Alarm bells over Ryall’s phone calls
Annette
KING
Health Spokesperson
20 February 2014
MEDIA STATEMENT
Alarm bells over Ryall’s phone
calls
The murk swirling around Southern District Health Board’s dealings with South Link Health continued today with revelations that the Minister of Health Tony Ryall consulted South Link Health’s executive director on appointing a Board chair.
“This matter gets murkier by the hour,” Labour’s Health spokesperson Annette King says.
“Mr Ryall admitted in the House that he phoned South Link Health boss Murray Tilyard seeking his advice on candidates for the position of chair of SDHB late last year.
“The Board has been locked in a nasty battle with South Link Health over at least $5 million - and possibly up to $15 million - of public funding.
“It is entirely inappropriate for the Minister to be consulting with a person about appointing someone to the board of an organisation that his agency is in dispute with and which now involves allegations of fraud.
“It calls his judgment into question and raises some extremely serious questions around what role Mr Ryall has actually played in this saga.”