Bill Ralston has the bit between the teeth in today's Herald on Sunday
Labour has the same capacity for razor-toothed rabid attack as a cornered rodent, especially when its own young are threatened. Never has this been more clearly seen than in Health Minister David Cunliffe's utu exacted on the Hawke's Bay District Health Board.
Let me explain this appalling scandal in words even Tony Ryall should be able to understand.
A wee while back, Annette King was Minister of Health. Her husband, Ray Lind, was the chief operating officer of the Hawke's Bay District Health Board.
Against the wishes of many on the health board, King appoints Peter Hausmann to the board. Hausmann runs a company called Healthcare New Zealand and many on the board fretted that he, as a supplier to health boards, would have a conflict of interest as a board member. King appointed him anyway.
In a very short time, the chairman of the board discovered Hausmann was involved in email discussions over a tender for a multi-million-dollar contract from the board he was a member of.
A woman whistleblower in the board's administration brings this to the chairman's attention.
She alleges Annette King's husband, Ray Lind, as a senior manager put pressure on her because she blew the whistle. She ends up being restructured out of her job and an employment dispute ensues.
Meanwhile, Ray Lind quits and goes to work for Hausmann.
Flak flies, King is reshuffled out of the portfolio, her successor dithers about sorting out the rolling brawl between the board and its managers over various contracts being awarded, and the people of Hawke's Bay respond by backing the chairman and his board supporters by resoundingly re-electing them.
An inquiry into the murky goings on at the DHB rumbles away while there is yet another cabinet reshuffle and two-gun David Cunliffe takes over the job and refuses to confirm the chairman in his job.
Then, just 72 days after the re-elected board takes office, Cunliffe sacks them. He says the organisation is "dysfunctional" and it has a "rapidly deteriorating" financial situation. Actually, it's only $7.7 million in the red, within its target range of coming out plus or minus 1 per cent of its revenue. David Cunliffe might not have noticed, but there is not a DHB in the country that hasn't had financial problems and the Hawke's Bay board's problem is minor.
He ends with
If National can't drive the dagger of this debacle into the Government's heart, it doesn't deserve to win the next election.
