KEY POINTS:
The Government last night gagged the news media from revealing details of a draft report of an inquiry into the Hawkes Bay District Health Board.
It deals with alleged conflicts of interest of a board member and how the board handled the conflicts.
The Director-General of Health won
an interim High Court injunction preventing newspapers, television and radio stations from publishing anything from the first draft of the report, which was subsequently changed before the board was sacked.
The injunction also requires media to hand over any copies of the report they may have.
A public backlash is building in Hawkes Bay over the Government's sacking of the board, and Labour MPs hoping to win votes in the district in this year's general election are feeling the heat.
Health Minister David Cunliffe fired the board on Wednesday, ending a long saga of disputes and divisions within the organisation.
Sir John Anderson was appointed commissioner to oversee the DHB.
But the members of the board - who were elected by the Hawkes Bay public only last October - are proving to be popular figures in the region and as many as five local councils are poised to take legal action to challenge their sacking.
Many members of the public yesterday voiced their opposition to the decision through emails, text messages or phone calls to various people.
Sacked chairman Kevin Atkinson claimed he hadn't seen anything like the public reaction "since the Ranfurly Shield" - which Hawkes Bay held in the late 1960s.
On the wrong end of the public anger are local Labour MPs, including Russell Fairbrother, who was an electorate MP in the area until beaten in the 2005 election.
Mr Fairbrother said he had received a lot of calls and some text messages from people who were against the sackings.
He is standing in the Napier seat in this year's election, and said his whole life was focused on that at present.
"But the issue here is so important and big - the delivery of services to people who need public health - that the future of any politician really is irrelevant."
Mr Fairbrother said that before the decision was announced, the only calls he got were from people who would never vote for him.
But he had also had conversations with people who wanted someone to speak out for health in Hawkes Bay, he said.
National's local MPs Chris Tremain and Craig Foss are holding a public meeting this morning in Taradale.
Mr Tremain said local people hadn't had an opportunity to say anything about what should happen, and while there were limited options for action, they could at least give their views at the meeting.
Most of the sacked board members fired out an angry press release yesterday that challenged the information that Mr Cunliffe was given by former board member Peter Hausmann in a submission that backed the sacking of the elected officials.
But Mr Cunliffe remains confident that he made the right decision, and is certain it will stand up to any challenge by the local councils.
Meanwhile, Mr Atkinson said he would stand again when the next election was held.