Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Controversial Hawke's Bay District Health Board member, Jacoby Poulain hits out against board

By Astrid Austin
Hawkes Bay Today·
18 Sep, 2019 06:12 AM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Hawke's Bay District Health Board member, Jacoby Poulain has taken to social media, saying she has been "muzzled, reprimanded and bullied".

An outspoken Hawke's Bay District Health Board member is calling for the Minister of Health to have the board she claims "muzzled, reprimanded and bullied" her, removed.

Jacoby Poulain took to social media on Wednesday afternoon slamming the organisation she has been at odds with since May this year, as well as announce a petition she has created.

The dispute came about when she criticised Hawke's Bay Hospital over the care of a mother as Oranga Tamariki attempted to uplift her newborn baby.

The May 7 incident brought Oranga Tamariki's justifications for taking newborn babies from their mothers into the national spotlight.

Poulain, whose criticisms subsequently rankled those high up at Hawke's Bay Hospital, now says her reputation has been "hugely tarnished" and she has been treated like a "criminal".

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"... A threat to my reputation threatens the rest of my life and that is wholly unfair for what started this."

Despite several attempts by Hawke's Bay Today to contact Poulain since the video came out, she did not answer.

In the video she claims she has been subject to "heavy reprimand from the board; the chairman and the board majority".

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"This reprimand has got to such a point where I have been forced off psychologically. They will and they have argued otherwise. I have been subject to smear, slander, false accusation and major defamation."

In letters and meetings by chairman Kevin Atkinson, Poulain says she has been portrayed as "effectively breaching the code of conduct".

"It has been insinuated but that charge has never been laid or landed properly with me. I've received a lot of letters that push me around and insinuate many things about me similar to how I have been portrayed in the media by the board but have never landed a charge.

"Therefore it is impossible for somebody like me to mount my defence if I do not even know what the charge is."

Discover more

Comment: DHB 'failed significantly' in its duty

13 May 06:44 PM
New Zealand

Hawke's Bay DHB member Jacoby Poulain resigns

31 Jul 11:15 PM

Tide of teddies takes over Takapau Town Hall

18 Sep 07:00 PM
New Zealand

Labour backed candidate slammed by Flaxmere kaumātua

19 Sep 06:13 PM

She said: "The code of conduct is unlawful in that it overreaches and it purports to provide the chairman and the board and whoever is attempting to assert it, rights and rules and the ability to be able to do things that they do not have the ability to do by law; namely to suppress my speech."

Poulain, a qualified lawyer, has been a member of the board for six years. She too is a Hastings District councillor and is an EIT board member.

On July 31, Poulain texted Atkinson at 9.59am - one minute before the scheduled 10am start of the meeting - advising her intention to formally resign.

In the text message, she said: "Morning. My apologies for today's meeting. I was intending to come however I have been considering my options and have decided to resign, effective immediately. I will issue [an] official statement to you/board as soon as possible. Regards, Jacoby."

About a week later, she confirmed she had decided to stay on, and wouldn't send a formal resignation letter, but would not attend any further meetings.

She has subsequently put her hat in the ring in this year's Hawke's Bay District Health Board elections.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Furthermore, Poulain claims it has got to a point where it is "so psychologically unsafe that it is untenable to go".

She has not attended four consecutive board meetings since May, with the next due later this month.

During this time, Poulain claims she has "never" been given legal rights to defend herself even though she has "explicitly asked for them and [is] explicitly entitled to them by law".

"Therefore, I find myself in the most perverse situation where my voice as an elected representative has been pushed out and so is yours because I represent you ..."

Poulain also called into question the ethnicities and genders of the people who have been "locked out".

"All the people locked out have been women. We're all Maori, except for one," she claims.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"That mother never had a voice in the court to defend her child - this is a wholly unlawful, wholly abusive process."

Deputy chairman Ngahiwi Tomoana, who is currently filling in for Atkinson who is overseas at the moment, says Poulain's behaviour is "bizarre".

"She's had ample opportunity to kōrero," he told Hawke's Bay Today. At the time, he had not seen the video.

Tomoana says his main concern is for her "integrity".

He says he had "sympathised" with her, and has "always supported her stance".

However, he says the timing of her video "seems pivotal to the election and I think the electoral pressures may be getting to her".

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"I think she may be ringfencing herself out," he says.

A spokesman for Minister of Health Dr David Clark said he had no comment.

"This remains an issue for the HBDHB, and it would not be appropriate for the Minister to comment this close to DHB elections."

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Premium
Hawkes Bay Today

In the palm of his hand – the rise of a third top NZ men's shotputter

Hawkes Bay Today

'I feel aggrieved': 92-year-old online shopper's warning after supermarket meat purchase

Hawkes Bay Today

How new speed limits are making Hastings schools safer


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Premium
Premium
In the palm of his hand – the rise of a third top NZ men's shotputter
Hawkes Bay Today

In the palm of his hand – the rise of a third top NZ men's shotputter

You know Tom Walsh and Jacko Gill, but a third Kiwi could join them at the world champs.

16 Jul 06:00 PM
'I feel aggrieved': 92-year-old online shopper's warning after supermarket meat purchase
Hawkes Bay Today

'I feel aggrieved': 92-year-old online shopper's warning after supermarket meat purchase

16 Jul 06:00 PM
How new speed limits are making Hastings schools safer
Hawkes Bay Today

How new speed limits are making Hastings schools safer

16 Jul 03:49 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP