BayGate or The Hawkes Bay Affair
From the other side of the world –
indeed it is hard to find anywhere further away from Devon – Hawkes Bay sounds
idyllic. On the eastern coast of North Island, Captain James Cook and the crew
of the HMS Endeavour were probably the first Europeans to set eyes upon Hawke's
Bay in October 1769. Cook named the bay after Sir Edward Hawke, First Lord of
the Admiralty.
Hawkes Bay
wine, made there for a century and a half, has emerged as an international
winner. The recent branding of the region as Hawkes Bay Wine Country has
captured the imagination of the tourist industry and the public.
It seems
that nothing out of the ordinary happens in Hawkes Bay, apart from the
Earthquake in February 1931, which claimed the lives of 258 people. The next
earth-shattering event concerned the Hawkes Bay District health Board in 2007.
A saga of fraud investigations, missing
e-mails, a whistleblower who lost her job, an
expensive inquiry dubbed “a whitewash”, alleged conflict of interests, an
entire board sacked – and reinstated after a change of government...
The story starts in 2005 with the appointment of Peter Hausmann to the Hawkes Bay District Health Board. He is a friend of Health Minister
Annette King’s husband, Ray Lind, deputy CEO of HBDHB. At the time it was pointed out that there was a
potential conflict of interests involving Hausmann’s
company, Healthcare of New Zealand. (Ray
Lind left HBDHB in November 2006 and now works
for Hausmann.)
In
June 2007, Hausmann is alleged to have privileged
information concerning a $NZ 50M HBDHB contract for
which Healthcare NZ is tendering. The whistle blower loses her job, and in December 2007, Health Minister Cunliffe sacks the entire HBDHB
Board. A year later, after a general election, the seven board members are reinstated by his replacement Tony Ryall.
Subsequent
government inquiries – dubbed a whitewash by the Board Members that had been sacked – cleared Hausmann
of any wrong-doing.
Then in February 2009 Chris Clarke, HBDHB CEO resigned, a “Victim Of Corporate Assassins And Dirty Politics” according to the
FEATURE on Cranford Hospice
Updated 15 May 2011