Whanau Ora chief executive John Tamihere says the Ministry of Health's breakdown of vaccination uptake data means little to Māori.
Tamihere is taking the ministry to court to win access to information on Māori vaccination rates via the National Health Index.
An application for an injunction, led by Tamihere, was filed in the Wellington High Court on Friday morning claiming Māori providers need more information about Māori vaccination uptake data to formulate a cohesive plan to increase vaccination rates among Māori.
"Some 80% of Māori are on an NHI system somewhere, which allows us to know who is vaccinated totally and those who are not vaccinated."
The Ministry of Health says there are privacy issues with giving that data to providers.
But New Zealand health professionals have been using a form of the National Health Index (NHI) number for more than 30 years. It is used in hospitals, by family doctors, pharmacies, laboratories and by midwives.
Most people now receive their own unique NHI number at birth. About 95 per cent of New Zealand citizens have their own unique NHI number.
Tamihere says, "Asian populations are now 94% first jab. The Pākeha population will be high 80s by the end of this weekend. Māori are still languishing in the late 50s, first jab."
And as the gap gets bigger, the worse the outcome for Māori. Tamihere says the likelihood of Māori falling out of sight and out of mind is a real possibility.
"As those mainstream populations hit their vaccination targets, the appetite for protecting our people through lockdown goes."
"White men's tools don't fix brown men's problems."