3. Question No. 3—Health (Māori Health)BROOKE van VELDEN (Deputy Leader—ACT) to the Associate Minister of Health (Māori Health)Question No. 3—Health (Māori Health)3. BROOKE van VELDEN (Deputy Leader—ACT) to the Associate Minister of Health (Māori Health): Can she confirm that the Ministry of Health allocated funding to the National Hauora Coalition in 2019 which is being used to offer the incentive of two $50 Prezzy Cards to expectant or new mothers for attending a pregnancy assessment and a 6-week assessment and can she confirm that eligibility for the payment is determined by whether the expectant mother identified as Māori when they enrolled at their practice? Hon WILLOW-JEAN PRIME (Associate Minister of Health (Māori Health)): I am advised that the Manatū Hauora allocated one-off funding to the National Hauora Coalition in 2019 to create and support Best Start Kōwae. Best Start Kōwae are pregnancy assessment tools that facilitate bestpractice assessments for all pregnant individuals and their babies throughout their pregnancy journey. It was designed to provide high-quality standardised assessment to help improve the worst health outcomes such as the low lead maternity carer engagement and the low pertussis vaccination uptake by Māori hapū māmā and their pēpē. As a small part of the initiative there is an opt-in incentive of a $50 Prezzy Card to expectant new Māori mothers for attending a pregnancy assessment and another $50 Prezzy Card when the baby attends a six-week assessment. In answer to the second part of the question the eligibility for the payment is determined by whether the expectant mother and/or baby identify as Māori to address the well-known and specific poorer perinatal and baby outcomes they experience. However practitioners are able to use the tool with any pregnant person. Brooke van Velden: Why did the Ministry of Health reassign a $3.4 million underspend from the community services card subsidy scheme—a scheme which benefits the economically vulnerable—to a scheme which exclusively benefits mothers from one ethnic group? Hon WILLOW-JEAN PRIME: As I said in my primary answer the Best Start Kōwae is an assessment tool that is available for all. Brooke van Velden: Does the Minister believe that it is acceptable that two pregnant women who both have high heath needs and who are both facing financial hardship could be treated differently by being offered Prezzy Cards when it comes to receiving the incentive payment because of their ethnicity? Hon WILLOW-JEAN PRIME: I again refer to my primary answer where the Best Start Kōwae assessment tool is available to all. Brooke van Velden: Point of order Mr Speaker. My question is specifically about the payment incentive not the Best Start Kōwae. The Best Start Kōwae programme is free pregnancy checks for all women but the payment incentive part of that programme is exclusively for one ethnic group—that's the part I'm referring to. SPEAKER: Are you speaking to that point of order? Hon WILLOW-JEAN PRIME: No. SPEAKER: Either way the question has been addressed in my opinion. The purpose of supplementaries is to use them to find out more information. You might want to use your further supplementaries to do so. Brooke van Velden: Why then does the Minister suggest this is open to all pregnant women when her responses to parliamentary written questions No. 21394 and No. 21391 suggest that the eligibility depends on whether the relevant individual identifies as Māori"? Hon WILLOW-JEAN PRIME: To answer the member's question I stand by the answers that I've given previously. In terms of Best Start Kōwae the practitioners and practices who have implemented Best Start Kōwae—which is available to all—receive after each assessment a $100 payment as part of the Best Start pregnancy assessment and a $50 payment per the Best Start baby assessment. That is available to all. Over $2.5 million of the $3.5 million referred to earlier was to set up the programme to be available for all. Incentive payments are paid to those practices which are implementing the tool which is available to all. Hon Peeni Henare: Can the Minister confirm that the national hauora Māori coalition serves all communities? Hon WILLOW-JEAN PRIME: I can."