“Te Whatu Ora providing free cervical cancer screening for only some ethnic groups is just the latest example of the Government’s obsession with seeing everything through a divisive racial lens”, says ACT MP Karen Chhour.

“Taxpayers are providing $7.3 million to make the test completely free for Māori and Pasifika women – but no other ethnic group.

“New Zealanders will find it shocking that access to such an important service is being determined by something as arbitrary as who they were born to.

“The following race-based initiatives are now features of our health system:

• The Māori Health Authority
• Prioritisation of surgical waitlists by race
• Giving prezzy cards exclusively to pregnant Māori women
• Pharmacy healthcare initiative only accessible to Māori and Pasifika.

“This is sadly another example of what’s happening everywhere in the bureaucracy: arguing over identity rather than solving problems.

“Labour has injected divisive co-government into many policy areas, including resource management, health, education, and water infrastructure. The only way for New Zealand to move on is to bring in a Government with ACT to change direction entirely.

“ACT will tell the public service that treating people differently based on race is lazy and divisive – they must get better at targeting need equally.

“ACT believes co-government is not the answer to solving problems like poorer health outcomes faced by Māori. Instead the solutions lie in more robust, evidence-based targeting, greater devolution of public services to communities, and maintaining New Zealand’s liberal democratic system.

“ACT will address the causes of poor health outcomes by investing in education, by making it easier to build affordable housing, and by properly funding primary healthcare so that everybody, including Māori and Pacific people, can see a doctor when they are unwell and can get help to live a healthy lifestyle.

“Labour never asked New Zealanders if they wanted access to public healthcare to be determined by ethnicity. ACT, on the other hand, will be direct with Kiwis – no ACT Government will use ethnicity to determine access to public healthcare.”

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