Labour candidate’s actions were ‘unacceptable’ says Muller
National leader Todd Muller has taken a swipe at new Labour candidate Dr Ayesha Verrall for not declaring her intention to run while critiquing the Government’s response to Covid-19.
But Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has backed Verrall.
She compared the situation to keeping former Air NZ boss Christopher Luxon as a business adviser last year despite his interest in running for the National Party.
“I absolutely accepted that he had a role he wanted to play in politics and that did not diminish my view that he’s always shared the view with professional intent. I take the exact same view of Dr Ayesha Verrall.”
Muller said it was “unacceptable” that Verrall, an infectious diseases specialist, was considering running for central government while pertaining to be an independent critic.
Verrall was named as number 18 on Labour’s list.
During the Covid-19 crisis she was commissioned by the Ministry of Health to review its contact-tracing programme.
Verrall dismissed any concerns about her impartiality and said she made no public comments after submitting her candidate application on May 5.
On May 12, Verrall spoke to the Herald about her role in pushing the Government to improve its contact-tracing capacity. The profile ran on May 23.
Muller said Verrall, who is the deputy chair of the Capital & Coast DHB after running on the Labour ticket, should have declared her intentions earlier. “That is an expectation that we’ve had on public servants for many, many years and I think it’s a test that if she looks deeply she’ll, I think, find that she’s not met the test.”
All of New Zealand had expectations of “the highest level of integrity” regarding Verrall’s role during the Covid-19 crisis for “independent and dispassionate advice”.
“The idea that that individual also was minded to become a Labour list MP and then had formally become one before making that public is unacceptable.”
Muller called the Government’s announcement on the 11 infrastructure projects it was fast-tracking “deeply, deeply underwhelming”. He said the projects in the bill were ones that had already been announced and the Government had “spent months scrapping between themselves” about which were included.