (for everyone else) on the other. See Health reform white paper
Both the Maori Health Authority and Health New Zealand are directly responsible to the Minister of Health and the Ministry of Health.
Healthcare is under threat by a government determined to put the interests of Maori ahead of their duty to all New Zealanders.
This is an outrage and the added cost and complexity to the system will be a disservice to all.
The bill simply asserts that the aim is for “equitable health outcomes” for Maori while ignoring that “equitable levels of service” are already provided and some simply choose not to go to a doctor.
A former Labour Health Minister, Michael Bassett observed that the Bill deals “almost exclusively with Maori health. Maori are mentioned in most clauses of the legislation”.
“The health of 17 percent of the population seems to be the only concern of this government. Pacific Islanders get a look-in briefly, the Minister being required to produce a specific strategy for their health,” he wrote.
“But all the rest of us who make up 70% of the people are never mentioned, and are dismissed at one point as “the other populations”, Dr Bassett wrote. See Racially charged health care
Please make your submission now by going to:
The deadline for submissions is December 9.