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Sio 'not satisfied' with health authorities' connection with Pasifika

September 2, 2021

The Associate Health Minister and Minister for Pacific Peoples said everyone is doing their best in the current landscape.

Health authorities have come under fire throughout the community outbreak of the Delta variant for its communication with Māori, Pasifika and those with disabilities.

Criticism has come from Pacific leaders and health practitioners alike about authorities alleged lack of communication and engagement with the community in the response to the virus. 

Auckland Councillor Efeso Collins has criticised the Government for failing to include Pasifika in the planning and design stages of the response until it was too late.

Instead, bureaucrats were making decisions from their "Wellington tower", far away from the community they were trying to reach, he said.

"The failure from the beginning by the Ministry of Health is that our people haven’t been at the planning and design stages, and as a result of that, we’re being clipped on at the end when we’ve reached emergency status rather than have us right at the beginning."

On Breakfast Thursday morning, presenter John Campbell asked Associate Health Minister and Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio if he was "wholly satisfied" with health authorities' connection with the community and whether or not he felt they had been looked after, engaged and communicated with. 

Sio responded: "No, I’m not satisfied...One of the driving forces of the health reforms is about that the system has failed Māori, Pasifika and people with disabilities.

Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio.

"Not withstanding the reform that’s taking place, we’ve got a pandemic in front of us and it’s Pacific providers that are stepping up right across Aotearoa New Zealand and we’re putting everything that we can to support that.

"Also to be fair to the health system everyone in the health system across the motu of New Zealand is working at pace and you’ve got to give credit to that. I don’t think it’s fair to downplay the effort that’s gone into this."

Although he has earlier not disputed there are "gaps in the system" when it comes to serving Pasifika in the pandemic, the minister is now saying he isn't entirely happy with the response. 

Before being pressed by Campbell earlier on in the programme, Sio had said he did not believe Pasifika had been failed as there had "always been questions of equity and barriers in the health system". 

This was the "driving force" behind the Government's health reform, he explained. 

"There’s been a complex system that doesn’t necessarily know how to engage with communities that speak different languages."

Sio said his focus had been on supporting Pacific providers and he would be making a "big announcement" later on Thursday about an "extra boost" of support for the community. 

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