The Treaty of Waitangi in the New Zealand Health and Disability Bill

• The Government has decided there will be a reference to the Treaty of Waitangi in the New Zealand Health and Disability Bill to give legal effect to the Government's commitment to the principles of the Treaty
• There will be a general reference of a high level nature in the Bill when it is introduced, while further work is done to specify how the Government will give effect to its commitment in more detail
• The more detailed work will not be completed in time for the introduction of the Bill, so will incorporated into policies, guidelines, protocols or other mechanisms.

Partnership between Maori and the Crown

• There will be partnership arrangements between Maori and the Crown at all levels of the health and disability sector. While there is an expectation that relationship arrangements be established at each level, there will be flexibility about how this is done, since the characteristics and needs will be different from area to area.
• At the DHB governing board level, there will be Treaty-based partnership agreements between the board and the mana whenua of the region. The purpose of these agreements will be to ensure iwi are able to participate strategic planning to improve the health of, Maori in the area
• Existing relationship agreements between the HFA and local iwi will be rolled over to the DHBs until they can be replaced with more appropriate arrangements, and DHBs will be required to develop relationship agreements in areas where there are none
• DHBs will be able to establish Maori health advisory committees or other advisory mechanisms where appropriate
• At the DHB operational level there will be memoranda of understanding and other agreements between the DHB and Maori. The aim is to continue to build Maori capacity to provide for their own health and disability needs, and to continue to improve mainstream service responsiveness to Maori
• Maori service providers will continue to work with the DHBs, Maori Development Organisations and mainstream providers to improve service delivery to Maori.
• It is envisaged that these Maori health and disability organisations will evolve over time, increasingly taking on responsibilities as their capacity grows, and potentially evolving into holistic organisations responsible for a range of services for Maori, not just health
• At the national level, there will be a new national Maori health forum, intended to provide a route for Maori to discuss with Ministers and the Ministry of Health issues of strategic importance to Maori health, and to have a say in national policy that impacts on Maori health. The forum will not replace other means for Maori to provide advice on national health policy issues by will provide a regular forum to supplement other ad hoc consultation and advisory arrangements.

Maori representation on DHB Boards

• There will be at least two Maori members on each DHB governing board, with additional Maori members where necessary to reflect the proportion of Maori in the DHB population. This will be achieved through a fairer DHB voting system, the Single Transferable Voting system (STV) - a proportional voting system which is likely to achieve better representation of minority groups, including Maori - with the results of the elections supplemented with Ministerial appointments to achieve the required levels of Maori representation. Each DHB governing board will have seven elected members and up to four appointed members.