Labour’s inept ministers continue to be exposed, this time it is gagging people and buying silence from critics by offering them jobs if they shut up: Quote:
Newshub has obtained a voicemail and emails which suggest the Health Minister tried to gag senior staff talking publicly about the state of embattled Middlemore Hospital.
In one case he even appeared to promise a board member, who he’d sacked, another job if they shut up.
“I notice more and more getting reported that is really not helping at all, and I’m hopeful that there won’t be much more commentary,” Health Minister David Clark said in a voicemail to District Health Board chair Rabin Rabindran.
“My fear is that if you and I keep commenting, the story keeps ticking along. I’d rather not have distraction about who said what when.”
However Mr Clark denies this, saying he was “absolutely not” trying to stop board members from speaking out. End quote.
Of course he wasn’t. No he wouldn’t do that would he…not when his poo in the walls story was exposed for the fake news it was…no he didn’t want that to stop at all. /sarcQuote:
“There were a lot of conversations happening through the media and that meant there wasn’t clear communication about what was going on, and that’s unhelpful,” he told Newshub.
The voicemail was left on April 18th, two weeks after he sacked Mr Rabindran. In the same voicemail, Mr Clark offered him a new job.
“I would consider you for further appointments because I think that sends a message.” End quote.
That message would be ‘shut up and we will look after you’. Quote:
National MP Jami-Lee Ross says Mr Clark was “dangling [a job] to gag [Rabindran] and silence him”.
Mr Clark told Newshub he “absolutely rejects” this claim.
A trail of emails obtained by Newshub show DHB acting CEO Gloria Johnson wanted to release information to get their side of the story across because their reputations were being damaged.
A board member emailed Dr Johnson, concerned that the Minister’s office was pressuring the DHB about what they could and couldn’t say.
“If the minister is accusing us of covering something up we need to address that quickly and directly,” the email read.
“They are saying they need more time and want us [especially] me to ‘suck it up’.”
Mr Clark says he is not aware of anyone being told to “suck it up” and is adamant he’s done nothing wrong.
However, it’s clear that senior staff at the DHB were angry with the accusations being made by Mr Clark, and felt gagged. End quote.
It is also clear that no new job has been forthcoming for Radindran and so he’s decided to out the minister for his sloppy attempt at controlling the narrative.
Labour ministers are continually to show just how inept and accident prone they are. I can’t remember a more inept ministry.
Jacinda Ardern is going to have to sack one of these fools as the list of idiots gets longer and longer.
We’ve had the minister for open government refusing to cough up details and covering up meetings, then Megan Woods destroying an entire industry so her boss can virtue-signal to European politicians and students, Andrew Little screwing up justice reform by failing to talk to his coalition partners. Kelvin Davis finally admitting a conflict of interest, as well as attacking a female opposition MP in a derogatory manner in a select committee. Different male Labour ministers groping and being condescending to Judith Collins. Plus plenty more stupidity going on, and most of it seems to be Labour ministers.
Someone is going to have to do something soon with this government as they lurch from one bad news cycle to the next.