David Lillis: Our Prioritised Health System and Pacific People

In this article we make the case for our Pacific populations being our most deprived and vulnerable demographic in health and wellbeing. We suggest that resourcing the health and wellbeing of New Zealanders should be predicated, not on the basis of ethnicity, but instead on the basis of need.

Findings of the BULA SAUTU Report

In 2021 we saw the publication of a landmark study from the Health Quality & Safety Commission - BULA SAUTU A window on quality 2021: Pacific health in the year of COVID-19. He mata kounga 2021: Hauora Pasifika i te tau COVID-19.

Drawing on various prior studies and censuses, this report (Health Quality & Safety Commission, 2021) summarises a very significant study of the health and wellbeing of Pacific people in New Zealand. The study served to confirm what was already well known within the Pacific community and to health professionals across the country. The report demonstrates that various socioeconomic issues experienced by Pacific people provide impediments to good health. It suggests that New Zealand’s health system is fragmented and that current models of care are not working properly for Pacific people, often are hard to access for Pacific people, and that critical shortages exist within the Pacific health workforce.

Barry Soper: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's policeman father carried out Dawn Raids as junior officer

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's father, Ross Ardern, was one of the police officers who carried out the Dawn Raids on Pacific Island families in the 1970s - something the Prime Minister said he was uncomfortable with.

Newstalk ZB's Barry Soper reported Ross Ardern's part in the raids as a young police officer, saying the Prime Minister had told him her father was a junior police officer who had to follow orders but had not believed it should be part of the job.

It follows the Prime Minister's sincere apology at the weekend on behalf of the Government to the Pacific community – and that community's emotional acceptance of the long-awaited apology - for the discriminatory raids targeting Pacific Islanders in the mid 1970s.

Fiona Mackenzie: Need Public Healthcare? A name change may help.

At a recent speaking engagement, Sir Bob Jones said he had known Sir Tipene O’Regan before he was a Maori. Bob had apparently grown up with one Stephen O’Regan – a man who made the politically and financially rewarding decision to strengthen his Maori identity and change his name in middle age. 

Well, it may be time for all of us to start digging out an inner Polynesian. As the baby boomer bubble moves into old age and increasing demands are put on health resources, activist bureaucrats have announced plans for race-based financial control and preference in our public health system. Choosing to identify as a “Maori” or “Pacific Islander” may leapfrog you over other Kiwis.