Bob Edin: Brown announces $75m to hasten diagnostic procedures....

Brown announces $75m to hasten diagnostic procedures – but for ageing patients already diagnosed, “life’s a bitch”

Health Minister Simeon Brown – ranked sixth in the Mood of the Boardroom survey of the performance of our politicians – trumpeted good news today.

RNZ dutifully reported these glad tidings to its audience, then turned to Rob Campbell for comment.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: The Fate of NZ's Entire Health System has been tied to AUT's Chancellor.....

The Fate of NZ's Entire Health System has been tied to Auckland University of Technology's Chancellor and now an Auckland University of Technology Professor

Health NZ is the new centralized public health-care monolith. Its Chair is charged with running our entire health system, which makes that job by far the "biggest" one in the country, after the Prime Minister and Finance Minister, in terms of size of the budget and number of staff. A few years ago the Chair was Rob Campbell, who is the Chancellor of the Auckland University of Technology (AUT). He's also a former Chair of SkyCity Entertainment Group. Campbell was sacked over a political attack he made about National's Three Waters policy, according to Radio NZ, which reported how he "took to LinkedIn to criticize policy as a thin disguise for dog-whistling on co-governance".

Professor Robert MacCulloch: The Chancellor of AUT and monetary policy

I can't understand the Chancellor of AUT (and former Chair of Health NZ) Rob Campbell's explanations as to how monetary policy works

The Chancellor of the Auckland University of Technology (and former Chair of Health NZ) is becoming a prolific writer, explaining to all and sundry on platforms like Newsroom how economics works. The thing is, I can't understand many of these explanations. Take his latest comments which question the way monetary policy is being conducted in NZ.

David Farrar: Not a badge of honour

The Herald reports:

Campbell says he’s not bothered by what the business community thinks of his left-leaning views.

“I don’t mind being called a Marxist. I regard that as a badge of honour,” he says.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Labour's Former Head of Health NZ, Rob Campbell, lectures us (incorrectly)

Labour's Former Head of Health NZ, Rob Campbell, lectures us (incorrectly) about Economics & the Pointlessness of National's Social Investment Method

The former Head of Health NZ, Rob Campbell, has written a treatise on the new Coalition's "Social Investment" approach, labelling it merely a political "slogan". Newsroom, by the way, is partly funded by the Universities of Otago, Victoria, and Auckland, as well as the likes of Bell Gully law firm, to enhance public understanding of important issues. Let's see how Mr. Campbell's explanations of how the new Coalition's Social Investment approach to deciding whether public money is being well spent fulfills that aim. He says that:

Josie Pagani: Yes minister, health is in crisis

The crisis in our health service is worthy of a crisis response, but it's not getting it, Rob Campbell, the sacked Health New Zealand-Te Whatu Ora chair, said this week.

I went to hear him speak in Wellington, drawn perhaps to a heretic because heresy usually has the most profound observations.

Decades ago, Rob Campbell was the darling of the left, a charismatic unionist with the intellect to take apart the establishment. From unions, he became a champion of an economy in which markets are made to work for the people.

It is revealing what people do when their leadership jobs end.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: I'm so disappointed in Rob Campbell

I am so disappointed to hear Rob Campbell finally admitting that the health system is in crisis.

He said it this morning in a round of interviews talking about his speech last night, which was all about him slamming the health reforms.

He said the new health system is in a "crisis situation".  

Yes, it is in crisis. We can all see that. So why didn’t he say that when he was still in charge of the health system? 

Peter Dunne: Political neutrality

In its increasingly frenetic rush to distance itself from the least popular aspects of the Ardern government, the Hipkins administration is becoming more and more erratic and inconsistent.

The initial policy reset was reasonable, but the government’s actions subsequently have become abrupt and unpredictable. It is increasingly difficult to discern a clear sense of direction, and hard to escape the conclusion that electoral panic has become the government’s main driver.

Oliver Hartwich: Public service reboot needed

The sacking of Rob Campbell from his role as chair of Te Whatu Ora/Health NZ and the Environmental Protection Authority highlights an urgent need to reform New Zealand’s public service.

Campbell’s partisan comments on his LinkedIn profile were inexcusable for someone in his position. But they were also symptomatic of a wider problem, which is the politicisation of the public service.

This politicisation is not necessarily party-political in nature. Rather, it is that the public service has developed its own idiosyncratic mindset.

Point of Order: Campbell kicked out for speaking up on LinkedIn.....

.....Parker, too, preaches need for political impartiality in public posts

This time it’s official – or rather, this time the announcement was posted on the Government’s official website as well as being emailed to news media, handed to political scribblers in the Parliamentary Press Gallery, couriered to whoever by pigeons, or whatever.

It’s the news that Environment Minister David Parker has kicked Rob Campbell off the board of the Environmental Protection Authority.

Health Minister Ayesha Verrall was quicker to the draw. She sacked Campbell as the chairperson of Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand two days ago.

The reason?

Mike Hosking: We need to think about the public service differently

Part of the answer to the Rob Campbell scrap is to employ people in the public service differently.

David Seymour says those in the public service are sympathetic to the Government, Ashley Bloomfield says they aren't.

Rob Campbell wants to say whatever he likes as a private person, but still allegedly be neutral when he's a public person.

Maybe part of the problem with the public service is you have to be some sort of robot to simply carry out instruction.

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.

Kate Hawkesby: Hipkins needs to show strong leadership and stub this banana republic vibe out

An opportunity for Chris Hipkins as PM to show real leadership -  and a divergent path to his predecessor by acting decisively and quickly on the Health NZ Chair, I reckon.

I think that'd go well for him.

If you've missed this story, former trade unionist Health NZ Chair Rob Campbell, criticised the National’s policy announcement on Three Waters on social media, stating that he thought it was a ‘thin disguise for the dog whistle on co-governance’.

Bryce Edwards: The Need to depoliticise the public service

Is the Chair of Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand, Rob Campbell, trying to rid himself of a job he no longer wants? The idea that he’s trying to get himself fired is the most obvious conclusion to draw from his overt attempts over the weekend to stoke up opposition to the National Party’s Three Waters reform proposals.

The health boss has published his strident views on the National Party and its leader, implying they are being racist. His partisan statement is a clear breach of the code of conduct for senior public servants like himself.

Bob Jones: Fashionable silliness

In a mindbogglingly inane contributory NZ Herald article Rob Campbell, chairman of Auckland’s casino (among other sinecures) asks, “Who on earth is being hurt by co-governance?”. I’ll answer that by stating the obvious. We all are.

In a democracy the underlying principle is an equal value vote accorded every citizen, regardless of their intellectual differences, contribution to society, ethnicity, and so on.

Michael Bassett: The sinister thing about co-governance

The term “co-governance” trips off ministerial tongues with ease but it’s clear most people don’t know what it means. Nanaia Mahuta would have us believe it simply means that Maori would be guaranteed some sort of undefined say in decision-making. Fair-minded Kiwis think that’s OK. When I was Minister of Local Government I urged local authorities to set up standing committees of local Maori which would be consulted on matters of special interest to Maori. Most complied. But that was nothing like enough for Maori radicals who pushed for Maori wards, and then convinced Mahuta to legislate over the top of local referenda where moves to introduce Maori wards had been voted down, usually by large margins. Now that Maori wards are mandatory for all local councils, the radicals have moved to the next stage. It isn’t enough for Maori who nearly all have majority Pakeha DNA in their bodies. They are smarting from the reality that they form only 17% of New Zealand’s population. They now want that 17% turned magically into majority status in all decision making. That’s what the current calls for “co-governance” are all about.