Rurawhe Adrian: Urgent Debates — Whānau Ora—Auditor-General’s ReportText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRurawhe Adrian: Urgent Debates — Whānau Ora—Auditor-General’s Report[Sitting date: 06 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3244. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ADRIAN RURAWHE (Labour—Te Tai Hauāuru):Ā tēnā koe e te Kaiw’akawā o te Whare nei otirā e te W’are tēnā tātou. Tēnā tātou i runga i tēnei kaupapa nunui kei waenganui i ā tātou iwi katoa puta noa i ngā moutere nei. Oti noa e tika ana ki a mi’i ki a rātou mā ki te kuia kāta’i anō ka mate. Nō reira e te whaea haere atu rā.[And so my thanks to you Mr Speaker of this House but at the same time salutations to us of the House acknowledgments to us in regard to this massive matter amongst all of our people throughout these islands. It is appropriate indeed that we acknowledge those who have passed away namely the elderly one who has just died. Therefore farewell to you the matriarch.]Last year during the election campaign whenever I spoke on w’ānau ora I always prefaced my comments by making certain that the people I was speaking to knew exactly which w’ānau ora I was talking about. I always talked about w’ānau ora the kaupapa—the concept the philosophical base that those of us who believe in this kaupapa operate within. I also spoke about w’ānau ora the model of practice. That is the way that providers provide their w’ānau-centred services to the families that they engage with. Then I talked about the Government programme the Government policy Whānau Ora and that is what I want to talk about now.Last year I actually got myself—I do not think I was in trouble but I managed to make some statements about the Government policy of Whānau Ora that attracted comment from the then Minister for Whānau Ora Tariana Turia who said that I was wrong. Today we have a report that actually says that I was right. I was right to comment on Whānau Ora the Government policy because the criticisms that we made last year have now been reported in the Auditor-General’s report.I think that every party in this House and the Government and the Minister in particular needs to take responsibility for the issues that have been raised—not to be talking in this House about the kaupapa or the model of practice but actually addressing the issue of the Government policy which is wrong. That is what the Government needs to be talking about. It is easy for us to be talking about what is wrong with our families and bring that to the House as if that is the issue; I can tell the House that that is not the issue. The issue is the way that the Government is implementing this policy of Whānau Ora.In a way it is a great sadness to me that the Government chose to use the name “Whānau Ora” for its policy and its programme. It should have left that as a kaupapa as a concept and left it as a model of practice for those providers that deliver the services to the people. They should own w’ānau ora not the Government. I do not need and my whānau and everyone’s families do not really need the Government to tell us what w’ānau ora is. What we need is what the Auditor-General has said in her report.Last year we in Labour campaigned on a policy of reviewing the Government’s policy of Whānau Ora and that is exactly what the Auditor-General has now told the whole world—that there needs to be a thorough investigation of this Government policy. That is one of the key points that I want to make to this House because actually what we have heard so far is a lot of justification.We have heard about everything that is wrong with our families and about how good the providers are doing and I agree with that. I agree that our providers out there are doing an excellent job of delivering services under a policy that is quite confused. I can say that because 4 years ago I was the chair of an iwi health provider in Whanganui that went through this process and I am not surprised at the level of administration and the cost of administration needed to implement this policy. The number of hoops that we had to go through hurdles we had to go over—change of venues change of game and change of the rules—while this policy started to be implemented meant that it could not possibly have been anything else but highly costly administratively.I do not completely blame Te Puni Kōkiri by itself. I think and I am speaking from my personal experience that the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Social Development were actually how would I put it—they were not willing participants in this process. I got the sense when we met with those ministries that Te Puni Kōkiri was having to push them forward to make sure that they participated and I have spoken to a number of people who have gone through the same experience. The cost of administration was necessary. I think that sometimes Te Puni Kōkiri can be overly risk-averse and that sometimes it puts too many processes in place. When maybe one process might be sufficient it will have two or three in place and this is what has happened with Whānau Ora the Government policy.The Auditor-General pointed out a number of issues. For example it has a lot of potential. I think that is one of the highlights of this report in a report that does not have very many highlights. I think that both the kaupapa—the model or practice—and indeed the Government policy have potential if they are done the right way. To me quite clearly this has not been done very well. The implementation of it has not been good.Last week I spoke in the annual review debate and I raised the issue of Māori housing where in June last year the then Minister announced that a Māori housing fund would go to Te Pou Matakana a grassroots organisation so that it could operate that funding for Māori housing. After the election in December last year that decision was overturned and now it is going back to Te Puni Kōkiri. I wonder whether it is time to readdress that particular issue in light of the criticisms in the Auditor-General’s report on Te Puni Kōkiri. Maybe that decision should be revisited and Te Pou Matakana should be given a shot at having that funding for Māori housing. While I am on it what progress has actually been made in those areas? We have heard nothing about those policy areas since they were announced.I think it is really important for members on our side of the House to highlight the fact that we did have a policy on w’ānau ora. Within the Auditor-General’s report it says that w’ānau ora actually started in 2002 with a w’ānau ora policy within the Ministry of Health but one of the key things that stood side by side with that policy was Labour’s funding for outcomes. This is now the basis for the integrated contracts that each and every one of the Whānau Ora providers has had to go through. This is a really important point for me to make because I think that that is one of the three cornerstones of the current Government’s Whānau Ora policy and that actually started with the Labour Government. We on this side of the House were talking about having integrated contracts with organisations that provided an integrated service. Thank you very much.