Jacinda Ardern admits there was a “general sense of caution” from Māori health advisory groups and iwi leaders when consulted on the Government’s Covid-19 Protection Framework changes, which she says is understandable.
The Prime Minister on Wednesday announced a raft of changes to New Zealand's Covid restrictions, including lifting all gathering restrictions on outdoor settings, scrapping vaccine passes and removing vaccine mandates for some workforces.
During the media conference, Ardern was asked who from te iwi Māori had been involved in the consultation process ahead of the changes.
She said there had been “ongoing input” from Māori health advisory teams and weekly engagement, including with iwi leaders.
“There has been a general sense of caution and we absolutely understand that and I still consider this to be a cautious moving forward. Making changes that we believe we can make without having a significant impact or a material impact on our health system or hospitalisations.
“But also keeping in place the things we know make a difference - mask use, which we know makes a difference - isolating households, which we know makes a difference, and ultimately our vaccination campaign which makes one of the biggest differences.”
Read more: PM reveals changes to mandates, vaccines passes and restrictions
During the media conference, a reporter also put to Ardern that it sounded like the advisory groups had given “a bit of kickback”, on the changes.
Ardern said Māori advisory teams had been consistent in their communication.
“You’ll remember that there was hesitance to move from the alert level level to the traffic light, there was hesitance to move down away from the regional border, there has been caution all the way through and I absolutely understand that, but we have made these decisions with all of that in mind.”
Throughout the Omicron and Delta outbreaks, there have been ongoing concerns from Māori health experts and leaders, over the Government's Covid-19 response, and some negative impacts on te iwi Māori.
In December last year, the Waitangi Tribunal found Māori were put at a disproportionate risk of being infected by Delta than other groups.
The Green Party has since announced it doesn’t support the changes and that the Government was putting vulnerable communities at risk, including Māori and Pasifika whānau.
Teanau Tuiono, Green Party spokesperson for the Covid-19 response said the Government should be trying to stay ahead of the virus.
“If we don’t, it will be Māori and Pasifika whānau, immunocompromised people, disabled people, our under-5s, and whānau on the lowest incomes who will be most affected."
Dr Rāwiri Taonui, Māori health researcher and advisor, had a similar stance to the Green Party, and said the changes would place much more pressure on Māori and Pacific communities.
"I think some of the assumptions underpinning the decisions presented today are unsound. So for instance last week it looked like al DHBs had past their peak, but yesterday we had 20,000 cases and we had a record 12,000 cases in the Pākehā community and there were nine DHBs that set new records, reached new peaks."
Despite that, Taonui said Māori, Pacific and Asian cases were actually continuing to go down.
"It's because our leadership and strength of community response has been really strong. But the nature of the restrictions, removing mandates, vaccine passes, will only put more pressure on our communities.
Gathering limit changes will come into effect on March 25 at 11.59pm, and from 11.59pm April 4 vaccine passes will no longer be required as part of the Covid-19 Protection Framework, and vaccine mandates will also be lifted for some workforces.
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