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Māori are going without healthcare or putting it off because of the cost and the unavailability of services, a new survey reveals.
In the past 12 months, 67 per cent of respondents to a Mata-Horizon poll of Māori voters had put off getting, or gone without, healthcare.
And almost one-third did not trust the country’s healthcare system to provide them with the care they needed.
In a special episode of Mata with Mihingarangi to discuss the poll, commentator Roihana Nuri said the results reflected how many people were feeling.
“I think we’re all suffering,” said Nuri, editor of Rotorua-based Aukaha News. “If we are going to rely on this health system or these health policies, we’re going to be dead. In Rotorua, no one can really afford to go to the doctor.”
Former National MP and journalist Claudette Hauiti, who is a consultant for Te Pāti Māori, said whānau were struggling to even get to appointments.
“Doctors are not going into those rural areas like Te Tai Tokerau, Te Tai Rawhiti … so part of that cost [is that] our whānau are not able to afford the petrol to get themselves to [services].”
Her comments reflected the poll results, with regional and rural centres hit hardest.
In Northland, 76 per cent of people had put off or gone without healthcare, mostly because it was too hard to get an appointment or none were available.
In Gisborne/Hawke’s Bay, one of the main factors cited was the lack of hospital care.
Another issue was lack of trust. While 47 per cent of respondents said they trusted the health system to provide them with the care when they needed it, 32 per cent said they did not.
Hauiti said part of the lack of trust was how Māori felt they were treated in the system.
“A lot of that is down to racism for our wāhine, how they’re treated, particularly around their babies,” she said.
“To be fair, successive governments have tried to get the trust value up amongst our whānau - Whānau Ora did a great job, Te Aka Whai Ora would have done a better job. But, of course, that has been completely scrapped.”
Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority, was established by the previous government to manage Māori health, but was disestablished within months of the National-led coalition’s election.
Another area where Māori felt concerned was around the taiao (environment), the poll showed.
More than two-thirds of people were concerned about climate change.
And almost 75 per cent of those surveyed thought the government wasn’t doing enough to protect the health of the country’s rivers, lakes, oceans, fisheries and native ecosystems for future generations.
Nuri said these were big concerns for grandparents like him.
“Are we gonna be able to swim in our rivers? Are we gonna be able to have proper drinking water?
“We want a long-term change. We want the protection of our entire ecosystem and our entire taiao.”
Hauiti said much good work was being done at the flax roots level.
“Communities working on their whenua to reclaim their whenua, eradicate the pests, returning back to traditional knowledge. These are whānau at marae level, hapū level, iwi level.”
Meanwhile, the poll has also provided clues of the state of the race within the seven Māori seats. With small sample sizes, the races are an indication only, with the strongest take-away about how close most of the seats are.
The survey asked those enrolled in Māori seats which candidates they preferred. Labour candidates came out on top in four seats - Willow-Jean Prime in Te Tai Tokerau, Kerrin Leoni in Tāmaki Makaurau, Toni Boynton in Waiariki, and the incumbent Cushla Tangaere-Manuel in Ikaroa-Rāwhiti.
Te Pāti Māori’s Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer were in front in Hauraki-Waikato and Te Tai Hauāuru, while independent Tākuta Ferris was leading in Te Tai Tonga, according to the survey.
In Te Tai Tokerau, with four high-profile candidates vying for votes, Prime is on 27 per cent, only just ahead of the Greens’ Hūhana Lyndon (23 per cent) and Te Pāti Māori’s Aperahama Edwards (19 per cent). The current MP for the electorate, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, who has resigned from Te Pāti Māori and has formed Te Tai Tokerau Party, was favoured by 11 per cent of respondents.
Te Pāti Māori’s Oriini Kaipara, who won Tāmaki Makaurau in a by-election, sat just behind Leoni in the survey (38 per cent v 30 per cent), within the margin of error (±8.1 per cent).
In the Tāmaki seat, both panellists agreed Kaipara was unlikely to be unseated.
“In terms of my relationships within the communities here, I don’t see Oriini losing this seat,” Nuri said.
Hauiti said Te Tai Tokerau was close because of the standard of candidates. “It’s a most magnificent race.”
Nuri said Kapa-Kingi and Edwards could be splitting between them votes that would have gone to Te Pāti Māori had there not been the divisions which led to Kapa-Kingi’s departure.
“Willow-Jean is probably more than likely, based on that number, coming through the middle.”
Neither panellist was confident Ferris would hang on in Te Tai Tonga, despite being the sitting member.
Nuri said the seat was often won in Wellington, with high numbers of “bureaucrat Māori” who had endured lay-offs and cut-backs under the coalition government.
“They will go to the polls, and they will decide because they want a change of government.”
Hauiti believed Waititi would win Waiariki “hands down”, although she believed “the one that’s kind of hovering around there is Tania [Waikato].”
For Hauraki, Ikaroa-Rāwhiti and Te Tai Hauāuru, Hauiti and Nuri agreed the races weren’t going to be tight.
Of Ikaroa-Rāwhiti, where Tangaere-Manuel leads, Nuri said: “It’s a race for second.”
The poll on health and the environment had 1089 Māori respondents aged 18 plus, surveyed between September 8 and 18. The electorate poll had 711 respondents aged 18 plus, surveyed between September 25 and October 9.
Both samples were weighted on age, gender, region, 2023 voting and the electorate roll. The overall margin of error was ±3 per cent.
Sample sizes for Māori electorates are limited, and results should be interpreted as indications.
Made with the help of Te Māngai Pāho & NZ on Air
