Moroney tipped for DHB chair

A former Labour MP instrumental in holding to account disgraced health boss Nigel Murray won’t rule out taking on the role of Waikato DHB chair.

Parliament insiders have tipped Sue Moroney as a frontrunner to fill the government-appointed role following the resignation of Bob Simcock.

Simcock quit as chairman on November 28, blaming his demise on Murray.

Moroney opposed Murray’s appointment in 2014 and has laid a formal complaint with the Serious Fraud Office asking it to investigate Murray’s expense claims.

Murray resigned on October 5 after an independent investigation found he misspent health dollars during his numerous trips, both abroad and within New Zealand.

Moroney said she was not seeking the role of DHB chair and hadn’t been approached by Health Minister David Clark.

However, Moroney said she was passionate about health care and good governance.

‘‘I’ve learnt a long time ago never to say never but it’s not something I’ve been working toward,’’ she said.

Moroney retired from Parliament in 2016.

Following Simcock’s resignation, deputy chairwoman Sally Webb has taken on the role of acting chair.

Webb declined to comment when asked if she wanted to continue in the role permanently.

Waikato DHB spokeswoman Lydia Aydon said the health board’s executive team had not been given an indication on when an appointment would be made.

New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union executive director Jordan Williams launched a petition urging Simcock to go and following his resignation called for the entire DHB to go.

Moroney said elected members had a mandate from the community to retain their positions.

But close scrutiny had to be given to the board’s appointed members.

‘‘It would be a very difficult thing to remove the elected members of the board.

‘‘But every incoming health minister ought to be looking at the ministerial appointments on district health boards and assessing whether they are the correct people to be on there or not,’’ she said.

Moroney said board members such as Dave Macpherson were focused on holding officials to account but questioned the ability of others to ask hard questions.

‘‘There’s some training needs and some education needs required among the DHB members and if you look throughout the country I think we’ve got the same problem.

‘‘People who are elected by their communities have a strong mandate to be there but, my goodness, all of them need to learn to be asking the tough questions.’’

Previous to becoming an MP, Moroney worked for the New Zealand Nurses Organisation and served as chair of the lobby group Waikato Coalition for Public Health.

Simcock, speaking to the Waikato Times following his resignation, said he hoped the next chairperson didn’t attempt to undo all the work currently underway at Waikato Hospital.

‘‘Whoever becomes chair has to understand that this is not an organisation that needs to start from scratch and there’s a whole bunch of stuff going on,’’ Simcock said.

‘‘There’s an interim chief executive [Derek Wright] who knows exactly what his task is for the next 12 months and it’s really important that gets seen through.’’