Sir Ashley Bloomfield weighs in on Rob Campbell sacking

Former Director-General of Health Sir Ashley Bloomfield has weighed into the sacking of Te Whatu Ora - Health NZ chair Rob Campbell saying he saw no evidence the public service was left or right leaning.

“I spent much of the last 25 years in NZ’s excellent public service & saw no evidence of either left or right ‘leaning’,” Sir Ashley wrote in a Tweet.

“I have no idea how any of my former CE [Crown Entity] colleagues voted, we just didn’t talk about it. Rob Campbell’s comments are a big story because it’s a very rare event,” Sir Ashley wrote.

Campbell told the Herald that while he respected Bloomfield, he disagreed with the comments.

“There is a big difference between a chief executive and the chair of a board. A chief public servant is usually a career public servant, I am not a career public servant,” Campbell said.

Bloomfield’s comments could also be seen as a pushback against Act leader David Seymour who accused the public service of leaning left.

Seymour said the Campbell incident was was the “tip of the iceberg” of eroding political neutrality in the public service.

“Much of the Wellington bureaucracy is openly sympathetic to the left and that is a real concern.

“A politically neutral public service that can carry out the policies of governments of all colours is critical,” he said.

The comments come as Campbell refused to back down over the incident, saying the comments were made in a personal capacity.

Campbell was sacked for a LinkedIn post slamming National’s Three Waters policy accusing the party of blowing the “dog whistle on co-governance”.

“[Bloomfield] was dealing with the chief executives of ministries who were full time public servants and career public servants - the issues are quite different for someone who isn’t that,” he said.

He also personally attacked National’s leader, writing: “Christopher Luxon might be able to rescue his party from stupidity on climate change but rescuing this from a well he has dug himself might be harder.”

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins described the remarks as “inappropriate” and did not express confidence in Campbell when asked on Monday.

This is an apparent breach of the Code of Conduct for Crown Entity board members which demands political neutrality to the extent that any appointment could work with the current Government and any future Government.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, a former minister of the public service, said the comments were “inappropriate” and fell outside the code.

On Tuesday, Health Minister Ayesha Verrall sacked Campbell, having earlier asked for him to resign.

The focus has now shifted to whether Campbell will be forced out of his other public service job, the chair of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Co-governance

Campbell continues to claim that his dismissal runs deeper than concerns over impartiality.

He said that since Hipkins became prime minister and Verrall became health minister the Government has shifted away from its co-governance agenda, something he had been very supportive of.

Campbell said Verrall pulled him up for a column published in the Herald in which he defended co-governance.

“Since Minister Verrall took over - she informally expressed some concern to me about the emphasis I was putting on Te Aka Whai Ora [the Māori Health Authority] and its centrality to the reforms.

“She thought my language was stronger than she would like it to be,” Campbell said.

“It was a view that we might become not quite aligned and - and you don’t need to be a genius to see why that’s happening,” he said.

When asked whether he was referring to the fact the Government was shifting emphasis away from co-governance, Campbell confirmed he was.

“There was no formal warning, it was an adult-to-adult discussion,” he said.