Ryall Tony: General Debate 
Ryall Tony: General Debate 
[Volume:645;Page:14622] 
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) 
: 
 That was a sad speech by the outgoing Minister of Finance was it not? He has had a great life. It is sad to see him go in some ways but good in others. I would like to know what his position on Auckland International Airport is because I am not sure that the country knows exactly what he is saying on Auckland International Airport. 
I will help Annette King join the dots on what has been going on with the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board and what she has been doing. Under this Government while Cabinet was considering Peter Hausmann’s appointment to the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board Mr Hausmann was colluding with the chief executive of the district health board to change the tendered documents to his advantage. Let me tell members how that happened. On 10 May the chief executive instructed his staff to send a copy of the draft tendered documents to Peter Hausmann with the words “keep it confidential”. Those documents were subsequently dispatched and Mr Hausmann received them. Mr Hausmann changed the contract significantly adding specifications that significantly advantaged his firm. He then sent them back to Chris Clarke and the email makes it clear that the chief executive officer agreed that all those changes should be incorporated in the tendered documents. We have checked the final tendered document with the tendered document that Chris Clarke instructed be included because it had Peter Hausmann’s amendments and it is word for word the proposals that Peter Hausmann made. 
Why would a public service chief executive send an advance copy of a multimillion-dollar-contract tender document to one party 2½ months before any other organisation got a chance to look at it? Why would that happen? That is cronyism in the extreme. Why would that happen? I have asked the Minister of Health time and time again whether he thought that was ethical behaviour whether he thought that was appropriate behaviour or whether that was behaviour he would expect of a chief executive. Do members know what? He has never said “yes” or “no”. All he said was that he would wait until the report comes out in a couple of weeks. Well I have to say that from what we are reading in the papers the report will be a whitewash. It will be Noel Ingram Part 2. It is so coincidental that the same Minister who stood up for days on end defending the Ingram inquiry will be forced to stand up day after day defending what has happened with this ministerial inquiry. 
Hon Bill English 
: Remind us where Taito Phillip Field ends up. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: Well Taito Phillip Field ends up in another jurisdiction facing charges that this Government said he had no guilt associated with—it said there was no evidence of anything. 
So what do we want? Well we want the Government members to be upfront and tell us exactly what they think about what has gone on here. Are they happy that the chief executive of the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board was colluding with one of the tenderers to allow him to make significant changes to those tender documents to advantage his own company? That is something that New Zealanders cannot understand would be tolerated by the Government. What is even more worrying is that so many Ministers opposite knew they were inserting Mr Hausmann into this conflict of interest. We know that a whole group of Ministers met with Mr Hausmann whom I think the Minister of Health described as a significant player in the health sector. What sort of Government allows to be appointed to the board someone who has those sorts of conflicts of interest? What sort of Government allows someone to be appointed to a district health board when it knows that person will tender for $20 million to $50 million contracts in the district health board it wants him to be appointed to? It just does not make sense. It does not make sense to New Zealanders and that is because Annette King will not tell the country why she was so keen to appoint Peter Hausmann to this board. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: We think we know why. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: Well she should come down to the House and tell us why she appointed him because apparently she was briefed in full on this proposal before she even nominated him for the board position. That is cronyism of the worst kind.