Kate Hawkesby: Hipkins needs to show strong leadership and stub this banana republic vibe out

An opportunity for Chris Hipkins as PM to show real leadership -  and a divergent path to his predecessor by acting decisively and quickly on the Health NZ Chair, I reckon. I think that'd go well for him. If you've missed this story, former trade unionist Health NZ Chair Rob Campbell, criticised the National’s policy announcement on Three Waters on social media, stating that he thought it was a ‘thin disguise for the dog whistle on co-governance’. He made a bunch of comments including that, "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." Firstly, this is the guy overseeing the absolute shit-show that is our health system, so how he's even got time in the first place to be ranting on social media about opposition party policies is beyond me, but secondly, he's subject to the Public Service Commission code of conduct, requiring impartiality. He is not allowed to make political statements, or politicise his role, yet that’s exactly what he did.  Act's David Seymour's called for his resignation. He says: "The reality is that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Much of the Wellington bureaucracy is openly sympathetic to the left and that's a real concern."   Especially, when they're supposed to be impartial. National called it appalling, with one MP suggesting Campbell shouldn't give up his day job of wrecking the health system to make spurious criticism of National's policy. Another MP said, 'it is completely inappropriate for a senior public servant, the chair of our Health Agency, to be making these comments..’ and ‘it’s in breach of the clear rules on political impartiality for senior public servants.’   Seymour said he should pull his head in, but Campbell did nothing of the sort, he doubled down, saying he had nothing to apologize for, and doesn’t regret the comments.  So here's where Hipkins can show some strong leadership, and reassure voters that public servants aren't so full of their own importance and arrogance that they can breach Code of Conduct rules - and not apologise for it. Hipkins would not express confidence in him when asked last night. I mean, how do you keep on a guy who not only breaches his own conduct rules, but has overseen a health system that's in dire straits and arguably getting worse. Shortages of doctors, nurses, GP's, overcrowded ED's, cancelled surgeries, a ballooning waiting list of 67,000 and counting. And not only does Campbell say they're not on top of all that yet, but he's hardly giving the impression he's laser focused on fixing it either when he's busy on social media writing monologues on Three Waters for goodness sake. This highlights everything that’s wrong with ideological bureaucrats running things.. full of opinions and social media meanderings, but nothing actually gets done. We have a health system in tatters, a system we all pay for that they can’t fix, a system overseen by him, and yet instead of spending his time fixing it, he’s espousing his views on opposition party policy on social media. Hipkins needs to show strong leadership and stub this banana republic vibe out.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.