Minister and Kane in stoush
A Canterbury health board member has come out swinging after Minister of Health Jonathan Coleman said she was ‘‘antigovernment’’ and never attended meetings.
Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) member Jo Kane said Coleman’s comments on Radio New Zealand (RNZ) yesterday morning were ‘‘a low blow’’ and incorrect.
‘‘I stand by my word that he’s lazy because he has said some things about me and he hasn’t checked his facts.’’
On Wednesday while discussing last week’s bungling of district health board budget allocations, Kane told RNZ the minister was lazy because he listened only to ministry officials and not to health boards.
Coleman responded on Morning Report yesterday, saying Kane was ‘‘always a critic of the Government’’ like other health board members elected on a ‘‘Labour/ Green ticket’’.
‘‘There will always be many enemies of the Government looking to put the boot in, in election year.’’
Coleman said Kane had not attended any board meetings when he had visited Canterbury.
‘‘The fact is whenever I have been to Canterbury for any function which DHB members have been invited to, including the board meeting I attended relatively recently, Jo is never there.’’
Kane said she was in hospital at the time of the ‘‘hastily’’ arranged February meeting with Coleman.
‘‘I was actually very sick at the time.’’
The meeting with the CDHB was not its monthly public meeting, but a special meeting with the minister which members were invited to attend, she said.
She did not attend events with the minister in Canterbury as she believed they were ‘‘photo opportunities’’.
In attacking Kane, the minister was trying to divert attention from the substantive issues she was raising, she said.
‘‘Answer the questions – don’t deflect what the answers are. So, I’m going to say to Jonathan Coleman, you bring it on because I’m going to throw some stuff back at you and you better check your facts.’’
Kane, who is serving her fourth term as a health board member, said she stood as an independent and was ‘‘sick and tired’’ of being tied to Labour.
Coleman’s office said the minister had no further comment to make.