Hipkins: Luxon has 'no standards' on ministerial conduct

Labour leader Chris Hipkins discussed the removal of Treaty of Waitangi obligation from Pharmac in an appearance on Breakfast this morning — as well as climate change and political violence in the wake of former President Donald Trump's attempted assassination.

Associate Health Minister David Seymour told Pharmac yesterday in a letter of expectations it was no longer required to consider "embedding Te Tiriti o Waitangi" in its work.

Hipkins said: "Ultimately, we have to recognise that Māori in New Zealand have disproportionately worse health outcomes compared to non-Māori, and I do think the whole health system should be focused on doing something about that."

Statistics New Zealand data showed the life expectancy gap between Maori and non-Maori at birth was 7.5 years for males and 7.3 years for females.

Hipkins added that ethnicity played a role as some were more prone to some health conditions than others.

"I don't think Pharmac should be completely blind to that."

Drug allocations should always be based on clinical need, but it should be recognised that there is more clinical need amongst "some segments of the population", he said.

Hipkins also said Pharmac's Treaty of Waitangi considerations were about involving Māori in decisions around their healthcare.

"I think everybody should be involved in decisions that affect their healthcare."

When asked about reports that Resources Minister Shane Jones had an off-the-books meeting with mining executives, Hipkins said there seemed to be "one rule for Shane Jones and one rule for everybody else".

"In the last Government, ministers lost their jobs for not declaring things," he said, referring to then Transport Minister Michael Wood, who resigned after his undeclared shareholdings in the JM Fairey Family Trust were revealed.

Hipkins added that Luxon seemed to have "no standards" for ministerial conduct.

"I think Christopher Luxon has shown he is too weak to do anything about misbehaviour by New Zealand First ministers, so I'm not going to hold my breath for any action from him."

The timing of the accusations was "somewhat ironic", Hipkins said, due to it being announced today the Government was at risk of missing emissions reduction targets.

"They're not going to meet their emissions reductions targets because almost every decision they've taken since they became the Government is winding back things that were successfully reducing New Zealand's emissions."

Hipkins also spoke about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump over the weekend.

"Political violence like this has no place in a democracy. Regardless of what I think of Donald Trump's views, nobody should be shooting at him," he said.

A post on Hipkins' Facebook page yesterday said "banning the most dangerous firearms in New Zealand is something I remain incredibly proud of."

Just a third of assault weapons had been returned under a buyback scheme, but he said it was "not something you can turn around overnight".

"Stopping the purchase of new weapons and also introducing a firearms register are the things that longer term will help us ensure we don’t have these sorts of weapons in circulation."

The register would allow the tracking of a firearm if it was sold from a registered owner to someone with criminal intent, he said.

"One of the reasons we have guns in circulation now that we don't know where they are is because there hasn't been a firearms register previously. We need to make sure we keep the forward momentum on that."