Tamihere urges Maori for Maori
Ma¯ ori need to be at forefront of their own health system because hiring a ‘‘few nice brown faces’’ isn’t cutting it, a former cabinet minister says.
John Tamihere, chief executive of West Auckland urban Ma¯ori Authority Te Wha¯nau o Waipareira Trust, presented his case at a major Waitangi Tribunal hearing at Tu¯ rangawaewae Marae in Nga¯ruawa¯hia yesterday.
More than 200 claimants contend that the Crown’s failure to address Ma¯ ori health inequity is a breach of the Treaty of Waitangi.
‘‘The point we’re making to this tribunal is our people have a right to self determination and self management.
‘‘The difference between a Ma¯ ori kaimahi working in one of our provider groups is they’re born out of that community, they’re embedded.
‘‘They can’t drive out of it before 9am in the morning and they can’t get away from it before 5pm that night and above all, they’ll work with passion.
‘‘You will not get that in a DHB you will not get that in another government department.
‘‘Of course they can hire a few nice brown faces but unfortunately they can’t change the culture of that [organisation].’’
Tamihere said the Wha¯nau Ora initiative, driven by Ma¯ ori cultural values, is the perfect example of a successful model that is driven by Ma¯ ori for Ma¯ ori.
However, it is also a creature of policy and is at risk of the kind of changes in the future that make it difficult for Ma¯ori Primary Health Organisations (PHOs) and providers to survive.
And any institution that is a creature of policy and not included in legislation is vulnerable to the government simply changing its mind.
Tamihere said a large chunk of government funds went to mainstream agencies and if Ma¯ ori were to receive 14 or 15 per cent of that budget, there would be no need for a tribunal hearing.
‘‘Unless we get greater acknowledgment and greater investment in Ma¯ ori self management programmes, then there’s going to be a feeding frenzy on the failure of Ma¯ oridom,’’ Tamihere said.
‘‘It’s economics 101 – if you reward people to manage our failure, they’ll up it.
‘‘But if you invest in people that want to cure it and sort it, it will go down.
‘‘Wha¯ nau Ora has demonstrated on the peanuts it gets that we can do better than anyone else on any measure.’’