Health Minister Annette King today welcomed the re-emergence of Roger Sowry as National's health spokesperson, but wondered whether the health sector would be quite so pleased or amused.

"Mr Sowry has been an associate minister of health in the past. The health sector knows he had no liking for the job then, and had no desire even to try to absorb the huge amount of detail that is such a feature of the portfolio.

"However, Mrs Shipley has decided to 'do a re-soling and re-heeling job' on him, and we can just hope the shoes fit him better than they did before. I hope he shows he can contribute in a positive way to getting a decent and fair health service operating once again in this country.

"National promised last year that if changes were made to the health service, they wouldn't interfere with those changes, but would cooperate in making them work for the good of New Zealand.

"It will be interesting to see if Mr Sowry honours that commitment. His tired old style of operating does not create great optimism in that respect, but we will just have to wait and see."

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