On 7 June, the Government's Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act 2022 passed its third reading. The bill replaces the country's existing district health boards with a new Crown agency called Health New Zealand and establishes as separate Māori Health Authority. The Health Futures Act also establishes a new Public Health Agency within the Ministry of Health while strengthening the Ministry's stewardship role. It also includes a rural health strategy. While Labour and the Māori Party supported the bill as a means of facilitating health reforms and ensuring Māori co-governance, the opposition National Party questioned the government's proposed reforms while the ACT Party expressed concerns about racial division.
