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Tariana Turia

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The Honourable
Dame Tariana Turia
DNZM
Turia in 2018
1st Minister for Whānau Ora
In office
8 April 2010 – 8 October 2014
Prime MinisterJohn Key
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byTe Ururoa Flavell
2nd Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector
In office
15 August 2002 – 30 April 2004
Prime MinisterHelen Clark
Preceded bySteve Maharey
Succeeded byRick Barker
In office
19 November 2008 – 12 December 2011
Prime MinisterJohn Key
Preceded byRuth Dyson
Succeeded byJo Goodhew
Minister for Disability Issues
In office
13 June 2009 – 8 October 2014
Prime MinisterJohn Key
Preceded byPaula Bennett
Succeeded byNicky Wagner
Co-leader of the Māori Party
In office
7 July 2004 – September 2014
Co-leading with Pita Sharples
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byMarama Fox
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Labour Party List
In office
12 October 1996 – 27 July 2002
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Te Tai Hauāuru
In office
27 July 2002 – 20 September 2014
Preceded byNanaia Mahuta
Succeeded byAdrian Rurawhe
Personal details
Born(1944-04-08)8 April 1944
Died3 January 2025(2025-01-03) (aged 80)
Whangaehu, New Zealand
Political partyMāori Party (from 2004)
Other political
affiliations		Labour (until 2004)
Spouse
George Turia
​
(died 2019)​
Children4
Turia's voice
recorded April 2017

Dame Tariana Turia DNZM (née Woon; 8 April 1944 – 3 January 2025) was a New Zealand Māori rights activist and politician. She was first elected to Parliament in 1996 as a representative of the Labour Party. She won the Te Tai Hauāuru electorate in 2002 and broke from Labour in 2004, resigning from Parliament during the foreshore and seabed controversy. Turia returned to Parliament in the resulting by-election as the first representative of the newly formed Māori Party, which she led for the next decade.

Turia held ministerial offices across two governments. From 1999 to 2004 she was a junior minister in the health, housing and social development portfolios and the Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector in the Fifth Labour Government. In the Fifth National Government, she was Minister for Whānau Ora, a health programme she initiated under a confidence and supply agreement between the National and Māori parties, and Minister for Disability Issues. Turia retired as Māori Party co-leader and a member of Parliament at the general election in September 2014.

Early life

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Born Tariana Woon[1] on 8 April 1944 to an American (probably Native American) father[2] and Māori mother, Turia affiliates to the Ngāti Apa, Ngā Rauru, Ngāti Tūwharetoa and Whanganui iwi.[3] She grew up in the small village of Pūtiki, on the Whanganui River, and was raised by a grandmother, whāngai parents and aunties. She attended Wanganui Girls' College,[4] trained as a nurse and married George Turia, who died in 2019. They had four children and two whāngai.[5][6]

Before entering politics, she had considerable involvement with a number of Māori organisations, working with Te Puni Kōkiri (the Ministry of Māori Development) and a number of Māori health providers, including Te Oranganui Iwi Health Authority where she was chief executive.[7] While Turia herself never learned to speak te reo Māori,[6] she promoted language revitalisation through the kura kaupapa and kohanga reo movements. With her husband, she led a marae-based skills and employment training programme.[8] In 1995, she was a leader of the 79-day iwi occupation of Moutoa Gardens in Whanganui, which protested unresolved issues from the European colonisation of the area.[8][9] One of her sons was jailed during the protest for beheading a statue of John Ballance.[4] Later that year, she unsuccessfully contested election to the Whanganui District Council.[6]

Labour Party

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New Zealand Parliament
Years Term Electorate List Party
1996–1999 45th List 20 Labour
1999–2002 46th List 16 Labour
2002–2004 47th Te Tai Hauāuru None Labour
2004–2005 47th Te Tai Hauāuru Māori Party
2005–2008 48th Te Tai Hauāuru 1 Māori Party
2008–2011 49th Te Tai Hauāuru 1 Māori Party
2011–2014 50th Te Tai Hauāuru 7 Māori Party

Turia was a member of Parliament for the Labour Party from 12 October 1996 until her resignation on 17 May 2005. She was first elected as a list MP in the 1996 general election, ranked 20th on the party list. Her selection as a Labour candidate was controversial. She had only joined the party shortly before her selection as a candidate, although she had been asked to stand in the past.[10][11] Her personal politics were decried by New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, who described her as a "Māori separatist".[12] The Evening Post described her as a "young radical" (Turia was then 52 years old) and as seeing herself accountable to Māori ahead of the party.[10][13] Labour's policies on Māori advancement at that election revolved around delivering targeted social services funding to Māori through the mainstream system. Turia later described Labour leader Helen Clark's campaign opening speech as "not too much out of kilter" with her own views.[14]


