Call for action on creating more health roles for Māori

Otago Daily Times

08-06-2025

Calls for the government to create more roles for Māori in health in the Southern region will mean nothing if they are not followed by action, the leader of a major Māori health organisation says.
Ōtākou Health Ltd (OHL) chairwoman Donna Matahaere-Atariki was responding to concern from Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora (HNZ) Southern leader Dr Hywel Lloyd, who at a recent Southern community meeting said he was "disappointed that Māori leadership has been confirmed to not be coming back to the districts".
Ms Matahaere-Atariki shared the disappointment, but said if it was up to HNZ, there would never be the support those roles would need.
"If Māori are going to wait on government to make room for us in leadership roles, we're never going to get there.
"So my position has always been that I know I have enough information to be a leader in health here and I will take those roles if they're there."
OHL created Te Kaika, an integrated health service, in 2018.
It now has more than 12,000 people on its books across the region, and through its low-cost approach, is able to offer initiatives such as free dental care for under-18s.
"What I've found in my experience is these roles and these Māori roles that [government] created, they have leadership roles, but they never have a budget, they have no staff and so you might get the high salary, but you're actually not able to do anything.
"So I think it's better that I've always said, 'no, we'll create our leaders on the outside and we'll wait for them to lean into us'.
"So rather than chasing that up, because we can't be held hostage to whatever government is in town and whoever thinks what is right."
Previous health board roles dedicated to Māori were "practically useless", she said.
"The problem is when you produce Māori leadership roles in your organisation, sometimes you think you don't actually have to go out there and talk to community.
"Māori leaders are not public servants — we serve our communities."
She said Te Kāika, which is based in Dunedin, Oamaru and Queenstown, was a "one-stop health shop" which improved health and wellbeing outcomes for all whānau and community by making essential health, social, education and employment services affordable and accessible across the wider Otago region.
"When we set up Te Kaika and we had to pay for all that ourselves, you know, we got a big bank loan and that to build that — our attitude was 'we set up the infrastructure, they will come knocking'.
"We know that we've got ourselves into a position where we have the only health infrastructure that doesn't belong to government in town.
"We had to use our own money to get into the sector, set up the infrastructure and then be noticed by them. But we did that really well."
The Dunedin base in Caversham was a site designated for high-density residential living.
"We could have just gone and built apartments there, but we didn't want to do that.
"The most outstanding lesson I've learned is we can't rely on government to look after us. We've had so many reviews that say they don't look after Māori — I'm sort of tired of these reviews and reports."
Te Kaika's success reminded her of the need to grasp opportunities.
"Over the years, I've realised that there are particular moments that were a perfect storm, that allowed us to put it right at that time: we got that money from the Whanau Ora Commission, the Ministry of Health, and the Education Ministry gave us that building until it was sold — then, of course, when it was sold, we bought it.
"So, there was a perfect storm at that gate."
She said she wanted to thank Dr Lloyd for his "well-intentioned" comments.
"From his perspective, there doesn't seem to be any Māori voice there [in HNZ Southern].
"I think that's important. However, that Māori voice needs to know what they're saying or else I don't want to hear it."
HNZ has been approached for comment.
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