Little to reveal new health authority
clear, but the panel behind the report couldn’t even keep a lid on its own splits when it came to offering solutions.
Tucked away towards the end of the report, a faction proposed an alternative model for the Ma¯ ori authority.
These members said the Ma¯ ori authority idea was good, but had a stingy budget and limited purchasing power. It needed to go further.
As far as I can tell, their authority as proposed would be Ma¯ oriowned, governed and operated.
It would get a hefty budget so it could pay for services on its own, and work with iwi and Ma¯ ori and district health boards at regional and local levels to support their purchasing as well.
It would start by beefing up kaupapa-Ma¯ ori workforce numbers, facilities and services. Setting the infrastructure in place, I presume.
Over several years it would then start paying for the likes of screening and disease prevention services targeted at Ma¯ ori, and a swathe of frontline health services, like GPs and maternity services, community pharmacies and radiology.
Like a game of reverseMonopoly, where one person owns everything at the beginning and then loses it, we might finally see the money (and thus, power) flow to the people who need it.
In one of the worst-kept secrets of the last few months, it appears the Government has thumbed through to the back of the review and now leans towards the alternative proposal.
It will hand over increased purchasing muscle to the authority.
I think this is good news. Let’s be clear, Ma¯ ori are hyper-capable organisers (myself withstanding). There is nothing iwi and hapu¯ and wha¯ nau cannot do – and do with the clear, big-hearted morality of our ancestors.
Successive Governments have obstructed our development thanks to the complaints of a fearful Pa¯keha¯ minority.
On Wednesday, what Health Minister Little owes us, everyone, but especially Ma¯ori, is a clear explanation of what the new health authority is, and what it will do.
He will face the task of boosting its credentials with Ma¯ori, while reassuring other parts of the community that it is anything but radical.
Don’t be fooled though, by jargon and complexities – if done correctly, it is something radically new.
But that is a good thing and will make a bracing departure from decades of radical failure for Ma¯ ori.