Whānau Ora receives Govt data on Māori vaccine rollout

It comes after the organisation took the ministry to court for its release.

John Tamihere says his Whānau Ora organisation has finally received Government data it’ll use to better target the Māori vaccine rollout.

“No Māori community will hit 90 per cent before Christmas - not one. If we’d got this information earlier, we could’ve got there across the whole of Tāmaki Makaurau," he said.

"We’re nearly in struggle street because resistance, hesitation and a whole lot of other stuff are starting to bite hard because we’re mining the tail.”

That information is held by the Ministry of Health, but it is slowly starting to be shared after Tamihere took the Government to court.

He had wanted contact details of unvaccinated Māori. But the Director-General of Health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, pushed back and said that data would not be released in a blanket way.

However, on the weekend Tamihere received information for Māori in Auckland and Waikato.

He's heading back to court on Thursday seeking data for all unvaccinated Māori across the North Island.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the information is being handed over.

“We have agreement that is being worked through for certain parts of the North Island and I understand that work's underway to get further agreements to access data in other parts of the country," she said.

It's unknown if it will be enough to halt the ongoing court action, however.

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