In her first term, Turia was appointed Labour's spokesperson on Māori health and youth issues and sat on the Māori affairs committee. When swearing her oath of allegiance in Parliament, Turia swore allegiance to the Treaty of Waitangi rather than the Queen.[15] In her maiden statement on 26 February 1997, she acknowledged Labour's defeated Māori electorate candidates Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan, Peter Tapsell, Koro Wētere and Matiu Rata and asserted the following statement on tino rangatiratanga (Māori self-determination):[16]

The Declaration of Independence is an international declaration that recognises the sovereignty of the independent tribes of Aotearoa. It was the forerunner to the Treaty of Waitangi, and it has a flag to symbolise tribal rights to trade as independent nations, which has been ignored for years by successive New Zealand Governments and never been acknowledged as an important part of our history by the education system. The Treaty of Waitangi was a declaration of traditional Māori rights of absolute authority over Aotearoa, reaffirming the conditions set out in the Declaration of Independence. The treaty document is a statement of this concession and forms the fundamental constitutional basis of our nation. It is the document that cements our relationships by guaranteeing tauiwi rights to be in this country and to have governance over yourselves, and acknowledges tangata whenua rights to our rangatiratanga as independent tribal peoples... Each tribe is a sovereign people in its own right.

She also described non-Māori New Zealanders as "tauiwi" (foreigners). Of that speech, the Dominion newspaper wrote "Parliament's real radical stands up... and declined to tiptoe around Pakeha sensitivities."[17] United New Zealand party leader Peter Dunne (also a former Labour MP) responded in The Evening Post the following month by saying Turia's "backward-looking negativism is driving a wedge between New Zealanders, regardless of their ethnic origin, and it is time it ceased."[18] He complained to the Race Relations Conciliator. Turia received more criticism for her views when she said in 1997 that the Treaty of Waitangi was more important than the Ten Commandments.[19] She also clashed with some long-serving MPs in her party, including Mike Moore, over their different approaches to Māori development.[4] Turia's outspokenness, the Dominion wrote, was a hindrance to Labour's bid to reclaim office at the next election because her actions "fed suspicions that an unacceptable radicalism persists in the party."[20] New parties centring on Māori interests formed after the breakup of the National–New Zealand First coalition government, but Turia remained with Labour.

After losing selection in the Te Tai Hauāuru electorate to her colleague Nanaia Mahuta,[21] Turia was re-elected as a Labour list MP in the 1999 election (ranked 16th). Mahuta changed electorates for the 2002 election; Turia won selection and the seat. From December 1999, she was a minister outside of Cabinet in the Fifth Labour Government. In the government's first term, she was an associate minister in the health, housing, Māori affairs, and social services portfolios. Early in her time as a minister, Turia was warned by prime minister Helen Clark about opinions she voiced on the "holocaust" caused to Māori by colonisation and apologised in Parliament for her statements.[22][23][24] While she did not lose her ministerial positions, The New Zealand Herald reported that Turia offered her resignation over the scandal.[25] In a subsequent speech, she set out her view that "self-governance, as being the choice of self-determination, for me means the right to participate in and control the processes through which decisions that affect our lives are made."[26] Turia championed partnership with and devolution to mana whenua in the delivery of State health and education services, but was not always successful.[27][28]

In November 2000, Turia was additionally appointed as an associate minister in the corrections portfolio. The following year she attracted controversy when she advocated for prisoners known to her to have special treatment including the cancellation of a transfer, other transfers to be closer to family, a review of an inmate's security rating, and for charges to be downgraded.[29][30] She was also scrutinised for a telephone call she made to the chief judge of the Māori Land Court about a case involving one of her iwi.[31] A twelfth case of alleged interference in prison operations was reported in early 2002. After the July 2002 general election, Turia was not reappointed in the corrections portfolio (she retained her responsibilities in health, housing, social services and Māori affairs); her spokesperson said she had offered to "give up" the corrections role in order to continue to advocate on behalf of her constituents.[32] Instead, she became Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector. She launched the Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector in September 2003.[33]

