🩺 Health Policy

"He oranga ngākau, he pikinga waiora – Positive feelings in your heart will raise your sense of self-worth and wellbeing."

🩻 Background

Aotearoa’s healthcare system remains underfunded and unequal. Māori, Pasifika, disabled, LGBTQIA+ communities, and low-income whānau continue to face systemic barriers to accessing timely, culturally safe, and comprehensive care. Dental care is unaffordable, mental health services are stretched thin, and critical areas like reproductive and gender-affirming healthcare are inaccessible for many. The removal of the Māori Health Authority has weakened Māori-led health governance at a time when structural equity is urgently needed.

🌱 Vision

Health is a collective and cultural right — not a privilege. We envision a universal, holistic health system that restores tino rangatiratanga, embraces Indigenous healing, and delivers mana-enhancing, identity-affirming care for all. Everyone should be able to access the care they need, when they need it — free from stigma, cost, or delay.

🎯 Objectives

• Provide universal, free access to essential healthcare including dental, mental, reproductive, and gender-affirming services.
• Restore Māori control over hauora (health) systems and embed rongoā Māori as a recognised and resourced healing practice.
• Deliver preventative, community-led care that supports wellbeing across the life course.
• Protect and support gender-diverse youth through informed, affirming, and whānau-inclusive health pathways.

📜 Policy Commitments

• Guarantee universal public healthcare, including free dental and mental health services for all.
• Restore full funding and independence to the Māori Health Authority.
• Provide free access to period products, contraception, abortion services, and gender-affirming care nationwide.
• Support consent-based gender-affirming care for youth, with whānau involvement and trained professionals.
• Establish holistic wellbeing centres offering integrated physical, mental, social, and cultural care.
• Honour and fund rongoā Māori and intergenerational healing as core public health practices.

🛠 Implementation Plan

• Legislate free dental and mental healthcare via amendments to the Public Health and Disability Act.
• Reinstate and expand the Māori Health Authority with co-governance by iwi and hapū.
• Launch a Gender-Affirming Youth Health Pathways Programme co-designed with youth, whānau, clinicians, and advocates.
• Fund Community Wellbeing Hubs that offer GP services, counselling, rongoā, and peer support under one roof.
• Expand culturally safe training on gender and sexual diversity for all healthcare professionals.

📆 Timeframe

Year 1–2:

• Remove public dental costs
• Re-establish the Māori Health Authority
• Roll out free contraception and period products
• Launch the youth gender-affirming health programme

Year 3–5:

• Open 100+ wellbeing hubs nationwide
• Fully fund puberty blockers and mental health care for trans youth
• Embed rongoā in all primary care networks

Year 6–10:

• Achieve full access to debt-free, culturally safe, community-led healthcare across Aotearoa