For two years, we have been actively opposing the Midwifery Council of NZ's Revised Scope of Practice of a Midwife, which uses the word 'whānau' in such a way that midwifery care must now be provided to anyone who identifies as a woman.
Most recently, we made a written submission to the Petitions Select Committee in support of midwife Deb Hayes' petition to investigate both the Scope and the Council, which we have posted for you here below. Following that, we were invited to speak at a public hearing, which we duly did.
Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, the Committee has thus far declined to make the video available to view. Therefore, we read our spoken submission on air during an RCR interview with Paul Brennan, and you can listen to that here: RCR Interview Submission Excerpt.
(To listen to the full interview, click the image below).
Despite the fact that the Scope of Practice has been overwhelmingly rejected by nearly everyone who has provided feedback to the Council, and that it is currently the subject of two ongoing parliamentary reviews, the Midwifery Council have nevertheless succeeded in enacting their document.
As of the 1st of October, it now represents the rules all midwives must follow or be forbidden to practice their profession.
We think this is utterly disgraceful behaviour from the Midwifery Council. They have no shown no respect or regard for any genuine democratic process, and are clearly determined, come hell or high water, to force this on everyone in New Zealand, whether we want it or not.
Here is our written submission:
8th May 2024
To the Select Committee
Considering Petition of Deb Hayes vs. the Midwifery Council
Dear Committee Members and Members of Parliament,
Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.
As some of you may be aware, our organisation, Mana Wahine Korero, have taken an active stance in opposition to the proposed Midwifery Council ‘Scope of Practice’.
We are signatories to and supporters of Deb Hayes’ petition to investigate the development of the Scope of Practice and the functioning of the Midwifery Council, and we would welcome an opportunity to present our concerns to you from our perspective.
The Council claim that their new Scope will benefit Māori and we disagree. We feel that our views on this should be taken into consideration when considering this petition, as the development process did not consult with Iwi and in particular did not consult specifically with wāhine Māori across New Zealand about these bizarre and shocking changes to our language and therefore status and conceptions of birth and wāhine and pēpī. We feel the Council is abusing their authority under the HCPAA 2003 to legislate our culture.
MCANZ (the Midwifery Council) have recently published their updated version in the New Zealand Gazette, with the welcome but totally inadequate re-inclusion of the word ‘wāhine’, and the redefinition of our word ‘whānau’ for their own purpose.
Please take this letter as our formal objection to the 2024 Midwifery Council ‘Scope of Practice’, in which the words ‘wāhine’ and ‘pēpī’ have been retroactively inserted in an
attempt to mask the seriously concerning language and meaning of the whole document.
We have written to the Regulations Review Committee and every member thereof, where the Scope is now being considered.
The updated version has been released only in English, and the Te Reo version remains hidden from public view, as it has been since the 13th of December when the Midwifery Council deleted the Scope from their website, not to be mentioned again until they announced in Chris Lynch media that there was “No specific definition of a woman”.
We ourselves only have access to the Te Reo version, because we immediately downloaded a copy from the internet archive which we have attached for you here.
This Scope is specifically written with the goal of ‘embedding Te Tiriti o Waitangi’ into the daily practice of a midwife – and they are using Te Reo Maori all through the English version, and yet our own language version is missing and unavailable for discussion.
The Scope cannot be enacted this way, with such blatant disregard for our objections, especially while they talk so glowingly of their commitment to the Treaty, and their commitment to being ‘Tangata Tiriti’.
In November 2022, we wrote a letter of objection which we have also linked for you here, which summates our position.
Nothing has changed since we wrote this letter. We remain opposed to the Scope of Practice in its entirety, opposed to the goals outlined by the Midwifery Council for our language and our maternity care and our midwives and most importantly, our Wāhine and our Tamariki.
We are looking to our Ministers and this Government and our maternity institution leaders to stand up and say that the Midwifery Council are using a copy of Māori culture to advance ideological ideas, not health benefits, and that this Government wants health care to be about health, not race, just as you say you want education to be about reading and arithmetic, not sexuality.
Everywhere we look, we see critical social justice theorists in high-level positions, spreading falsehoods about our culture and driving destructive legislative change on the strength of these falsehoods.
The way the Council have decided that they have the right to unilaterally redefine our words, our language and our concepts of women and childbirth in Te Ao Māori is to us breathtakingly arrogant.
We insist once again that this matter should be put forth before every Iwi, every Rōpū and Hapu in Nu Tireni/NewZealand, for open and honest debate and discussion. The Midwifery Council have no right to speak for us all this way and should not be permitted
to hide their ideological Te Reo while they legislate their made-up and stolen Māori words into the practice of Midwifery.
For our part, at Mana Wahine Korero, we flatly reject their interpretation and ‘ways of knowing’ of our stories and our language and our history and our matauranga and our tikanga and kupu. We believe it to be dishonest, dangerous, and wrong, and we grow tired of their historical revisionism.
We look forward to your engagement with Mana Wahine and New Zealand Women on this matter.
Noho tuturu, noho tangata!
Dianne Landy and Michelle Uriarau,
Co-Founders
Mana Wahine Korero
National & International
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