Journal Article: The future of Māori Health is here

01/10/2022

The future of Māori health is here: The 2022 Aotearoa New Zealand health reforms (2022)

In this 2022 comment for The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific, Annabel Ahuriri-Driscoll, Sarah Lovell, Lindsey Te Ata o Tū MacDonald, Kaaren Mathias and I consider the launch of Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority, on 1 July 2022, one of the most significant changes to the health system in Aotearoa in recent history. We note that Te Tiriti o Waitangi forms the basis of the reforms, framing both the problems to be addressed and the solutions, and that the Waitangi Tribunal and the Health and Disability System Review both identified the restoration of rangatiratanga as the way forward. We argue that the key challenges lie in how the new institutions will work together: how the Māori Health Authority works with and empowers the Iwi Māori Partnership Boards, and, most importantly, how it will monitor Health New Zealand and the wider Crown contribution to Pae Ora outcomes. We also caution that reforms focused mainly on governance, while leaving funding and contracting arrangements largely untouched, may be undermined by the institutional arrangements that have long disadvantaged Māori health providers.

Read the article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanwpc.2022.100589

Reference
Ahuriri-Driscoll, A., Lovell, S., Te Kawa, D., MacDonald, L. T. A. o T., & Mathias, K. (2022). The future of Māori health is here: The 2022 Aotearoa New Zealand health reforms. The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific, 28, 100589. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanwpc.2022.100589

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-5129-5218

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