It’s all Pakeha’s fault

A book co-authored by the chairman of the Kotahitanga Community Trust, a taxpayer-funded charitable organisation, claims the following:

* The health system is racist and opposes activities like smoking and eating fatty foods simply because Maori enjoy them.

* Calls for taxpayers to provide Maori with pills to prevent illnesses like diabetes and heart disease instead of expecting Maori to stop smoking or start dieting and exercising.

* labels as “house niggers” and “Uncle Toms” Maori who disagree with them.

* says cervical screening “contravenes significant cultural norms” and has been imposed on Maori by Pakeha.

* claims Maori babies do not benefit from routine childhood vaccination against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and polio

“Anti-gambling research is rubbish. It can be seen as just another example of the health Nazis looking to extend their empire,” the book says.

The Trust received around $300,000 of Government funding last year. And while the taxpayer did not fund this book directly, you do have to wonder whether an organisation with such extreme views is actually helping health outcomes at all.