$14k puff piece for new Minister

Newshub reports:

The Health Minister is in another political neutrality mess after Te Whatu Ora paid for a puff profile of her in a southern newsletter.

Dr Ayesha Verrall – who sacked the chair of Te Whatu Ora last week for not being politically neutral – has called the piece an “inappropriate use of public funding”.

The 10-paragraph profile of Dr Verrall featured in Te Whatu Ora Southern’s February newsletter and featured the headline: ‘New Health Minister reveals strong Southern Roots.’

It also appeared in the Otago Daily Times, The Star, Southland Express and other region publications.

The cost of the publications is $14,000 and it’s estimated to have reached more than 365,750 people. The cost of the profile didn’t incur an extra cost.

It called the minister a “southerner at heart” and said she was born in Invercargill and raised in Fiordland.

“She remembers her father trying to instill his love of the outdoors, and recalled crossing the Eglinton River, scrambling up Dore Pass and waking in freezing Department of Conservation huts to see the sun touch the mountain tops,” it read.

This is Labour Party advertising, and has nothing to do with the health system. What does it say about the culture in the new Health NZ, that they thought this was appropriate?

“The first I learned of this matter is through a Written Parliamentary Question”.

But her office knew because Te Whatu Ora Southern sought its approval.

That approval “was mistakenly given by a former staff member, who did not seek my approval,” Dr Verrall said.

The Minister’s Office speaks on behalf of the Minister. One of her staff approved it. Again what does this suggest about the culture, where this was even proposed, let alone approved?