Labour leader Chris Hipkins repeats MP’s ‘cooking the books’ claim about Health NZ Commissioner Lester Levy

Labour leader Chris Hipkins is standing by his MP’s claim Health NZ Commissioner Lester Levy was “cooking the books” and is waving off the threat of legal action, despite Levy acknowledging it could be defamatory.

However, Labour’s Dr Ayesha Verrall, who made the claim in select committee last week while covered by parliamentary privilege, is today refusing to repeat her allegation that Levy, a former district health board chief executive, had a “reputation for cooking the books”.

Verrall’s claim followed a report by Newsroom about Levy’s attempts to include anticipated redundancy payments and Holidays Act payment remediations which were happening in the 2024/25 year in the previous year’s accounts, making deficits under the previous Health NZ board look larger and his look smaller.

The Auditor-General disagreed with Health NZ’s approach and the costs of about $212 million were included in the 2024/25 year’s accounts.

In select committee, Verrall highlighted Levy’s past record at three district health boards, where she claimed that he produced surpluses that turned to deficits when he left. Levy had a “reputation for cooking the books”, she said.

Levy rejected the comment and asked for an apology, saying that her claims were “totally untrue”.

Health NZ Commissioner Lester Levy rejected the MP's claim, calling it untrue. Photo / Mark Mitchell

He acknowledged the Auditor-General’s decision regarding the $212m costs and said Health NZ had accepted the end result.

Levy later said Verrall’s comments could be defamatory. As she was in a select committee, Verrall was covered by a special form of legal privilege.

After the select committee and again today, Verrall did not repeat the accusation.

Hipkins, however, was happy to repeat it: “I think when you’re deliberately taking expenses for one year and moving them to a year in which they weren’t incurred to make the books look better, I think that the colloquial phrase of cooking the books applies.”

Asked if he was restating Verrall’s allegation, Hipkins doubled down: “In the context of what I’ve just said, yes.”

Verrall’s claim also referred to Levy’s alleged reputation of “cooking the books”. Asked if he endorsed this, Hipkins said: “Well, I haven’t looked at all of his past instances, but I absolutely back Ayesha Verrall.”

On the potential threat of defamation, Hipkins believed Levy “wouldn’t have a leg to stand on”.

Asked if he would commit to not using taxpayer funding for any future legal action, Hipkins said: “I never speak about legal cases hypothetically.”

Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the NZ Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.