King on Lind rumours

There is a somewhat bizarre story in the Dominion Post about Annette King allegedly writing a letter to a HB DHB employee regarding rumours her husband was having an affair.

I’m only covering this because it is in the media. A couple of people have made comments in the past on this blog alleging such an affair.  I immediately deleted them, and will do so to any comment on this thread which makes accusations of that nature. I don’t really care if it is true or not and don’t see it as relevant.

What I find bizarre is if a warning letter was written to Jacqueline Parisi, because according to the story she is the one who alerted Ray Lind to the rumours. Now normally one would be grateful if someone informs you of rumours you are having an affair.  So, why would you write a letter to that person? Let alone send it to the CEO to give to the employee.

And if you are Minister of Health at the time, it appears unwise to write to a DHB CEO on a personal issue, asking him to deliver a personal letter to an employee.
I know a couple of high profile people who have had to put up with malicious gossip allegaing affairs with a particular person, and their response is to have their lawyer write a letter to the person spreading the rumour – instead of them personally writing. That is the safer course of action. Or of course not to put anything in writing at all is an option.

By having written a letter while Minister of Health to a DHB CEO and employee, King has given the media the excuse to write about the issue.   The media never need much of an excuse to cover an issue like that – the Brash alleged affair went public based on a report of a discussion at a private Caucus meeting.

Like with Don Brash and Je-Lan, Annette King and Ray Lind have my sympathies for their private life becoming a media issue.  Despite my policy differences with her, I have always regarded Annette King in a positive light, and she was a very likeable opponent in 1996 when I was part of the National campaign team in Rongotai.

But the letter (if it exists – it seems even that is disputed) seems unwise. As I said, it gives the media an excuse to write stories about it.  I do have to say that personally I fail to see the relevance – I can’t see how any of this is relevant to the issues around the Board and conflicts of interest in contracts.