Government urged to partner with Māori after damning Waitangi Tribunal report finds ‘unsafe’ disability services

The Waitangi Tribunal this week released Hauwhaikaha — the disability system report, which found that tāngata whaikaha Māori received culturally unsafe services that further marginalised them and did not adequately respond to them either as Māori and disabled.

‘Essentially, claimants are asking to be heard and seen within the disability system with the call: ‘nothing about us, without us’.

Significant parts of the disability system continued to prejudice tāngata whaikaha Māori and failed to provide for tino rangatiratanga, partnership, equity and Māori participation in decision making, the report found.

“Essentially, claimants are asking to be heard and seen within the disability system with the call: ‘nothing about us, without us’,” it said.

Nuku said it was a “damning indictment” on the Crown which has not prioritised culturally safe care.

“Attendance at occasional cultural-competency training does not necessarily translate into culturally safe practice.”

Hineraumoa Te Apatu was one of the founders of NZNO’s Māori nursing arm, Te Rūnanga whose members have provided evidence of Māori health inequities as part of the Wai2575 claim.

Tāngata turi (Māori deaf community), kāpō Māori (blind or visually impaired), and those with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder were among the worst-affected by inadequate care, it found.

Nuku said the Coalition Government dismissed cultural safety as ideology but the report showed that culturally unsafe care caused harm to tāngata Māori.

She called on the Government to urgently adopt the recommendations for:

Co-designed Māori-Crown disability support services.
More Māori in their governance and management.
Stronger monitoring of cultural safety and competency.
Public monitoring of inequitable outcomes for tāngata whaikaha Māori.
Explicitly including Te Tiriti and equity obligations into Crown service contracts.
Restoring the monitoring of disability and health services to Māori previously held by Te Aka Whai Ora (now disestablished Māori Health Authority), including in prisons.

Minister for Disability Services Louise Upston said considering the findings would ‘take time’.

Report will ‘take time’ to consider

A spokesperson for Minister for Disability Issues Louise Upston said the report would take time to consider and a response coordinated across several agencies named in the report.

Those include social development, Māori development, ACC, health, Corrections and education.

Hauwhaikaha is part of the Wai 2575 Health Services and Outcomes Kauapapa inquiry into the wider health system which began in 2016.

The 2018 Māori nurses’ claim, taken by Nuku and NZNO honorary member Hineraumoa Te Apatu, on behalf of Te Rūnanga o Aotearoa, also forms part of the Wai 2575 inquiry.

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