Health Minister Shane Reti is bounced as PM Christopher Luxon reshuffles his top table

Ex-Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has been replaced by Simeon Brown.

THREE KEY FACTS

• Shane Reti has lost the health portfolio following a Cabinet reshuffle.
• Simeon Brown takes over as Health Minister.
• Labour likens it to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic by a failing Government.

Quite a few people have lost their jobs in the health service system, so another one is no real surprise. At least National Minister Shane Reti retains a job and salary which sets him apart from others.

Despite making the Pae Ora legislation a major election issue, forcing the closure of Te Aka Whai Ora an early priority, changing the governance to gain more direct control, making staff and spending cuts, the Government has succeeded only in raising public concern about the system.

It is hard not to draw the conclusion that the good doctor misunderstood the symptoms, misdiagnosed the disorder and prescribed the wrong treatment.

I reckon that the obsession with Māori role in the system was the core error. It might have played well in some voters’ minds but the alleged preference or privilege was never true and the focus on it was a diversion from the real problems. The Government was committed to demonstrating by December how their changes actually benefit Māori. That they have not done so is because they haven’t.

Health NZ Commissioner Professor Lester Levy during the Health select committee hearing at Parliament,on December 4. Photo / Mark Mitchell

There must be real doubts now about the employment longevity of the three senior people in the system now – Commissioner and chief executives of Te Whatu Ora and Manatū Hauora. Contract renewals or otherwise loom in the coming months and a Government focused on results in critical areas can hardly leave the senior bureaucrats in place when no progress is being made.

The Pae Ora legislation is not perfect. Nor was its early implementation under the previous Government. But it was and remains capable (though weakened by closure of Te Aka Whai Ora) of delivering improvements if handled sensibly. Incredible as it may be after the political vacillations, distortions and destructions imposed since its inception, there remains considerable goodwill from staff and their professional and union organisations to the kaupapa. An active return to the principles of Te Mauri o Rongo by governance and management is the only credibility base for that.

Rob Campbell, former chairman of Te Whatu Ora. Photo / Michael Craig

It is true that there are sharks in the water. There are interests in profiting from the demise of public health services and infrastructure. This is not new but it is intensifying as they make progress and the public system weakens. But with the right approach even reasonable interests of private interests can contribute to the cause of rebuilding our public health services.

Reti was not the answer. But neither is sacking him. Not on its own.