On 26 October, the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency (WOCA), which represents Māori providers in the North Island, challenged the Ministry of Health's refusal to hand over Māori vaccination information at the High Court in Wellington. The Health Ministry has only agreed to release the data of individuals who have registered with a Whānau Ora provider and other information that is anonymised. The Commission Agency responded that this level of information made it difficult to reach hard to reach communities and also claimed that the Ministry's refusal to share this information breached the Treaty of Waitangi. The Government countered that releasing the information would be a breach of privacy that could derail the Māori vaccination effort.
