Foss Craig: Protected Disclosures Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Foss Craig: Protected Disclosures Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:653;Page:2735] 
CRAIG FOSS (National—Tukituki) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to speak on the Protected Disclosures Amendment Bill. I will pick up on some of the comments of the previous speaker but first will talk about the bill in the context of the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board. As in previous speeches of mine on various issues I have acknowledged and again salute a woman known as Ms Deborah Houston who is known as the whistleblower in her involvement with the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board. I have talked of the difficulties she has had and her allegations of retaliation the restructuring out of her job and the restructuring of departments. All have helped lead to the bill we have before us today. 
I will be speaking around clause 6 in relation to the role of the Ombudsmen. I just note that the whistleblower known as Ms Deborah Houston has actually received an apology. I would like to quote from the  
Dominion Post 
: 
“The whistleblower in the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board conflicts of interest saga has finally received an apology from the board’s chief executive.” I acknowledge the outgoing chief executive for doing that although he is no longer with the board. That fact puts it in context after this particular person did the whistle-blowing. At the meeting this person identified herself as the whistleblower and therein lies all the problems around communications and maybe confusion of process in that case. Without relitigating the issue which took probably almost a year to resolve I can tell members that the whistleblower contacted the board chairman under the Protected Disclosures Act over allegations that she had made on a conflict of interest issue and that allegation led to a lengthy Ministry of Health investigation which I have alluded to. I just note that the elected members of the board were recently reappointed in a governance capacity. 
I would like to pick up on one point and will quote shortly from a speech made by Deborah Houston to the Australasian Compliance Institute entitled “Protection for Whistleblowers: What needs to be done?”. I will later ask for leave of the House to table the document because this matter is serious. The previous speaker tried to get a bit clever about the Otago District Health Board but this person has suffered emotional financial and reputational distress because of—to put it gently—unclear shall we say procedures in our hospital in Hawke’s Bay in regard to the board and some senior management around how protected disclosures should work. 
Let me read out the conclusion of her speech: “What happened to me and what happened to the board of the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board should never happen again. It is incumbent upon the Crown to do the right thing by its employees its elected public officials and of course its ministerial appointees. The public expects no less.” I would be incredibly surprised if anyone in this Chamber disagreed with that statement. It continues: “When all the facts are looked at I believe it is clear that the right thing was not done by me or more latterly by the board. I have continued to fight for accountability for what has been done. I have done so because I believe that the public administration in New Zealand must be honest must be transparent and that its tradition of political neutrality must be maintained.” That speech was made on 21 August 2008; the issue began in January 2006. The speech was made more than 2 years after that person started the ball rolling and as an individual fought against a bureaucratic machine to effect change. That change we see in the bill before the House right now. I do not want to relitigate the issue; we have all moved on— 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: I bet you don’t! 
CRAIG FOSS 
: —but I will if the member wants me to because the man who said he was running the show actually did a lot of damage to Labour. He is now on Labour’s front bench. I am trying to respectfully talk about the person who actually suffered. That is why this bill is before us today so that people do not innocently suffer because of the misinterpretation of previous legislation. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Then tell the truth. 
CRAIG FOSS 
: I can be gentle or I can go hard. I will try to go as gently as I possibly can because we have all moved on but if those members want me to I will go hard. I will be quite interested to see some of the other combatants in this debate.