The Government should "act with haste" to sack Rob Campbell from his role chairing the Environmental Protection Authority, National MP Simeon Brown says.
Health Minister Ayesha Verrall stripped Campbell of his role chairing Te Whatu Ora on Tuesday after he criticised National's Three Waters policy in a LinkedIn post.
In his post on Sunday, Campbell blasted National's Three Waters policy — referring to it as a "thin disguise for the dog whistle on co-governance".
"Christopher Luxon might be able to rescue his party from stupidity on climate change, but rescuing this from a well he has dug himself might be harder."
During the backlash for the post, Verrall said she had lost “confidence that Campbell is able to exercise the political neutrality necessary for his role at Te Whatu Ora” and sacked him.
Appearing on Breakfast's political panel this morning, Brown and Labour MP Arena Williams agreed Campbell was sacked quickly as chair of Health NZ quickly but Brown says the same should happen for his role as EPA chair.
"He has breached the political impartiality rules of the public service, he's a senior public servant, he should be living by example and so the Government needs to act with haste, if they've sacked him from Te Whatu Ora they need to do the same at the Environmental Protection Authority and do that work very quickly," Brown said.
He said the reality of it that it's "taking far too long" and David Parker needs to let him go in order to send a "clear message".
"Particularly in an election year, political impartiality of public service must be maintained, it's an important principle in New Zealand and actually he needs to just get on with it."
Asked why there is a delay, Williams said there's a code of conduct that needs to be followed for public servants.
"The ministers who have appointed them have acted really quickly to understand whether he needs to be dismissed from those positions.
"The health minister has made the decision already, the other ministers are considering it."
Speaking to Breakfast yesterday, Campbell stood by the political opinions that got him fired, saying he's been neutral in his role.
Rob Campbell told Breakfast his side of the story, doubling down on the comments that got him fired. (Source: Breakfast)
“I made some comments about National's Three Waters policy, which I considered to be wrong and misguided - the policy, not the comments - I stand by those,” he said.
Campbell said he often engages with political topics he’s interested in on social media, but that doesn’t mean he’s not impartial.
“I’ve always done that, and I’ll continue to do it; nothing changes for me.”
He said the code of conduct only relates to political comments that could damage his organisation, which “doesn’t mean that publicly, I’m muted".
“It doesn’t mean that I’m sitting there like a stuffed parrot, or a parrot that’s been trained just to say 'Polly wants a biscuit' whenever the minister wants; that’s not what I’m there for.”
He admitted to being biased in regards to Three Waters but said: “none of that bares to Te Whatu Ora.”
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