Subscriber Stories: Maorification of the health system is out of control
After I published the Wellington nurse’s story last Saturday, the response was huge. More than ten thousand people read it in the first few days. That sort of reach usually means one thing. It was shared inside a nursing or health sector group somewhere in New Zealand.
Not long after, someone from inside the system contacted me, wanting to remain anonymous. Their message was simple. The Māorification inside Health NZ is completely over the top and getting worse. As always, I asked for proof. They told me they would take photos during their next shift and send them through. True to their word, they did. You will find the images in the gallery below.
What those images show is political messaging plastered throughout health spaces and staff areas. One example is the Toitu Te Tiriti material. That isn’t neutral, bro. That is not cultural competence, bro. That is politics, bro. It has absolutely no place in the health system, where the only priority should be patient care and clinical standards.
Staff are being bombarded with ideological material while trying to do their jobs. It creates division, not unity. It pressures people into silence. It signals to workers that one political worldview is compulsory. That is not health. That is politics wrapped in a Temu korowai and pushed through the system (more like cistern) from the top down.
What makes this even more concerning is that many believed the new government would put an end to this sort of thing. Instead, it appears to be entrenching itself even deeper. The posters are still up. The messaging is still there. The ideology continues to spread across departments.
For the clinicians and nurses who just want to look after patients, the whole situation is beyond frustrating. They are watching a health system in crisis, and instead of fixing the basics, the leadership seems obsessed with political symbolism.
If this is what staff are seeing every day in their workplaces, no wonder people are speaking out.
I will keep publishing what health workers send me. The public deserves to know what is really going on inside the system that all of us rely on.
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