Former Newstalk ZB host Kate Hawkesby's on-air comments that "Māori and Pacific patients are being moved to the top of surgery waitlists" were "misleading and discriminatory", the broadcasting regulator has ruled.
Hawkesby's on-air commentary came amid controversy last June over Health NZ's development of a surgery waitlist prioritisation tool, which included ethnicity as a factor.
The Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) has today ordered broadcaster NZME to air a statement summarising the decision and to pay Crown costs of $1500.
The regulator upheld a complaint that remarks broadcast on Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby breached accuracy, discrimination and denigration standards.
The decision relates to a June 19 broadcast in which Hawkesby discussed the new "Equity Adjustor Score" waitlist system being trialled in the Auckland region.
This system uses five categories to place patients on the non-urgent surgical waitlist, including clinical priority, time spent waiting, location, deprivation level and ethnicity.
In the broadcast, Hawkesby "made statements to the effect that the score meant Māori and Pacific people were being 'moved to the top of surgery waitlists'."
"The BSA found this gave the misleading impression ethnicity was the only, or the key factor, involved in the assessment, and this meant Māori and Pacific patients would be given immediate precedence on the surgical waitlist," a BSA spokesperson said.
In its ruling, the regulator wrote: "Despite accurate information being to hand, the host put a misleading spin on the story, and was allowed to repeat misleading statements numerous times over the course of the broadcast."
Additionally, the BSA described Hawkesby's assertions as "exaggerated and misleading".
“Hawkesby’s comments played into the stereotype that Māori and Pacific peoples disproportionately take up resources and are given undeserved special treatment in Aotearoa New Zealand’s society, at the expense of other ethnicities," the BSA wrote.
"While not said explicitly, in our view, the exaggerated and misleading nature of Hawkesby’s comments had the effect of evoking this type of prejudicial bias."
In deciding to impose orders, the authority noted: “The conduct was serious, featuring repeated and sustained inaccurate descriptions of the Equity Adjustor Score over the course of a one-hour broadcast, which in turn had the effect of embedding negative stereotypes about Māori and Pacific peoples.
"This was despite accurate information being to hand.
“There was a high level of public interest and some controversy in the introduction of the Equity Adjustor Score at the time, meaning while there was value in discussing and generating debate about the issue, it was important for reporting on the subject to be accurate.
“The broadcaster chose to frame an important news story in a misleading and inflammatory manner. The framing of the issue created an environment where potentially harmful comments from the audience were foreseeable, and the broadcaster chose to read many such comments out on air.
“As a result, the broadcast had the potential to cause serious harm, both to Māori and Pacific peoples – minority groups which already experience significant disadvantages in our community – as well as the audience more generally.”
A spokesperson for NZME said in response to the ruling: "We accept the BSA’s decision. We have no further comment to make."
Last year, the media company itself upheld a complaint it received under the discrimination and denigration standard after a Newstalk ZB political reporter said on-air "you would have to be on the spectrum to go out there and vote for [Te Pāti Māori]."
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