High Court overturns MOH decision on Māori vaccination data

November 1, 2021

The Whānau Ora commissioning agency has won a judgement in the High Court in Auckland to gain individual information on unvaccinated North Island Māori.

In October chief executive John Tamihere took the Ministry of Health (MOH) to court to gain the data to target unvaccinated Māori.

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The judicial review found the MOH was wrong to withhold the information and should drop its original decision.

It had three working days to correctly apply the law and “retake” the decision in accordance with te Tiriti and its principles.

In a media release, Whānau Ora said all New Zealanders knew “we should have been given access to vaccinate Māori from the get go”.

Māori vaccination rates have consistently lagged rates for other ethnicities, and the overall population. Whānau Ora said it would not be able to meet the 90 per cent uptake by Christmas that other communities had been “blessed to achieve because they had no obstacles placed in their way”.