NZCCSS recently provided feedback on the Delivering for Pacific Communities Strategy developed by the Ministry for Pacific Peoples to guide their work over the next three years. The strategy focuses on fire strategic priority areas which the Ministry believes will have the greatest impact and reflect the government priorities: Economic Growth, Health, Housing, Education and Law and Order.
Economic Growth
NZCCSS agrees that Economic Growth is a priority area for Pacific peoples and that “lifting Pacific economic contributions and strengthening the Pacific business sector” will improve Economic Growth outcomes for Pacific peoples.
Health
NZCCSS strongly agree that Health is a priority area for Pacific Peoples and that “supporting access to essential health services and promoting the health and wellbeing of Pacific families and communities” would improve Health outcomes for Pacific peoples
The 2019 Pacific report as part of the Health System Review (Pacific Perspectives Ltd, 2019) identified communication as being one of the main barriers to accessible health care for Pacific families. Although we strongly support the initiative to improve public health messaging more work is needed to improve communication in the healthcare system. Communication within hospital settings such as access to translators, information provided on discharge and health literacy regarding the use of medical jargon were reported as being major barriers to understanding and accessing healthcare.
Promotion of accessible and culturally appropriate communication including increased training of medical staff, ensuring that information is written in plain language and/or translations and access to translators within a hospital setting would go a long way to making these services more accessible and is likely to have positive benefits on health outcomes.
Additionally, barriers regarding lack of access due to cost remain high in many areas of life which play a significant role in health outcomes. This includes access to food with Pacific children reported to be 2.4 times more likely to experience food insecurity in 2023/24 than non-Pacific children (Ministry of Health, 2025a). Pacific peoples also experienced the greatest levels of housing deprivation (Ministry of Health, 2025a) and Pacific adults were 1.4 times more likely to report cost as a barrier to accessing healthcare than non-Pacific adults in 2023/24 (Ministry of Health, 2025b). The rise in living and healthcare costs since this period means these issues are likely to persist or have been exacerbated further highlighting the importance of targeting income adequacy to improve health outcomes for Pacific peoples.
Universal decreases in GP and prescription costs through additional government subsidisation of these services would go a long way in improving access to healthcare both.
References
Ministry of Health. (2025a). Tupa Ola Moui: Pacific Health Chart Book 2025: Volume 3: Healthier Environments. Wellington: Ministry of Health.
Ministry of Health. (2025b). Tupa Ola Moui: Pacific Health Chart Book 2025: Volume 4: Health System – Part One. Wellington: Ministry of Health.
Pacific Perspectives Ltd. (July, 2019). Health System Review – Pacific Report. https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/2022-09/pacific-persepectives-health-system-review-final-pdf-version.pdf
Housing
NZCCSS strongly agrees that Housing is a priority area for Pacific Peoples and that “supporting the supply of affordable, fit-for-purpose homes for Pacific families” would improve Housing outcomes for Pacific peoples
Access to affordable and appropriate housing underpins many other areas of focus for Pacific populations – having safe, accessible, affordable and healthy homes means that people can participate in society, live healthier lives, work and access education. Due to the flow on effects, housing is arguably one of the key priority areas in this strategy, with housing ownership having a real opportunity to lift generations out of income inadequacy over time (Blanden et al, 2023). Affordable housing needs to meet people where they are and initiatives like Our Whare Our Fale expanding to other regions of Aotearoa would allow for this.
Additionally housing available in New Zealand is often not culturally appropriate or adequate for Pacific households which are frequently intergenerational with larger family groups (Stats NZ, 2023). In addition to ensuring there is culturally appropriate affordable housing available for purchase, more work is needed to ensure that there are culturally appropriate social housing and rentals available.
References
Blanden, J., Eyles, A. & Machin, S. Intergenerational home ownership. J Econ Inequal 21, 251–275 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-023-09563-z
Stats NZ. (2023). Pacific housing: People, place, and wellbeing in Aotearoa New Zealand. Statistics New Zealand. Pacific housing: People, place, and wellbeing in Aotearoa New Zealand
Education
NZCCSS agreed that Education is a priority area for Pacific peoples and that “boosting skills and employment opportunities and investing in Pacific languages, cultures, and identities” would improve Education outcomes for Pacific peoples
Pay equity is an area that is only briefly mentioned in this strategy in regard to Pacific women experiencing the largest pay gap in the workforce in Aotearoa. Data from July 2024 indicates the average pay gap for Pacific peoples is 13.4% and is significantly worse for Pacific women at 24% (Inland Revenue, 2024). The recent changes to pay equity legislation risk this remaining the status quo or in fact worsening over time. Ensuring equitable pay for Pacific peoples and steps to address this should be a target of this strategy.
Additionally, with disproportionate unemployment rates at 12.1% unemployment rates in Pacific peoples compared with 5.2% in the general population (Persico, 2024) there is a need for more work to support Pacific peoples into employment. We applaud the work of Tupu Aotearoa in providing support into employment but would love to see this expanded into more regions to ensure that this support is accessible to all who need it.
References
Inland Revenue. (2024). Ethnicity pay gaps. https://www.ird.govt.nz/about-us/publications/annual-corporate-reports/our-gender-pay-gap-action-plan/diversity-equity-and-inclusion-roadmap/ethnicity-pay-gaps
Persico, C. (2024). Concern over unemployment rate for Pasifika in Aotearoa. Radio New Zealand. https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/533180/concern-over-unemployment-rate-for-pasifika-in-aotearoa
Law and Order
Many of the social determinants of crime, like poverty, material hardship, low social cohesion, lack of access to adequate services and gender inequalities are disproportionately higher in Pacific peoples. Bipartisan cross-agency approaches to improve these social determinants are needed to ensure intergenerational benefits.
In addition, the funding boost to Pacific wardens was welcomed earlier this year and we support further strengthening this initiative. We would also suggest that more work is needed to ensure Pacific Peoples are represented in the justice system. Pacific Peoples are currently underrepresented in this area, making up less than 3% of all lawyers in Aotearoa (Borrin Foundation, 2022). Initiatives to support Pacific peoples into careers in the legal system as well as cultural education for this workforce as a whole, would ensure both offenders and victims are represented fairly and appropriately.
References
Borrin Foundation. (2022). Equality, Belonging and Authority / Power – How can Law, Policy and Practice support best outcomes for Pasifika in Aotearoa New Zealand – Improving Pasifika Legal Education. https://www.borrinfoundation.nz/equality-belonging-and-authority