Kerre Woodham: Rob Campbell may find he has some spare time on his hands soon

Rob Campbell is a very big cheese. He was named Deloitte chairman of the Year in 2017 and awarded a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business in 2019.

Not bad for a poacher turned gamekeeper, a former Unionist turned businessman,  appointed as Chancellor of Auckland, University of Technology, and more recently charged with the onerous burden of transforming New Zealand's health system – Te Whatu Ora.

However, for a very busy man, he may have some much needed spare time coming soon after his comments on LinkedIn criticising National's Three Waters policy, and more specifically National’s leader Christopher Luxon.

As a result, the Prime Minister has refused to express confidence in Campbell, which is pretty much tantamount to ordering his Health Minister to fire Campbell. And Hipkins has said that Campbell's comments were inappropriate.

And they are, for a senior public civil servant.  

Public servants must be seen to be Caesar's wife, beyond reproach, beyond tribal politics.

Anyone who's followed Rob Campbell's career can't be clutching their pearls at the thought that Campbell harbours some reservations about National’s policies and about National full stop. What is astonishing is that he's been so self-indulgent.

He knows the requirements of working in the public sector. You can, of course, have an opinion. Everybody has an opinion.

Some people can air them, like me. Some people, like public servants like Rob Campbell, can't. You can express them with your mates around the BBQ. You can't do it on social media if you want to keep your job.  

This is one of the biggest jobs in the country right now and you've got a man who says, pretty much, that he doesn't think much of National. He hates the fact that they're not willing to look at co-governance, which is something Rob Campbell's been strong on all the way through his working life.

Can you really have a man at the helm going into an election year, who has pretty much indicated he doesn't want to work with National?

When you've got the Prime Minister saying inappropriate … there's a process to follow … don't think it's on. This is a man looking for some spare time and I think he's just found it.

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