Long-time director Rob Campbell is adamant he is just expressing a personal view and has done nothing wrong.
But Government ministers beg to differ.
After Campbell criticised the National Party’s Three Waters policy on LinkedIn, particularly its opposition to co-governance, the Government had little option but to sack him from his roles as chair of Health New Zealand/Te Whatu Ora and the Environmental Protection Authority.
Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall acted almost immediately, sacking Campbell on Tuesday. Environment Minister David Parker, a lawyer by training, was more cautious and took until Thursday before wielding the axe.
Faced with strong criticism from both National and Act, as well as demands Campbell be sacked, the Government could hardly look the other way when the chair of a Crown entity had engaged in such a public political attack on the major Opposition party.
While Campbell quibbles about what the code of conduct for directors of Crown entities means, for most people it is clear they – particularly the chairs of entities – are meant to remain politically neutral. Had Campbell remained it would have undermined the ethos of a politically neutral public service.
While Verrall and then Parker made the decisions about ending Campbell’s roles there was at least some clear signalling from Prime Minister Chris Hipkins about the matter.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins.
Not appropriate
At his post-Cabinet news conference on Monday, Hipkins said it was up to the ministers responsible to raise the matter with Campbell, but the comments were inappropriate for a Crown entity chair to have made.
“There is a code of conduct around political comment by people who hold those roles and his comments fall well outside that,” Hipkins said.
The Prime Minister should know, given that previously he was the Public Service Minister.
Campbell has called his sacking an overreaction, but it is likely he knew the probable consequences of posting the comments he did. While they might be his private views they were expressed on a public platform where he listed his directorships.
As of Thursday morning, it still listed the Environmental Protection Authority as one of them, but not Health NZ. By the afternoon the EPA reference had also disappeared.
NBR presenter Grant Walker suggests one of the reasons the Government was keen to get rid of Campbell was because of his criticism of National’s opposition to co-governance at a time when the Government is looking to water down those provisions in its Three Waters reform.
Maybe? We will learn more as two other pieces of legislation putting the reforms into effect – the Water Services Economic Efficiency and Consumer Protection Bill and the Water Services Legislation Bill – wend their way through the parliamentary process. The finance and expenditure select committee began hearing submissions on those Bills on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Verrall is now considering appointing a new person to the role of chair of Te Whatu Ora. She will want someone committed to improving New Zealand’s health services, particularly its hospital care, but who also knows the job will constrain them from publicly expressing personal, political views.
Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall.
National’s policy
Much of the debate around Campbell’s sackings has taken the focus away from what was actually in National’s Three Waters policy.
Aside from removing co-governance provisions, National would retain water assets in the hands of local councils, leaving it up to them as to how they raised the money to pay for maintenance and upgrades of the infrastructure.
National initially implied this could be done without increases in rates but a Standard & Poor’s report out this week made it clear there was no “free lunch”. Whatever model was used, either water charges or rates would have to go up.
But the report also found that the debt levels of councils would be substantially reduced under the Government’s plan.
Meanwhile, the latest Taxpayers Union Curia poll had some good news for National. It showed about 43% of respondents trusted leader Christopher Luxon and deputy leader Nicola Willis to run the economy compared with 39% who trusted Hipkins and Finance Minister Grant Robertson.
More trust in National leader Christopher Luxon and his deputy Nicola Willis to run the economy.
It is a similar result to the December poll. National will take some solace from the result but might have hoped for a bigger lead when it came to economic trust.
Just whether Hipkins and Robertson can gain even more trust might depend on their ongoing response to the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle. Much of that will be economic as the regions directly hit try to recover from the damage wrought by the cyclone.
The terms of reference for the Cyclone Gabrielle recovery task force have been released. There is an immediate focus on recovery with a longer-term focus on building resilience to minimise the impact of future weather events.
Managed retreat
Part of the immediate recovery will involve making relatively quick decisions about managed retreat. In some cases, this will be relatively easy, with reports of a number of people saying they will not return to live in places that had suffered the worst flooding during the cyclone. Insurance companies are also keen for some quick decisions as they look to pay out claims to people who have lost everything.
By the time of the election there will still be plenty of work to do but people will want to see that the Government is making substantive progress in helping the recovery as well as building back better for the future.
Today the Act Party releases policy on the cyclone recovery and on Sunday Luxon delivers his long-awaited state of the nation speech in Auckland.
The cyclone had disrupted his earlier attempt to deliver the speech but there will be interest in what issues and policies Luxon focuses on as he sets National’s agenda for election year.
Next week Parliament resumes sitting after its disrupted and late start to year.
It seems unlikely it will yet mark a return to politics as usual, particularly as people in Hawke’s Bay, Tairāwhiti, and parts of Auckland and Northland are still cleaning out flood-damaged homes, farms, orchards and businesses.
Just what the politicians will do to help them will be the focus of the next few weeks and months.
Brent Edwards is NBR's political editor.
