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National | Aotearoa

Inquiry to align legislation around postmortems with Māori customs

The Greens are at the forefront of an inquiry into the legislation around post-mortems, which is currently before the Māori Affairs Select Committee. 
The hope is to align the law to be more consistent with Māori customs.

There is an inquiry currently taking place that hopes to align the current legislation around post-mortems with Māori customs.

Māori Affairs Select Committee member Marama Davidson says, “I really want to hear the thoughts of whānau about the laws around post-mortems.”

The Greens have been pushing over three years to address issues with the government like the lack of access to the deceased body while in the custody of the coroner.

“We have seen that how Māori and how Pākehā tend to the deceased is very different”, Davidson says.

Labour MP Peeni Henare agrees that this is something that should be looked at, “there is an issue there. There is an issue there, absolutely.”

Davidson says, “I am more than happy to work with anyone in the committee, to assist in gathering information about the positives and negatives of current legislation, when it comes to our deceased. This is an issue for all of the Māori MP's to look at.”

Next, this issue will gauge feedback from around the country before proceeding.