The bill disestablishes the Māori Health Authority (Te Aka Whai Ora) and transfers its employees, functions, and information to Health New Zealand (Te Whatu Ora) and the Ministry of Health.
Parliament advanced this bill under urgency (committee of whole house, first reading, second reading, third reading) — moving it through faster than usual, with less time than normal for public submissions.
These are claims MPs made in Parliament’s debate — not verified facts.
This bill disestablishes Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority - an independent statutory body set up by the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act 2022 to plan and buy ("commission") health services for Māori and to help close long-standing gaps in Māori health outcomes. The bill amends the Pae Ora Act to remove the Authority as a stand-alone agency and shifts its functions, staff and money to Health New Zealand (Te Whatu Ora) and the Ministry of Health. Provisions covering the Authority's board, its shared role in developing the New Zealand Health Strategy and the Hauora Māori Strategy, and its power to commission Māori health services are repealed or handed to those bodies. The stated aim is to keep responsibility for improving Māori health inside the mainstream health system rather than in a separate organisation, while leaving duties to lift Māori health outcomes with Health NZ.
The change delivers a commitment in the National-ACT-NZ First coalition agreements, which promised to disestablish the Māori Health Authority soon after the 2023 election. Supporters argue a separate agency duplicated bureaucracy and split accountability, and that embedding Māori health responsibilities across the whole system - with dedicated funding and local input - will channel more money to frontline services rather than administration. Opponents, including many Māori health leaders and the Waitangi Tribunal, argue the Authority was a hard-won vehicle for Māori-led decision-making designed to fix entrenched inequities, and that removing it risks worsening those disparities and weakens the Crown's commitments under Te Tiriti o Waitangi. They also point to evidence that mainstream services have historically underserved Māori, questioning whether the general system will prioritise Māori health without a dedicated body driving it.
See the Parliament.nz ↗ site for the full bill.