Point of Order: Campbell has gone from Health job, we hear.....

.....but Verrall has not officially posted news of his sacking

Kiwiblog’s account of the sacking of Rob Campbell kicked of with a Radio NZ report:

Health New Zealand’s board chairperson Rob Campbell has been sacked over a political attack he made about the National Party’s Three Waters policy.

On Checkpoint tonight, RNZ was reporting on the likelihood of Campbell also being sacked as chair of the Environmental Protection Authority.

But here’s the thing. We can find no record of the Health sacking announcement – by Health Minister Ayesha Verrall – on the Beehive website.

What we did find are –

Cyclone Taskforce to ensure locally-led recovery

The Terms of Reference for the Cyclone Gabrielle Recovery Taskforce have been agreed by Cabinet, with the Taskforce’s primary purpose to align locally led recovery plans with the work of government agencies and the private sector.

Better Work plan to strengthen tourism workforce

The Government is backing industry to build back a better, stronger and more resilient tourism sector.

More minds focussed on reducing agricultural emissions

Research into reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emissions is getting crucial support as part of Budget 22’s investment in the new Centre for Climate Action on Agricultural Emissions.

The reasons for the sacking of Rob Campbell (according to a raft of unofficial reports) have everything to do with rules that require directors of Crown Entities to be politically impartial in what they say publicly.

As the RNZ report quoted by Kiwiblog points out:

Campbell took to LinkedIn at the weekend to criticise National’s Three Waters policy as a thin disguise for dog-whistling on co-governance.

The comments drew swift criticism from both sides of the political aisles – National saying they were “appalling” while Prime Minister Chris Hipkins described them as “inappropriate”.

Directors of Crown Entities are supposed to act in a politically impartial manner under the Public Service Commission’s code of conduct.

Campbell is accountable to Health Minister Ayesha Verrall in his Te Whatu Ora role – this afternoon Verrall confirmed she had sacked him.

“I have raised with Mr Campbell serious concerns about the political nature of his recent social media comments,” she said.

“I no longer have confidence that Mr Campbell is able to exercise the political neutrality necessary for his role at Te Whatu Ora.”

Kiwiblog’s David Farrar supports the decision:

This is the right call, and respect for Chris Hipkins who would have made the ultimate decision. I may be wrong, but I suspect his predecessor would not have sacked Campbell and would have tried to claim he spoke wearing a different hat.

If what Campbell said, had been said by someone who was merely a board member of relatively minor quango or entity (say Standards NZ) then there could be a path through it without sacking. But Campbell is the Chair of the national health agency, responsible for providing almost every public health service in NZ. It would spend close to $30 billion and his level of seniority would be akin to an agency chief executive almost.

Campbell would not rule out taking legal action over the matter saying it was one possible line of action.

Ha good luck with that.

As Farrar anticipated, the focus has turned to Campbell’s role as Chair of the Environmental Protection Agency.

If his comments disqualify him as Chair of Health NZ, then surely David Parker must also remove him as EPA Chair.

It is a pity as Campbell has significant business and commercial skills. But he seems to be totally lacking understanding of the public sector code of conduct, and still maintains he has done nothing wrong.

There is a difference between constructively disagreeing on a proposed policy and effectively calling the Leader of the Opposition a racist. If he had merely critiqued National’s policy, and left put the insults, he again might have survived.

With regard to Campbell taking to LinkedIn at the weekend to criticise National’s Three Waters policy, he maintains his comments were made in a private capacity.

Can they be private comments when they are made on LinkedIn?

Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton