'Barrier after barrier' — Māori health provider tells Waitangi Tribunal of its battle to increase vaccination rates

Tuesday, 7 December 2021

Te Puna Ora o Mataatua deputy chief executive Shelly Cunningham and chief operational officer Lee Colquhoun give evidence at the Waitangi Tribunal's urgent health inquiry.

One barrier after another – that was the experience Bay of Plenty Māori health provider Te Puna Ora o Mataatua shared with the Waitangi Tribunal on Tuesday morning, revealing the difficulties it has faced trying to increase vaccination rates within its Māori communities.

The Whakatāne-based health provider was the first claimant to present evidence on the second day of a special hearing into whether the Crown has breached Te Tiriti o Waitangi in its Covid response.

Its deputy chief executive Shelly Cunningham and chief operational officer Lee Colquhoun told the Tribunal that throughout the pandemic, the Ministry of Health and district health boards consistently failed to listen to the health provider’s recommendations, resulting in lower vaccination rates of Māori.

Instead, they put up barriers leading to low vaccine supply, diverted vaccine supply to Tauranga, a lack of data sharing, and delayed funding, Cunningham said. Te Puna Ora set up its own mobile buses for Covid testing after Government funding was denied.

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“We and the community we serve have been negatively impacted as a result of these barriers, and we’ve had barrier after barrier, time and time again,” Cunningham said.

Tania Kingi, left, stands with Molima Molly Pihigia at Te Roopu Waiora Trust.

“It was a five-month-long battle with the DHB and Eastern Bay Primary Health Alliance for Te Puna Ora to get accreditation so we could store vaccines on-site. Without cold chain storage accreditation, we were only able to be given 30 vaccine doses per day at our fixed site.”

In its synopsis prior to the hearing, Te Puna Ora said that at a minimum, a 90 per cent vaccination target for Māori in the Eastern Bay of Plenty should be imposed before allowing Auckland in, with targeted funding for rangatahi needed.

Te Puna Ora o Mataatua is one of about 40 claimants from across New Zealand speaking at the special Tribunal hearing this week, detailing the circumstances that they say have disproportionately exposed Māori to Covid-19, and explore any changes that could improve equity in the Government’s pandemic response.

Also expected to give evidence on Tuesday is lead claimant for Te Ohu Rata o Aotearoa – the Māori Medical Practitioners Association and co-chair of Te Rōpū Whakakaupapa Urutā – the National Māori Pandemic Group Dr Rawiri McKree Jansen, Muaūpoko Tribal Authority chief executive Di Rump, Covid-19 modeller Auckland University Professor Shaun Hendy.

Te Roopu Waiora Trust researcher Tania Kingi will also present her evidence on Tuesday, detailing the consequences for whānau hauā – Māori with disabilities – following the vaccine roll-out and the distribution of care and information as the nation went into a series of lockdowns.

In her synopsis, Kingi said the Government lacked information about the numbers of whānau hauā, their vaccination rates, and didn’t produce accessible communication about the virus.

“The fact that this is lacking is important because data drives policy and strategies, which in turn determines how local and central government respond and resource allocation.”

Kingi said her organisation developed Paerangi, an easy access directory website for whānau hauā to find resources to support themselves, which had more than 50,000 visits on its first day.

But without accessible communications at the daily press conferences whānau hauā were missing out on critical information about the current state of the nation, she said.

“The Government has left our most vulnerable communities behind.

“There is also no modelling of information that we are aware of that looks at the effects of the new Covid-19 framework and ‘traffic light’ system on Māori disabilities.

“There seems to instead be an urgent political drive to open up the country for the general public to enjoy the holiday period, even though, from our experience, Māori disabled are significantly lagging behind in vaccination rates.”

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Judge Damian Stone is presiding, supported by Tribunal members Associate Professor Tom Roa, Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith and Tania Simpson.

The hearing continues.