Wave of public service cuts hits Māori roles
Saturday, 25 April 2026
A new wave of public service cuts has put Māori roles in the firing line, with nearly 50 jobs across two Government departments proposed to be cut.
It follows a series of cuts and restructures to Māori roles across government agencies in recent years, spurring fresh concerns from the Public Service Association over the Government’s ability to be a responsible Treaty partner.
Past cuts include 237 roles during the disestablishment of Māori Health Authority Te Aka Whai Ora, six roles from Stats NZ when it scrapped its dedicated Māori Learning Capability team and 49 roles from the Office for Māori Crown Relations, Te Arawhiti.
Human rights lawyer Roimata Smail said overall cuts to Māori roles in the public service were harmful when Māori were already under-represented in these roles.
“We already didn't have enough - if you cut it down even further, we're even more vulnerable.”
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She said the fewer Māori voices in Government, the more decisions were made that hurt Māori.
Smail argued greater Māori involvement in decision-making earlier in the policy process could reduce the number of Waitangi Tribunal cases, with a notable increase in the number of cases in recent years.
The Public Service Association’s Jack McDonald said of the thousands of public service roles cut, Māori roles had been “disproportionately” impacted.
“Over decades, there has been slow, often flawed, but steady progress in increasing the public services capability around Maori and Treaty issues.”
But that had changed under this Government, where Māori and te Tiriti capabilities in the public service had been “hollowed out”.
Te Puni Kōkiri and The Ministry of Justice proposed cuts
A proposal to cut 27 roles from Māori development agency Te Puni Kōkiri was announced earlier this month - bringing the number of cuts to be more than 100 over the last two years.
The Ministry of Justice has proposed cutting 21 policy roles, including its entire Waitangi tribunal claims inquires team, and five roles in its Ātea a Rangi team, which led iwi and Māori partnerships.
McDonald said cutting the inquiries team responsible for the Government’s response to claims brought by Māori was “deeply concerning,” given Māori’s over-representation in the criminal justice system.
He said the role of the Ātea a Rangi team was to reduce those disparities.
“It's going to mean that some of the progress that was being made, albeit slow, will now be halted.”
The cuts followed a damning report by a United Nations committee in December last year, which sounded alarms bells over the scrapping of the Māori Health Authority and budget cuts to Māori departments.
The report stated the Government “may seriously risk weakening the legal, institutional and policy framework for the implementation” of the racial discrimination convention“.
It recommended public institutions mandated to combat racial discrimination such as Te Puni Kōkiri be empowered and allocated adequate human and financial resources.
McDonald believed cuts to Te Puni Kōkiri would be harmful to the agency, especially given its increased mandate.
In 2024, the Government cut 49 roles from Te Arawhiti, the Office for Māori Crown Relations, as it largely scaled back its functions and responsibilities, transferring some 44 full-time roles across to Te Pūni Kōkiri.
“Their mandate has increased but their resources are dwindling.”
Some 20 roles will be cut from IT, which has 26 staff, while the Māori capacity team would go from three staff to one.
The Māori capacity team provides senior leadership advice to ministers and the agency’s leadership on working with Māori communities.
McDonald drew concerns over the IT cuts considering how sweeping cuts to Health NZ’s IT team ended major IT outages across the country.
“Many of these cuts, the nature of them is that they're the engine room.”
“Staff who rely on that support are not going to have it - it's going to really undermine the internal capacity of Te Pūni Kōkiri.”
The Public Service Association recently filed legal action with the Employment Relations Authority alleging Te Puni Kōkiri breached its collective agreement by excluding the union from the latest restructuring decisions.
Cuts to Māori ripple across Government agencies
Some 237 staff lost their job when the Government disestablished the Māori Health Authority Te Aka Whai Ora in 2024.
Its removal was challenged in the High Court for breaching the rights of Māori under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 and Te Tiriti o Waitangi - the judge is still weighing the case.
Te Aka Whai Ora was formed following findings of Waitangi Tribunal’s Hauora inquiry that the Government had breached the Treaty of Waitangi.
The inquiry found the Government failed to address persistent Māori health inequities through the primary health care system and recommended an independent authority be established.
