over rongoā Māori?
f passed, the Therapeutic Products Bill would create a regime administered by an “independent registrar”, who is also a Ministry of Health employee. There is no guaranteed role for Māori in its operation, let alone in key decisions
Opinion: The Therapeutic Products Bill before Parliament’s health select committee is a total can of worms. The Government has really messed it up by deciding, for no obvious reason, to reject the advice of Te Aka Whai Ora (the new Māori Health Authority), Te Puni Kokiri and perhaps its own Ministry of Health and to include rongoā Māori (the traditional Māori holistic form of healing) under the new regime.
I prepared a detailed submission on the bill, supported by numerous Official Information Act (OIA) requests that were made under urgency because of the exceptionally short time initially given for submissions. The select committee gave me five minutes to present my original 15-page submission and a supplementary one dealing with the OIA responses (or lack of).
Link to article: How Has Govt Got Into Such A Mess Over Rongoā Māori? | Newsroom