When debate about ownership of New Zealand's foreshore and seabed broke out in 2003, and the Labour Party proposed vesting ownership in the state, Turia voiced dissatisfaction. Along with many of her supporters in Te Tai Hauāuru, she claimed that Labour's proposal amounted to an outright confiscation of Māori land. When it became publicly known that Turia might vote against Labour's bill in parliament, tensions between Turia and the Labour Party's leadership increased. The hierarchy strongly implied that if Turia did not support Labour policy, she could not retain her ministerial roles. On 30 April 2004, after a considerable period of confusion about Turia's intentions, she announced that she would resign from the Labour Party and from parliament on 17 May. Clark removed her from her ministerial roles the same day.[34][35]

Māori Party

[edit]

Turia's resignation from Parliament precipitated a by-election being called in Te Tai Hauāuru, which Turia contested as a member of the new Māori Party that formed around her. Her supporters saw Turia as having bravely defied her party in order to stand up for her principles. The Labour Party criticised Turia for putting the foreshore and seabed issue before the party's wider policies for Māori development, and said that she unreasonably focused on a single issue. Helen Clark said that Turia showed "an astonishing lack of perspective".[35] Turia described the Te Tai Hauāuru by-election of 10 July 2004 as a chance to test her mandate, and to ensure that she had the support of her voters, but doubts remained about the significance of the by-election, since none of the major parties put forward candidates. Labour called the event "a waste of time and money", although the by-election was required because electoral integrity legislation of the time prevented her resining from Labour and remaining in Parliament as an indpendent.[36] Turia received 92.74% of the vote in the by-election,[37] and resumed her seat in Parliament on 27 July 2004.[38][39]

2005 general election

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Turia and Pita Sharples in 2005

On 17 September 2005, the Māori Party contested the general election with electoral candidates in all seven of the Māori seats. Turia was re-elected in Te Tai Hauāuru and that night three more Māori Party candidates won parliamentary seats: Pita Sharples (co-leader) in Tāmaki Makaurau, Hone Harawira in Te Tai Tokerau and Te Ururoa Flavell in Waiariki. The winning of the four seats resulted in celebration for their supporters who anticipated seeing an independent, Māori voice in parliament. However, the Māori Party share of the party vote across the country was 2.1 percent, placing them sixth out of the eight parties in parliament by party vote. This was attributed to voters in the Māori electorates mainly giving their party vote to the incumbent Labour government.

2008 general election and ministerial posts

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Support for the Māori Party in the 2008 general election increased with the party gaining an additional seat.[40] National won most seats overall, to form a minority government with support from the Māori Party as well as ACT New Zealand and United Future. In return for Māori Party support in confidence and supply, John Key agreed to not abolish the Māori seats without the consent of Māori.[41] It was also agreed to review the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004 and to consider Māori representation in a wider constitutional review which began in 2010.[42] Turia and co-leader Sharples were both made Ministers, although like other support party members both remained outside Cabinet. Turia was given the portfolios of Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector, Associate Minister of Health and Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment, while Sharples was made Minister of Māori Affairs.[43]

Turia speaking in 2011

When Paula Bennett stepped down as Minister for Disability Issues on 30 June 2009, Key appointed Turia the new minister.[44] In 2010, the National and Māori Parties announced Whānau Ora, a taskforce designed to streamline social service resources. Turia was announced Minister responsible for the implementing of the scheme.[45]

On 7 April 2011, during the term of the 49th New Zealand Parliament, the composition of the Abortion Supervisory Committee was debated. Turia moved that an anti-abortion Pacific Island doctor, Ate Moala, be appointed to the ASC. The vote was lost 67–31 against, with twenty four absences or abstentions.[46]

Turia confirmed in November 2013 that she would retire at the 2014 election.[47]

Life after Parliament

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In 2022, Turia drew media attention for her anti-vaccination views and opposition to mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic. On 17 February 2022, Turia accused Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of having Nazi sympathies on Radio New Zealand, in an interview about the Sixth Labour Government's response to the 2022 Wellington anti-vaccination protests. She falsely claimed that Ardern had been filmed as a student doing “almost a Heil Hitler salute”.[48][49]

Turia and Harete Hipango (right) in 2018

In the 2023 New Zealand general election, Turia publicly supported her relative Harete Hipango as the National Party candidate for Te Tai Hauāuru, running against Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer.[50]

Following the 2023 New Zealand general election, Turia expressed support for the incoming Sixth National Government's plan to scrap Te Aka Whai Ora (the Māori Health Authority). She opined that she would rather see funding being given directly to whānau (families), iwi (tribes), hapū (sub-tribes) to allow them to manage their own health needs. While Turia praised John Key and Bill English for the Fifth National Government's progress on Māori health, she criticised the outgoing Labour Government for allegedly not taking "into account the differences in the way people view things".[51]

