The Front Page: What should Government and big bosses learn from the Rob Campbell saga?

Rob Campbell, former chairman of Te Whatu Ora. Photo / Michael Craig

The sacking of Rob Campbell from his role as the chairman of Te Whatu Ora and the Environmental Protection Authority isn’t as simple as another social media faux pas.

Speaking to The Front Page podcast, NZ Herald business editor at large Liam Dann says that while you could treat this as the perils of social media, it’s more complicated than that.

“It’s not a classic social media balls up,” says Dann. “It’s not an example where someone’s got something wrong. He said what he wanted to say and he’s been sacked for it. In fact, he still stands by what he said and thinks he had a right to say it. It’s a very conscious decision on his part. It’s not like one of those social media disasters that strike people and ruin their careers.”

Dann says that Campbell has made no secret of his views on co-governance, even having written a column for the Herald on the issue in the past.

“He actually created a bit of grief because he called it ‘Who on earth could be worried about co-governance?’,” says Dann.

Campbell has a long history, stretching back to the 1980s, of openly expressing views that borrowed from both the political left and right. He isn’t someone who can easily be pigeonholed in one camp or the other.

The problem with the LinkedIn post, says Dann, is that he singled out a political party in his criticism, which opened the door for politicians to accuse a senior public figure of not being politically neutral.

This put the Government in the difficult position of having to discipline someone that they appointed.

While this could have been a tough situation, Dann says the Labour Party doesn’t come out of it looking bad.

“It actually went quite well for Labour, which is another irony. In a way, it enabled Hipkins and the new Health Minister to look a bit tougher than their predecessors. And even though the comments were in line with what Labour would support, they’ve got rid of him. They look impartial and hard-nosed. So I think it actually plays quite well for them, politically.”

But what does this saga mean for Campbell’s business and political career from here? What can other executives learn from his experience? And is it necessarily a bad thing to have public sector officials expressing what they really think?

Listen to the full episode of The Front Page Podcast to hear Liam Dann and Newstalk ZB political editor Jason Walls attempt to answer these questions.