Leopards and Their Spots

Remember the Hawkes Bay Health Board

Karl Du Fresne is a journalist who has seen many winters.  He has a long memory.  He recently wrote the following piece on new Labour leader, David Cunliffe: 

NEW Labour Leader David Cunliffe is getting good notices, even from those at the opposite end of the political spectrum, such as former ACT leader Rodney Hide. But I'm withholding judgment. I decided I disliked Mr Cunliffe when, as health minister in the Clark government, he sacked the democratically elected Hawke's Bay District Health Board, describing them as "a nasty little nest of self-perpetuating provincial elites".

He struck me then as a politician who liked to throw his weight around just because he could.  Nothing since then has changed my view of him.
In fact, my opinion was reinforced by an interview with Guyon Espiner in The Listener which exposed Mr Cunliffe as precious, controlling and acutely concerned - in fact almost neurotic - about his public image. His pronouncements before and since his election as leader suggest he's a politician who will say whatever he thinks will ingratiate him with voters. In this respect he is disconcertingly similar to former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd.

There's a Uriah Heep-ish quality to Mr Cunliffe: rampant ambition overlaid by a phoney air of humility. Those quibbles aside, I'm sure he's a top bloke.

We will simply make two observations as a postscript.  Firstly, the "nasty little nest of self-perpetuating provincial elites" was promptly reinstated, once Labour lost the Treasury benches,  back to the Hawkes Bay District Health Board.  We recall that there was dirty smoke hanging over the whole affair at the time, as described by MacDoctor.

Tony Ryall has reinstated Hawkes Bay District Health Board, a year after David Cunliffe fired them. This reverses one of the most egregious uses of power I have ever seen. By firing the Hawkes Bay DHB, Cunliffe essentially removed all democratic representation for health in Hawkes Bay. He did this on the basis of an MOH report whose terms of reference were defined specifically to make the DHB look stupid and protect the previous minister of Health, Annette King. In other words, the canning of the DHB was exactly what the Labour government wanted. The only comparable misuse of power would be the whitewash report covering Taito Phillip Field – although that did not involve disenfranchising the public.

To recap the affair, for those who have forgotten the murky details:

• Annette King appoints businessman Peter Hausman to the Hawkes Bay board, against the objections of the chairman, who points out that Hausman has major conflicts of interest. Hausman is a friend of King’s husband Ray Lind, who is then Hawkes Bay CEO.
• Hausman is allegedly shown documents that would seriously help a multi-million dollar tender he is bidding for. 
• Lind is accused of pressuring the woman who alerted the board [to] Hausman seeing the documents. The whistleblower is restructured out of her job. 
• Lind quits and goes to work for Hausman’s company.
• After months of infighting and wrangling, a report is ordered on the event. The terms of reference of the report is focussed on the DHB’s handling of the conflict of interest, conveniently excluding King’s appointment of Hausman in April 2005 (against objections) and excluding the fact that Hausman only registered his conflict of interest in February 2006 (well after the tender process started).
• Cunliffe, the new Minister of Health, sacks the entire board.

The other day, former Prime Minister, Helen Clarke damned the new Labour Leader with fulsome praise, telling us that he was a most effective and proficient minister when he served under her. We wonder whether, amongst other things, she had the nefarious Hawkes Bay District Health Board affair in mind.