Personal life and death

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Turia was married to George Turia for 56 or 58 years (sources differ) until his death in 2019.[52][53] They had four children and two whāngai.[53]

Turia died at Whangaehu Marae, Whangaehu, on 3 January 2025, at the age of 80, after suffering a stroke.[54] That afternoon, her body was taken to lie at Pākaitore, before being carried by waka on the Whanganui River to Pūtiki Marae, and then returned to Whangaehu Marae.[55]

Honours and awards

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Turia, after her investiture as a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit by the governor-general, Dame Patsy Reddy (right), at Pūtiki Marae on 13 August 2018

In the 2015 New Year Honours, Turia was appointed a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services as a Member of Parliament.[56] Her investiture, by the governor-general, Dame Patsy Reddy, took place at Pūtiki Marae on 13 August 2018.[57] Also in 2018, Turia received the Blake Medal at the annual Sir Peter Blake Leadership Awards.[58] In 2023, Turia was conferred an honorary doctorate in Māori development by Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, in recognition of her "continuing dedication and service to her iwi, to Māori and to the community in a career that has been distinguished by unprecedented firsts over the last five decades".[52]

References

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  1. ^ "Tariana Turia, founder of Te Pāti Māori, dies in Whanganui". Wellington.Scoop. 3 January 2025. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  2. ^ "Michele Hewitson interview: Tariana Turia". New Zealand Herald. 5 March 2011. Archived from the original on 25 October 2012. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
  3. ^ "Hon Tariana Turia". New Zealand Parliament. 22 September 2014. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  4. ^ a b c Bain, Helen (14 June 1997). "Tariana's will". The Dominion.
  5. ^ "Rock of Māori party George Turia dies". Waatea News. 24 April 2019. Archived from the original on 13 June 2024. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  6. ^ a b c Husband, Dale (11 August 2018). "Tariana Turia: A dance and a motorbike ride". E-Tangata. Archived from the original on 21 April 2024. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  7. ^ "Labour's seven new MPs". The Evening Post. 11 November 1996. p. 5.
  8. ^ a b "Obit: Dame Tariana Turia has died". RNZ. 3 January 2025. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  9. ^ "Moutoa Gardens protest". 14 March 1995. Archived from the original on 29 October 2020. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  10. ^ a b "Labour's seven new MPs". The Evening Post. 11 November 1996. p. 5.
  11. ^ "Radical minister Turia has space to beat her drum". NZ Herald. 25 August 2000. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  12. ^ Young, Audrey (29 September 2014). "Parliament loses 'a decent woman'". NZ Herald. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  13. ^ Scherer, Karyn (14 October 1996). "MMP delivers at least 15 Māori MPs". The Evening Post. p. 12.
  14. ^ Saunders, John (26 October 1996). "Turia: Maori must take control of own future". The Evening Standard. p. 2.
  15. ^ "MP decides against Treaty pledge". RNZ. 20 October 2014. Archived from the original on 25 June 2022. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  16. ^ "Address in Reply". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 558. New Zealand Parliament: New Zealand House of Representatives. 26 February 1997. p. 423–427.
  17. ^ "How maiden speeches rated". The Dominion. 1 March 1997.
  18. ^ Dunne, Peter (19 March 1997). "Turia's speech racism". The Evening Post. p. 6.
  19. ^ Guyan, Claire (12 April 1997). "Outrage over Treaty comments". The Dominion.
  20. ^ "Helen Clark dreams on". The Dominion. 16 April 1997.
  21. ^ Nathan, Te Anga (16 November 1998). "List MP gets Labour ticket for Te Tau Hauauru seat". Waikato Times. p. 2.
  22. ^ "Warning to Turia: keep 'holocaust' opinions to yourself". NZ Herald. 30 August 2000. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  23. ^ "What Tariana Turia said". NZ Herald. 31 August 2000. Archived from the original on 23 April 2024. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  24. ^ Young, Audrey (3 January 2025). "Holocaust apology puts minister in hot water". NZ Herald. Archived from the original on 25 March 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  25. ^ "'Holocaust' MP considered quitting job". NZ Herald. 12 September 2000. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  26. ^ "Turia treads cautious path". NZ Herald. 14 September 2000. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  27. ^ "Urban iwi score health bill win". NZ Herald. 7 November 2000. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  28. ^ "Teachers in tune with Turia's call". NZ Herald. 26 September 2000. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  29. ^ "PM supports Turia in prison favours spat". NZ Herald. 6 November 2001. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  30. ^ "Turia facing fresh meddling accusations". NZ Herald. 