Ryall Tony: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Ryall Tony: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:646;Page:15042] 
6.  
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) 
 to the  
Minister of Health 
: Did Peter Hausmann make any changes to the draft community services request for proposal sent to him by management at the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board 2 months before it was issued and were these changes accepted? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Minister of Health) 
: 
 That is a question for the chief executive of the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board who at the relevant time was employed by the former board of the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board. However I refer the member to appendix E of the independent panel review report which I will soon seek leave to table. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Why does the review panel make no judgment on the role of Hawke’s Bay District Health Board management in providing confidential tender documents to Mr Hausmann before any other potential bidder when the Office of the Controller and Auditor-General has said that managing conflicts of interest is also a responsibility of management? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: Quite clearly because the primary focus of this report was on governance and the relationship between governance and management—in this case the chief executive. One of the salient features of that relationship was that the chairman Kevin Atkinson was present at a presentation and following that a dinner at Craggy Range Winery at which he was fully briefed on the intention of Mr Hausmann and the chief executive to discuss the request for proposal and I understand that Mr Atkinson told the chief executive to “get on with it”. 
Lesley Soper 
: What was the clearest example of board interference in operational matters detailed in the report of the Director-General of Health’s independent review panel? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: In section 6.63 of this very comprehensive report the independent review panel reports that Mr Peter Dunkerley sent an email to three levels of management in support of retaining the policy of “no more licences” for pharmacies even though he had a clear conflict of interest because of the effect on existing pharmacies owned by the Radius Pharmacy chain of which he was chairman and in which both he and his immediate family had direct pecuniary and insufficiently disclosed personal interests. 
Barbara Stewart 
: Does the Minister agree that this debate is now generating more heat than light and that patients in the Hawke’s Bay district could be forgiven for thinking that more effort has gone into public relations in the media than into solving their health care problems? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: I am deeply concerned at the investment by the board as it then was in legal and public relations matters and would have preferred its members to focus on the health care of the people of Hawke’s Bay. That is absolutely the case. 
Hon Rick Barker 
: What reports has the Minister seen that outline the savings that the people of Hawke’s Bay could have benefited from if the proposed changes to the delivery of pharmacy services had been made? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: I have seen two reports which I will shortly seek leave to table: one proposing $2.9 million of pharmacy savings for the people of Hawke’s Bay and one consulting on proposals for more efficient pharmaceutical dispensing. I note that the former board chair Kevin Atkinson confirmed on Radio New Zealand National yesterday that there was therefore potential commercial conflict between Mr Hausmann and Mr Dunkerley precisely because Mr Hausmann’s community services proposals might have hurt Mr Dunkerley’s pharmacy businesses. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: As the report notes that Annette King was aware of Mr Hausmann’s ideas around the joint venture with the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board when she appointed him did Annette King take any further interest in the development of the project after Mr Hausmann’s appointment? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: What is important here is not what Mrs King knew but what Mr Atkinson knew. Once the appointment had been made in full accordance with normal Cabinet processes the responsibility for managing the conflict of interest was as with any other board squarely on the shoulders of the chair and the member concerned. The independent report concludes that both could have done better. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Did the then Minister of Health Mrs King ever ask for or receive from any official—either ministry or Hawke’s Bay District Health Board—progress updates on the negotiations over the multimillion-dollar joint venture? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: I repeat that the primary responsibility for managing conflicts of interest rested with the chair of the board as it does with the chairs of other boards. Admittedly in the case of Mr Atkinson his job was made more complicated by the fact that inadequately declared commercial interests were at play across the board table that meant that Mr Hausmann was quite possibly persona non grata from day one. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: I do not think the Minister addressed the question actually. Would the Minister please address the question. 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: I am advised that the then Minister Mrs King would have received the normal kind of reporting on that board that she would have received on any other board. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Why did the inquiry not consider the role of management in this affair and the extent to which Mrs King remained involved in the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board saga? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: As long as the member is keen to ask questions I am very keen to answer them. As I have said the primary responsibility for managing conflicts of interest rested with the chairman. It was for the chairman to disclose what he had found out at Craggy Range Winery and what he had told the chief executive to do—to “get on with it” and work up a community services request for proposal—and once he had declared that to the board to get on and manage it. Kevin Atkinson failed to do that and no matter how much the member would like to rewrite history—just as that chairman had a habit of rewriting minutes—it does not change the facts. 
I seek leave to table the transcript from Radio New Zealand National yesterday where Mr Atkinson confirms the possibility of commercial conflict across the board table. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House. 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: I seek leave to table a Hawke’s Bay District Health Board report on pharmacy strategy consultation— 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House. 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: I seek leave to table a Hawke’s Bay District Health Board report on funding pharmacy services in Hawke’s Bay that— 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House. 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: I seek leave to table a nearly 200-page report from the independent review panel that documents conflicts of interest in the— 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.