Bill Ralston also writes on the Baygate scandal in the Herald on Sunday. He reminds us of the strange circumstances around Anette King's letter writing
"When neither you nor your spouse is having an affair it is probably best that you do not write letters and make public statements denying any shagging is going on.
This is political common sense 101, yet former Health Minister Annette King has done exactly that in a breathtaking act of stupidity, neatly adding the missing ingredient of sex to the scandal surrounding the Hawkes Bay District Health Board.
King, while Minister of Health, reportedly wrote a threatening letter to a board employee who had alerted King's husband Ray Lind, then chief operating officer of the board, to rumours that he was having an affair.
After the board was controversially sacked by new Health Minister David Cunliffe, King went public, alerting media to the sex rumours. Now, when confronted by reporters with questions about the letter, she accuses the media of being part of a "dirty tricks campaign" and refuses to confirm the letter exists, saying she cannot find it on the ministerial database, avoiding the question of whether she wrote it privately to the board employee.
Sacked board chairman Kevin Atkinson confirms he saw the letter."
and asks searching questions as to why Hausmann was appointed to the Board in the first place, and why Hausmann took so long to decalare an interest in a contract. He suggests that this scandal will not go away until a full and truly independent enquiry is held. Since no such enquiry will be called until December at the earliest, this suggests that the scandal will fester away right through the election campaign. Poor political managment we say.
