10. TARIANA TURIA (Co-Leader—Māori Party) Link to this
to the Minister of Health
What is the staffing reduction in actual numbers that is encompassed in the new, “leaner” Te Kete Hauora, and what evidence supports the relocation of the service development team and the chief adviser Māori health into the sector capability and innovation directorate?
Hon PETE HODGSON (Minister of Health) Link to this
The answer to the member’s first question is “Nine”, and the answer to the second question is that it was done to further strengthen the ministry’s ability to respond to Māori health issues across the ministry.
What kinds of skills and expertise are being brought into the team to measure the so-called gains in the last administration, and why was a deputy director-general not appointed from the outstanding applicants who applied for that position?
The answer to the second question lies with the director-general. I have no role in that, as the member may be aware. The answer to the first part of her supplementary question is that the main measurement is a census mortality survey, which is ongoing and which is one of very few such studies in the world. It is a very important study, and I look forward to the next update, because I am hoping we will see still further progress. In general what is happening is that the ministry is intent on increasing its capacity and capability for Māori health across the ministry—the Māori Provider Development Scheme, for example, is now with the sector capability and innovation directorate, because that is where its natural home is—but the budget for Te Kete Hauora has actually remained unchanged, even though there are now fewer staff there, which suggests that the director-general has in his mind the possibility of further appointments.
How often will the ministry change the deckchairs from sector-specific to mainstream, and how will progressively dismantling Te Kete Hauora and spreading a mere eight Māori people across all of the directorates improve health and reduce inequalities, given the poor outcomes being achieved to date?
I do not think we have gone from sector-specific to mainstream. In the previous incarnation there was a directorate for Māori health and in the current ministry there is a directorate for Māori health. Nine people have been shifted from that directorate across to the sector capability and innovation directorate. The reason for that is that they manage the contracts and they manage the development of Māori providers—they are quite clever people, in my view. These are all decisions that are taken not by me but by the director-general. I think he is making a good job of the reconfiguration of the ministry, and I think that it has quite a lot of momentum now that it did not have earlier.