PĀNUI PĀPĀHO / MEDIA RELEASE
Wednesday, November 26, 2025
Select committee brushes off evidence and widespread opposition to Healthy Futures (Pae Ora) Amendment Bill
The Iwi Māori Partnership Board for the top of the South Island says the Health Committee’s final report on proposed amendments to the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act is further proof that the Coalition Government is not listening and is not interested in equitable outcomes for all.
Te Kāhui Hauora o Te Tauihu is one of 15 regional Iwi Māori Partnership Boards (IMPBs) set up with iwi partners under the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act (2022) to ensure the voices of Māori are heard in healthcare decision-making and improve hauora outcomes for Māori.
When Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority, which was central to the Pae Ora reforms, was dismantled in June last year, IMPBs were assured they would continue to play an integral – and expanded function – within the health system to address entrenched inequities in health outcomes.
Not even 18 months later, that commitment lies in tatters.
On Friday afternoon, the Health Committee quietly released its final report on Health Minister Simeon Brown’s Health Futures (Pae Ora) Amendment Bill, recommending the bill be passed and paving the way for IMPBs to be largely stripped of their core functions.
Te Kāhui Hauora Pouwhakahaere, Dr. Kim Ngawhika, says the amendment bill, likely to face its second reading in Parliament in the coming weeks, is dangerous and puts lives at risk.
“The bill undoes years of progress. It strips our ability to shape local investment decisions, monitor system performance, and lead improvement actions. It also removes a legislative requirement for Health NZ to respond to our priorities, sidelining our voices once again. This only perpetuates the very underperformance and inequities that have plagued Māori health for decades.”
Among a raft of changes, the bill also strips key health sector principles designed to address inequities for all populations and passes responsibility for health performance monitoring from IMPBs to a politically appointed ministerial advisory committee.
The clause on Te Tiriti o Waitangi has also been modified, replacing the active obligations of partnership, protection, and participation with passive recognition.
Dr. Ngawhika said the Health Committee had overlooked the fact that continued inequities carried a very real human and financial cost to local health systems and had brushed aside decades of research and advice from leading health experts.
“When the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act 2022 came into force, Sections 29 and 30 established IMPBs as strategic partners in the health system, a role anchored in the Te Tiriti o Waitangi provisions set out in Section 6.
“This was not a symbolic gesture. It was a deliberate and evidence-based approach, informed by health system reviews, decades of health system strategies, and research from here and overseas. The findings were consistent: communities achieve better health outcomes when they have a direct and formal voice in the prioritisation, design, and delivery of services that affect them. Yet here, we are, again.
“We wholeheartedly and firmly reject the Health Committee’s recommendation that the bill be passed and regard it as both unnecessary and harmful. This is another assault on Te Tiriti o Waitangi and on Māori.”
ENDS
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NOTES
- Te Kāhui Hauora o Te Tauihu is the Iwi Māori Partnership Board (IMPB) for Te Tauihu o te Waka-a-Māui, the northern South Island, encompassing the Tasman, Nelson and Marlborough regions.
- Te Kāhui Hauora represents the collective voice of the eight iwi of Te Tauihu (Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō, Ngāti Kuia, Ngāti Koata, Ngāti Rārua, Ngāti Tama, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Rangitāne o Wairau and Te Ātiawa o te Waka-a-Māui) and Te Tauihu-based mātāwaka whānau.
- IMPBs were legislated in 2022 to engage with whānau and hapū about local health needs, evaluate the current state of Māori health, identify priorities, and monitor performance of the local health system.