The competitive model of health delivery is failing Maori, human rights lawyer and Mana Party president Annette Sykes says.
Ms Sykes was a keynote speaker at the Public Health Association's annual conference on Wednesday.
She told the conference market reforms did not work, and the market-driven model of delivering health services was contributing to rising inequalities.
Whanau Ora providers were falling away, leading to fewer with preferred status, Ms Sykes said. That had meant whanau with genuine well-being strategies missed out or had left to work with Aboriginal communities in Australia.
Maori needed to step back from privatisation and work out how to engage with the Crown to secure resources, she said.
