Statistics New Zealand has released its annual child poverty data. As always, the headlines were careful and measured. "No significant change," they said. "Broadly stable."

I want to be direct with you about what those words mean.

They mean that in the year to June 2025, one in four Tamariki Māori were living in households that could not reliably put food on the table, keep the house warm, or clothe them properly. Because of poverty. Real, material, grinding poverty.

They mean that this rate has not shifted in any meaningful way since reporting under the Child Poverty Reduction Act began in 2018. Seven years. Two governments. Countless reviews, strategies, and working groups. And the dial has not moved.

Material hardship is the one measure that cuts through the politics. It reflects whether people have enough food and warmth. Enough. By that measure, one in four of our tamariki are going without. That is a monumental societal failure, one we are all responsible for confronting.

Te Tauraki was established by Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu to be the vehicle through which health and wellbeing aspirations are advanced within the takiwā of Kāi Tahu. We carry that mandate seriously.

Te Tauraki is built to last, to grow, and to be intergenerational in both its approach and impact. We amplify the voice of whānau Māori and right now, that voice is loud and clear – the system is failing our tamariki.

There is something else in these numbers that demands attention. The data, by design, lags the real world by about a year. What the new figures show us is the reality of 2024. What they do not yet show us, but what other data signals, is that Māori unemployment and welfare support has risen sharply over the past year. There is a strong correlation between households receiving welfare support and child poverty rates. Next year's child poverty data will be worse.

We are saying this now because if we are serious about accountability, we must be honest about what is coming, and why.

The Crown's policy interventions, under successive administrations, have not worked. Not because the people involved did not care, but because the system was not designed around whānau. It was designed around bureaucratic convenience – national contracts, one-size-fits-all programmes, funding cycles that ignore the intergenerational nature of hauora. Whānau Māori have been the afterthought, not the starting point.

At Te Tauraki, we believe in the Whānau Ora approach. It works because it puts whānau at the centre and is built to endure. It is a philosophy that puts decision-making where it belongs, with whānau, hapū, and communities. It is about meeting the needs of all people, not just a select few.

Whānau Ora demands accountability to people, not process. And crucially, it does not disappear when a contract expires. At Te Tauraki, we are working to make that real. As the Whānau Ora commissioning agency for Te Waipounamu, we are advancing Kaupapa Māori solutions that are grounded in communities, values, and evidence.
We are open-eyed about the responsibility that comes with this. As a commissioning agency, every decision Te Tauraki makes will be grounded in data, evidence, and the voice of whānau. We measure what we do, and we report on it transparently.

I want to say something to the whānau who read these numbers and feel their own lives reflected in them.

We see you. We are fighting alongside you, and for the tamariki who come after you. The vision of Te Tauraki is simple and non-negotiable: Whānau Māori living healthy lives.

Seven years of no change is not an argument for patience. It is an argument for doing things differently.

That is what Te Tauraki is here to do.