7 November 2001. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  31. ^ "Turia phone call 'inappropriate' but not influential". NZ Herald. 16 November 2001. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  32. ^ "Turia gets the soft side-shuffle". NZ Herald. 21 August 2002. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  33. ^ "Launch of Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector". The Beehive. 15 September 2003. Archived from the original on 18 November 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  34. ^ "Tariana Turia to resign and force byelection". NZ Herald. 30 April 2004. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  35. ^ a b Berry, Ruth; Tunnah, Helen (30 April 2004). "Turia quits Labour, stripped of portfolios". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  36. ^ Professor Andrew Geddis. "Who controls the past now, controls the future". Archived from the original on 15 February 2021. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  37. ^ "By-Election Results – Te Tai Hauauru". Chief Electoral Office. Archived from the original on 21 September 2014. Retrieved 19 September 2014.
  38. ^ "Turia the queen of the castle". NZ Herald. 27 July 2004. Retrieved 4 January 2025.
  39. ^ "Turia modifies Labour's slogan". NZ Herald. 27 July 2004. Retrieved 4 January 2025.
  40. ^ "Party vote status 2008". Archived from the original on 9 February 2009.
  41. ^ Trevett, Claire (17 November 2008). "Maori Party takes 'sensible position'". The New Zealand Herald. Archived from the original on 23 May 2011. Retrieved 17 November 2011.
  42. ^ "National-Maori Party agreement announced". The Beehive. 19 November 2008. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  43. ^ "Key's Government". The New Zealand Herald. 17 November 2008. Archived from the original on 15 February 2012. Retrieved 17 November 2011.
  44. ^ "Minister drops Disability Issues" (Press release). New Zealand Labour Party. 30 June 2009. Archived from the original on 4 October 2012. Retrieved 8 April 2010.
  45. ^ "Whanau Ora: Turia to head welfare shake-up". The New Zealand Herald. 8 April 2010. Archived from the original on 22 October 2012. Retrieved 8 April 2010.
  46. ^ "Appointments — Abortion Supervisory Committee". Archived from the original on 19 February 2022. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
  47. ^ Small, Vernon (5 November 2013). "Tariana Turia set to go". Stuff.co.nz. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 19 September 2014.
  48. ^ "No confidence in Ardern – Dame Tariana Turia". Radio New Zealand. 18 February 2022. Archived from the original on 17 February 2022. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
  49. ^ "Listen: Dame Tariana Turia makes bizarre claim about PM, supports protest". The New Zealand Herald. Archived from the original on 18 February 2022. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  50. ^ "Former Māori Party leader supporting National candidate in Māori electorate". NZ Herald. 19 November 2024. Archived from the original on 18 April 2024. Retrieved 19 November 2024.
  51. ^ Hemi, Tema (19 October 2023). "Dame Tariana Turia believes more can be accomplished for Māori health under National". The New Zealand Herald. Archived from the original on 24 October 2023. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  52. ^ a b "Tariana Turia" (PDF). Pūrongo ā-Tau 2023 Annual Report. Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi: 60–62. 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  53. ^ a b "Rock of Māori party George Turia dies". Waatea News. 24 April 2019. Archived from the original on 13 June 2024. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  54. ^ "Te Pāti Māori co-founder Dame Tariana Turia dies". The New Zealand Herald. 3 January 2025. Archived from the original on 2 January 2025. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  55. ^ Lyth, Jaime (3 January 2025). "Tangi begins and tributes flow after death of Dame Tariana Turia". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  56. ^ "New Year honours list 2015". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 31 December 2014. Archived from the original on 12 January 2018. Retrieved 13 January 2018.
  57. ^ "Investiture – Dame Tariana Turia". Government House. 13 August 2018. Archived from the original on 25 July 2024. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
  58. ^ Mitchell, Jonathan (9 June 2018). "Dame Tariana first Māori woman to receive Blake Medal". RNZ News. Archived from the original on 9 November 2020. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tariana Turia.
New Zealand Parliament
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Te Tai Hauāuru
2002–2014 		Succeeded by
Party political offices
New political party Co-leader of the Māori Party
2004–2014
Served alongside: Pita Sharples, Te Ururoa Flavell 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector
2003–2004

2008–2011 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister for Disability Issues
2009–2014 		Succeeded by
New ministerial post Minister responsible for Whānau Ora
2010–2014 		Succeeded by
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