Ryall Tony: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Ryall Tony: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:640;Page:10683] 
7.  
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) 
 to the  
Minister of Health 
: Does he stand by his statement of last week regarding the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board: “Mr Hausmann’s potential conflict of interest was known at the time of his appointment and was recorded from the outset”; if so what was that potential conflict of interest? 
Hon PETE HODGSON (Minister of Health) 
: 
 Yes I do. The potential conflict of interest was disclosed by Mr Hausmann on 17 May 2005—before Mr Hausmann’s appointment was considered by the Minister or by Cabinet. It was then released to the National Party just over 20 months ago. I have another copy of the details in case the member has lost the first one I gave him. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Did the Ministry of Health—[ 
Interruption 
] Actually he did not give it to me and he will be down to apologise for that a little later on after question time. Did the Ministry of Health or anyone else express any caution to Annette King on the appropriateness of her appointing to a district health board an individual who intended to bid for multimillion-dollar contracts of that same board; if so who? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: I will just repeat that all of the information—that is to say Mr Hausmann’s original conflict of interest declaration how he intended to manage it and what the Ministry of Health thought about his management of it—was released to the National Party on or about 22 November 2005. I am happy to give the information to the National Party afresh. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Has the Minister seen a Ministry of Health report of 23 August 2005 where the ministry identified a “high level of risk” associated with Mr Hausmann’s position on the board during the bidding process and considered the options of Mr Hausmann taking leave of absence during the bidding process and the use of a probity adviser throughout the process—advice given 2 months after Mr Hausmann’s rushed appointment? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: Management of conflicts of interest is an important part of all district health board deliberations and it works as long as the board members themselves make clear to other members of the board what their potential conflict of interest is so that it can be managed. It so happens that in Cabinets including Cabinets yet to be formed Cabinet Ministers have to leave the room from time to time when an issue is raised. 
Sue Moroney 
: Is the Minister satisfied that conflicts of interest are always properly managed in the health system? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: No I am afraid I am not. The system depends on the honesty of board members. There has been one recent somewhat infamous case where a board member was less than transparent in declaring and updating his conflict of interest. As a result a particularly large contract was struck down by the High Court. I am speaking of course of National Party member Dr Bierre. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Is the Minister aware that the ministry advised of several risks to procedural fairness of having a bidder on the board of a district health board and does he think that if Annette King had not taken short cuts over this appointment she might have got that message much earlier on—or did she not want to hear it? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: The member misses the point that most—if not most then many—district health board members around the country have a potential conflict of interest. It is not the conflict of interest that is at issue; it is its management. The management of a conflict of interest is ordinarily the purview of the respective district health board. The boards freely seek the advice of the ministry or of their legal advisers or indeed of board members of other boards. These are normal ways of managing conflicts of interest and that is what I suspect the member has stumbled across. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Why will the Minister not answer the question of whether he has read that report of August 2005 and does he think that if Annette King had not fast tracked Mr Hausmann’s appointment the high level of risk of so much concern to his ministry 2 months later might have prevented the cancelling of a multimillion-dollar community services tender process? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: In respect of the issue around the appointment of Mr Hausmann to the board I will say to the House—not for the first time—that Mr Hausmann’s appointment was— 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Fast tracked. 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: It was not fast tracked; it was managed in an ordinary manner. Similar appointments were managed in the same manner before and since and will be managed in the same manner in times to come. There was nothing extraordinary about Mr Hausmann’s appointment in terms of whether it was fast or slow. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: It was rushed. 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: It was not rushed. It crossed every detail that the Ministry of Health usually reserves for cases of this ilk. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: If the process was not rushed why did his spokeswoman tell the  
Herald on Sunday 
 that the guidelines were not followed and that the short cut was due to a desire to place Hausmann on the board before the pre-election period when a ban on board appointments applies? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: I refer the member to information that I have already given him. The Ministry of Health had four vacancies at that time. It decided to offer advice to its Minister to proceed with one and it said in respect of the other three that she should not proceed with those because it was starting to get too close to an election. An election was held from memory in September of that year. I contrast that if I may with the situation when the member who asked the question was himself briefly a Minister. On 10 September 1999 a mere few weeks before that election that member appointed to the position of chair of the Casino Control Authority—a well-paid position with no heavy lifting—Judith Collins the person who is currently his bench mate. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: I remind the member who has shifted her seat to the front bench of the rule that one does not use that position in order to interject. The member has been here long enough to know that. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: I seek leave to table a Ministry of Health document of 23 August entitled  
Hawke’s Bay proposed partnering agreement for community health services 
. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.