Scrapped two years later, the High Court hearing examined the Government’s alternative plans for Māori health following the removal of the authority, and whether those plans aligned with the Treaty of Waitangi.
Smail, who represented lead claimants in the Hauora inquiry, said the authority’s disestablishment was “hard to take” given how long it had taken to establish, and the impact it had made despite limited resources.
She said Te Aka Whai Ora played a major role in supporting Te Whatu Ora and it had left “a big gap”.
Te Aka Whai Ora’s staff were shifted across to Health NZ, but further cuts to Health NZ saw many lose their jobs.
Some 166 staff from Health NZ’s Hauora Māori services team were made redundant, a majority of which came from Te Aka Whai Ora.
The Ministry of Health’s Māori health directorate lost around a third of its roles following the disestablishment, and gained 13.
Meanwhile, the Pae Ora amendment bill entered its second reading last month, which would see the responsibilities of 15 regional iwi Māori partnership boards stripped back.
Their three main functions - monitor the health system, work with Health NZ to develop priorities for improving hauora Māori and provide whānau voice - would be reduced to just the latter.
Stats NZ, meanwhile, cut its Māori Learning Capability team Tangata Tiriti in November last year, with six roles lost.
Smail said these cuts would be impactful, given the agency’s role in proceedings before the Waitangi Tribunal, where robust data was needed to demonstrate issues are systemic rather than isolated.
“We can't afford to lose those monitors.”
McDonald said Māori data sovereignty had been a significant issue in multiple Waitangi tribunal claims.
“It was already very difficult for Stats NZ to get good quality data because Māori often don’t trust the state.”
“This team was helping Stats NZ to be able to reach into Māori communities so they had a better chance at sourcing accurate and reliable data.”
A merging of the Public Health Agency and Mental Health Group has seen two Hauora Māori roles cut, while three remain.
Patient Advocate Malcolm Mulholland said the Māori public health team were crucial throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said it wasn’t until engaging with Māori providers and formulating a Māori public health response that the country was able to bring vaccination rates up, and relax the restrictions as a result.
The ministry’s deputy director-general of the public health agency and mental health group Dr Andrew Old said it continued to have Māori public health expertise in the team.
Their role to improve Māori immunisation rates, maintaining strong relationships with Māori stakeholders, setting Māori health policy direction and monitoring the performance of the health system for Māori continued, he said.
In late 2024, it was announced Pharmac would disestablish its Māori advisory group Te Rōpū, which had eight members tasked with providing advice to the drug buying agency.
Te Rōpū was established in 2022 following a damning independent review of Pharmac and health outcomes for Māori, Pacific and people with disabilities.
At the time of being disestablished, its co-chair Eugene Berryman-Kamp told RNZ it would compromise Pharmac’s ability to deliver for Māori.
Pharmac has also seen its Te Tiriti o Waitangi policy removed, which led then-Pharmac director Dr Anthony Jordan to resign.
Inland Revenue has shut down its dedicated kaupapa Māori research domain, Te Mana Rangahau, pushing the work to a broader research team.
Māori-Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka said his focus is on ensuring the relationship remains strong, practical, and focused on outcomes.
He said it was important to keep perspective and said Māori success was not defined by the number of roles within the public service.
“The Māori–Crown relationship is reflected in what is happening on the ground.”
“Across portfolios, there are active partnerships with iwi, hapū, and Māori providers delivering results in housing, conservation, infrastructure, and regional development. That practical collaboration continues.
He said Māori employment is improving, education attendance had improved and Māori immunisation rates for tamariki are lifting.
Māori enterprise and regional development was seeing strong growth, while Treaty settlement delivery remained on track, he said.
Public Service Minister Paul Goldsmith said the Government has committed to bringing the public service workforce back to sustainable levels following a dramatic increase under the previous Labour Government.
A Te Pūni Kōkiri spokesperson said it is currently consulting with kaimahi on proposed organisational changes, and no final decisions have been made.
Ministry of Justice secretary for Justice Andrew Kibblewhite said the changes were developed in response to continued fiscal challenges and shifting demands for its services.
“We fully intend to keep doing the things that strengthen people’s trust in the law of Aotearoa New Zealand, and to improve outcomes for Māori in the justice system.”