Tony Ryall MP
National Party Health Spokesman

12 July 2007

Health scandal: No confidence in Hodgson

National Party Health spokesman Tony Ryall says the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board has rightfully signalled that it has no confidence in Pete Hodgson’s handling of alleged conflicts of interest at the board.

“Mr Hodgson must come into line and agree that the issues are too serious for an internal inquiry, and that the matter should be properly put in the hands of the Auditor-General.”

Mr Ryall says a responsible Minister would listen to the appeals from the board at the centre of the allegations.

“They understand the need for openness and transparency. The Minister clearly doesn’t. He and Helen Clark appear to have already made up their minds that allegations of a multimillion-dollar conflict of interest are ‘almost nothing’.”

Mr Ryall says taxpayers would certainly disagree.

“Very serious allegations have been reported. They must be dealt with in order to maintain public confidence in the DHB system.

“It requires independent attention from experts with a broad mandate who are not political appointees.

“When will Labour learn that it shouldn’t try to politically manage the outcomes of inquiries?”

ENDS

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