Kedgley Sue: Urgent Debates — Hawke’s Bay District Health Board—Appointment of Commissioner 
Kedgley Sue: Urgent Debates — Hawke’s Bay District Health Board—Appointment of Commissioner 
[Volume:645;Page:14541] 
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 The Green Party has extreme concerns about the summary sacking of the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board last week and as the days have gone by our concerns have intensified rather than abated. Frankly I am sad to say we find as I suspect the people of Hawke’s Bay find the reasons that the Minister has given for the sacking to be unconvincing. We believe that much of New Zealand including the people of Hawke’s Bay is unconvinced by the reasons the Minister has given for the sacking. We are also concerned that the summary dismissal of the board calls into question the role and purpose of district health boards and particularly publicly elected members. 
The first reason the Minister gave for the sacking was financial governance issues and deficits. The Hawke’s Bay District Health Board has a deficit of $7.7 million. Well the problem is that nearly half of the 21 district health boards in New Zealand have deficits. Ten district health boards have reported deficits for the 11 months to May 2007 and nine of those forecasting deficits were larger than had been anticipated. Can all those district health boards look forward to summary dismissal because of their deficits? That was one of the key reasons that the Minister has given. Can the Capital and Coast District Health Board which now has a deficit of $26 million—far more than that of the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board—look forward to summary dismissal? What about the Auckland District Health Board with a deficit of over $10 million? The Whanganui District Health Board is posting a deficit as are the Otago District Health Board the Southland District Health Board and the Waitemata District Health Board—I could go on. Why would we sack one district health board for having a $7.7 million deficit but leave all those other ones untouched? 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: The member is making it up. 
SUE KEDGLEY 
: I am looking through all the reasons that the Minister has given and sometimes it looks as if he is clutching at straws. 
The Minister has talked of deep divisions and poor relations between the board and the staff with no clear plan for resolving divisions. Well I can assure members that in the Health Committee we became aware that there are deep divisions and poor relations between clinicians and board members in many district health boards around New Zealand not just in the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board but noticeably in recent times in the Capital and Coast District Health Board. It is quite evident that there are poor relations between board and staff in many of these health boards but the Minister has not taken this drastic action and sacked those district health boards. Why has he singled out the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board in this way? 
I cannot help feeling that the real crime of the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board was that the chair spoke publicly and was critical in the media about some of the issues that were taking place in that health board. Just a few minutes ago in the House the Minister said that we had board members “crusading in the media … I asked them to refrain from public comment …”—and they did not. I cannot help but feel that this is the real crime that the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board is being sacked for. In other words the Minister is irritated at the chairman of the district health board for speaking up and speaking up in the media. He found this completely unacceptable and moved to sack him. 
This calls into question the whole purpose of district health boards. Why do we go through the expense and effort every 3 years of electing members onto a district health board? To do so gives the impression that these people are publicly accountable to the people of New Zealand but the moment they criticise the Minister or express themselves in the media they are censored by the Minister. What has become obvious is that the role of district health boards seems to be basically a rubber-stamp for the Minister of the day to take the flack when things go wrong—a convenient scapegoat to blame—but to be summarily dismissed if the district health board members do not toe the party line if they speak their minds and in particular if they challenge the Minister. 
There are even more serious allegations about the district health board and in particular about the role of one board member Mr Hausmann. Mr Ryall and others have today outlined some incredibly serious allegations relating to this board member. I have not been privy to the emails; I know they have already been released to the media. Obviously the National Party has these emails and they apparently show that Mr Hausmann was seeking to intervene in a contract to make it more favourable to his company which then subsequently bid for the contract and was awarded it. These are incredibly serious conflict of interest allegations. I hope the National Party is not right in its claim that the real reason for the sacking of the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board was because of these very serious allegations that are swirling around and a desire to prevent the board from telling what it believes to be the truth. 
This matter raises the following question. Given the fact that this review of the conflict of interest allegations is taking place why would the Minister not have at least waited until this report—which comes out in 2 weeks’ time—came out before he sacked the board? Why did he not wait for the outcome of that conflict of interest before taking what is a very very serious action in summarily dismissing the board? I believe that the Minister’s action in summarily dismissing the board in the way that he has done for reasons that I believe are unconvincing and for reasons that I believe New Zealanders feel are unconvincing is eroding confidence in district health boards and in particular in the role of publicly elected district health board members. I believe that many publicly elected district health board members will be asking themselves why they have gone through this election only for it to be made clear to them that they cannot speak out and they cannot be publicly accountable to the people who have elected them without risking censorship and dismissal. 
I believe that this situation has seriously eroded confidence in the role of district health boards and actually in the whole way they have been set up. The New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000 states that a board may be sacked and replaced by a commissioner if the Minister is seriously dissatisfied with the board of a district health board but there are no criteria. It is completely left up to a Minister. It does not spell out how serious the concerns have to be and it is completely left to a Minister to decide whether he will sack a board. 
The Minister has released some select documents but he keeps referring darkly to other documents that he has not released. I challenge him to release all those documents because the reasons he has given so far are not what I would call hanging offences. They seem almost like excuses or rationalisations for why he has sacked the board. If serious allegations are contained in other documents that he has not released why is he not releasing them? I challenge him to release them all so all of us can make up our own minds. 
I believe that the people of Hawke’s Bay do not find the his reasons convincing and I believe that many people in New Zealand do not find his reasons convincing and the Green Party at this point in time does not find his reasons convincing. We are worried that there are other reasons other hidden agendas and other motives behind the sacking than the ones that have been given. If the reasons were simply the ones that he has given half the district health boards in New Zealand would be sacked. He has not explained why he has singled out one district health board for this drastic action and left in place other district health boards with greater deficits and with all of those problems of dysfunctional relationships. Why has he left them in place and singled out the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board? It seems as they say that something is rotten in the State of Denmark. Thank you.