As the North Island's Whānau Ora commission touches base with its partners, Labour's Nanaia Mahuta is challenging the role of the government agency Te Puni Kōkiri.
Te Pou Matakana has now clocked up two years.
However, the question must be asked, what have they achieved?
Te Pou Matakana Chair Merepeka Raukawa-Tait says, "First of all, what we have achieved is that we have our foot in the door with the families. Because you can't do it in two years, you're not all of a sudden going to address issues that have built up over the last 15 to 20 years.”
Te Pou Matakana delivered their Outcomes Roadmap at their Whānau Ora conference today to best describe how they intend to improve outcomes for whānau.
However, Raukawa-Tait says they still have a long way to go.
“So we've had to build an organisation from scratch, and we are not at this stage a magic wand to say all our problems are going to disappear. We've had to take it slowly and do it well,” says Raukawa-Tait.
While Whānau Ora received a $40 million dollar boost in the latest Budget announcement, Labour's Nanaia Mahuta is challenging Te Puni Kōkiri, which funds the three Whānau Ora Commissions including Te Pou Matakana, to provide its own measurement tool.
Mahuta says, “The role of Te Puni Kokiri is to bring together each of those reports and tell Parliament, in terms of the value of the investment coming to the commissioning agencies, what are the outcomes.”
Minister of Whānau Ora Te Ururoa Flavell has hit back at the criticism.
“They say that because the number of Rangatahi in prison has increased in recent years, Whānau ora isn't working. Katahi na te pōhēhē ko tērā,” says Flavell, “There have been numerous reports in the past three years. Some were done internally, some were reviews and some were done by external parties.“
Te Pou Matakana's Whānau Ora conference will end tomorrow.