Face of the Day

Labour’s Māori campaign chairperson Willie Jackson says he “personally” does not want to reintroduce the scrapped Māori Health Authority if his party is elected.

Jackson, who is also co-chair of Labour’s Māori caucus, appeared on Q+A this morning, as his party launches its campaign to win back the seven Māori seats it lost six of in 2023.

Pressed repeatedly on if Labour would bring back the Māori Health Authority axed by the National-led coalition, Jackson said the party was “still talking about” it – before he conceded his own view on the issue.

“My personal position is that I’m not in favour,” he said. “We just started it, but we never got the funding and resourcing in place. That’s what they’re saying: ‘look, if we can just get the funding resourcing’, so I‘m saying, well, what if we do that?”

He argued Māori health providers themselves had told Labour that direct funding mattered more than the structure.“The primary drive here was that we were not getting enough funding, resourcing and devolvement to Māori health providers. Māori health providers are being starved.”

Jackson pointed to alternative approaches which were more centred on “devolvement” – handing greater resourcing and control directly to Māori providers.

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