“Just as ACT predicted, the Māori Health Authority experiment has been disastrous, and that’s why we will end it. The Māori Health Authority has sacked half its board, failed to hire critical skills because it’s too focused on hiring based on race, wasted half a billion dollars, failed to deliver better healthcare, and created resentment and division among New Zealanders,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“ACT would get rid of the organisation and change the direction of the entire public service away from the race-based division that is failing so many New Zealanders.

“A damning assessment of the Māori Health Authority shows that it has failed on every level. No one, including Māori, has had better healthcare, and it has wasted half a billion of taxpayers’ dollars in a cost of living crisis. Sacking half the board isn’t going to help, we need to get rid of the organisation entirely.

“Having government departments predicated entirely on race is wrong. Making someone’s defining characteristic their ethnic background should never happen and was always destined to fail.

“The Government’s large and powerful Māori caucus has flexed its muscle, insisting it be seen to be helping Māori. The problem is, if the main aim was to spend on Māori health, the risk is other objectives like ‘is this helping anyone?’ get lost.

“This report shows that what this has really done for patients is divide them by ethnicity, Māori are not well served by being separated into a second-rate system shown to be failing on every measure.

“Even hiring within the agency was done based on race rather than expertise. The report says ‘Concerns were raised about staff transfers not being focused on the critical skills and expertise needed’ because it was instead focussed on taking Māori staff from Te Whatu Ora.

“The emphasis should be fitting services to every New Zealander. Our population is more diverse than just Māori and non-Māori, but you wouldn’t know it from this Government’s priorities.

“ACT’s commitment is to remove the Māori Health Authority and turning policy away from Labour’s race obsession. Instead, we should be focused on the best public services that get results for New Zealanders from every background.”

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