maori protest first day of parliament

[C_T_Russell]

The issue is its not an efficient way to spend the money with two separate health systems and for what purpose?
It also doesn't look good when patients race is taken preference for waiting lists, etc.
You can see why the public were mad about this don't you?
Most hospitals have maori wards anyway and generally I got the impression that maori needs were catered for quite well.
I really hate the division and I hope luxon can address it.

Two points...

I have never heard of there being separate hospital wards for Maori - given that hospitals are generally laid out by medical need, it would seem impractical to have specific maori only wards?   

The division you talk of has been caused by historical injustice decades in the making - the only way to truly fix the problem is to address the historical injustice.  Platitudes and burying your head in the sand only delays the process and can never fix the division in such a way that ALL New Zealanders will not feel marginalised.

My grandmother was in hospital shortly before they passed away and put into the maori ward because there was no room elsewhere at the time.

I didn't know they were even a thing prior.

Now I never said they were exclusively for maori people only(my grandmother was not), there were maori nurses present, and it was clear to me that they were designed for maori needs, which I dont have any problem with.

We also have maori health clinics around the country as it stands, so personally, I don't see what benefits we have with a separate race based health authority.
I've also been told by a maori friend that you can register at these practices and pay less to see a GP, even if you a non maori.
So clearly not race based, buy they primarily are there to help maori, since they are operated by their own people, you would think the system works well.

My view is we can't dig up the past, nor are we responsible for any historical injustices.
But we should look to the future and work together for everyone's benefit.
We were just seeing more divisive policies with the last government.
This time round, we will see more inclusion and everyone treated equal.
I should also point out that this government has a record number of maori MPs.
What's there to complain?