Health leaders say the scrapping of Te Aka Whai Ora breached Treaty principles – and now they want the courts to intervene, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin.
To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.
Court challenge to Māori health reforms
The High Court in Wellington this week is hearing a landmark case on the disestablishment of Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority. More than a year after the agency closed its doors, Waikato provider Te Kōhao Health and other applicants are seeking declarations that the Crown’s actions breached both Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. As RNZ’s Te Manu Korihi programme reports, the claimants argue the government failed to properly consult Māori before shutting down the agency, and that no plan has been put in place to address ongoing inequities in its absence. Lady Tureiti Moxon, managing director of Te Kōhao Health, told RNZ’s Pokere Paewai the case “isn’t just about the demise of Te Aka Whai Ora. It is the ability and the right of Māori to look after ourselves in our way.”
Abolished under urgency
Established in 2022 as part of the Pae Ora reforms, Te Aka Whai Ora was charged with commissioning Māori health services and embedding equity across the system. After the election, the new coalition government moved quickly to dismantle it. In February 2024, legislation abolishing the authority was introduced and passed under urgency within hours. The debate was marked by tears and anger from opposition MPs, who accused the government of destroying the only serious structural response to decades of inequity.
Then-health minister Shane Reti defended the repeal, insisting Māori health needs would still be prioritised. “My dream for the health system isn’t about bureaucratic structures and endless plans and reports; it’s about identifying need and responding to it,” he told parliament. Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer was unconvinced. “Enjoy the feeling of being anti-Maori,” she told the government. “Because this is not something we will let you forget.”
Waitangi Tribunal finds Treaty breach
The decision to abolish the authority was heavily criticised by the Waitangi Tribunal, which in November ruled that the disestablishment had breached several Treaty principles. Its report found that the policy process departed from conventional and responsible policymaking in “several concerning ways”. It said the Crown had not acted in good faith “as it did not consult or engage with Māori, nor did it gather substantive advice from officials”.
In May this year the tribunal held further hearings, where dozens of Māori health leaders offered emotional testimony about what had been lost. As Liam Rātana wrote for The Spinoff, the “witnesses were clear: the authority was beginning to show real promise [as] a ‘new whare’, grounded in tikanga and data, commissioning services by Māori, for Māori, at scale”. They called for a return to a Māori-led health service – “not symbolic oversight, but meaningful authority over strategy, funding and delivery”.
Iwi boards set adrift
Much of that testimony focused on the Iwi Māori Partnership Boards (IMPBs), which had originally been designed to work alongside Te Aka Whai Ora. Since its abolition, the boards have been left in an uncertain position, relegated to advisory status within Te Whatu Ora (Health New Zealand). Witnesses told the tribunal the boards had been stripped of much of their mana, with one describing them as now little more than “a toothless tiger who give an illusion that the Crown is honouring te Tiriti”.
Their future is now tied to the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) amendment bill, currently before select committee, which promises to “clarify” and “streamline” their role. As Waatea News explains, the bill proposes shifting the boards away from strategic commissioning and toward community engagement, while strengthening oversight from the Crown. Māori leaders fear the changes will strip the boards of what little influence they have left, further reducing Māori independence and voice in the health system.
