Paintergate doctor left off committee

Helen Clark

The doctor who triggered the Paintergate investigation of Prime Minister Helen Clark has been left off a Government committee he is considered well qualified to join.

National has seized on the rejection of Dr Graham Sharpe, suggesting political interference by Helen Clark.

"Did the Prime Minister interfere because she was miffed that Dr Sharpe caught her out?" National's health spokesman, Paul Hutchison, asked yesterday.

Dr Sharpe said: "One is left wondering whether my former political activity has had any influence on this."

But Health Minister Annette King said last night Helen Clark "absolutely rejects" the suggestion she blocked the appointment of Dr Sharpe, a Wellington Hospital anaesthetist, to the new perinatal and maternal mortality review committee.

More than 80 nominations were received for the committee, to which the Cabinet appointed 10 people last month. The committee reviews all deaths of mothers and babies that occur around the time of birth.

"The terms of reference do not call for an anaesthetist on it," Ms King said. "I received recommendations from the Ministry of Health. He [Dr Sharpe] was not recommended by the ministry. He was never rejected by the Cabinet. He was certainly never rejected by the Prime Minister. It's gutter politics."

Dr Sharpe, a United Future member, in 2002 made a complaint to the police after reading a newspaper report of Helen Clark's role in what came to be called Paintergate.

In 1999, when she was Leader of the Opposition, a painting by a Paraparaumu artist which she had signed and passed off as her own was given to a charity for a celebrity auction where it sold for $1000. After investigating, the police decided against prosecution.

The Society of Anaesthetists nominated Dr Sharpe for the committee. Ms King said she had accepted the ministry's recommendations.