Tensions hit Healthway board
Healthway's board has been riven by tensions between sporting groups and the public health lobby for as long as he has been a minister, Health Minister Kim Hames says.
As the State Government weighs how to deal with a Public Sector Commission report that uncovered a VIP ticket scandal, Dr Hames revealed the Government had already started work on drafting new legislation to change the make-up of Healthway's board in the wake of the Carmen opera controversy last year.
"We've got the sports groups that are receiving the funding on the one side, and we've got the health lobby on the other side that don't always see eye to eye," Dr Hames said yesterday.
"Now, I've been trying to smooth that pathway and get them to take a more middle-of-the-road approach than to be fanatical in either side, and I think we've achieved that.
"The health lobby would like to totally dissociate any sports from any mention of fast foods and alcohol, whereas the sports lobby are desperate to get funding to continue their action," he said.
"In my view they have got a case as well, because a lot of that money goes to grassroots sport.
"And I think the reality is that we should be in the middle somewhere."
Dr Hames revealed he had spoken to Healthway chairwoman Rosanna Capolingua "a few times" since the PSC report was tabled in Parliament on Thursday. He said it was not up to him to express confidence in her continuing in the role.
"It's not a matter of me having confidence in her or not, what's happened is the board has been found as a collective group not to have provided the oversight that was required to stop that sort of behaviour happening in their system," Dr Hames said. "I don't want to talk about the chair.
"She has indicated that she is getting legal advice.
"I think it's important to let that process take its course. I'm not having discussions with her at all about her future role."
Shadow health minister Roger Cook said Dr Hames was "front and centre in relation to this affair".
"When did he know what was going on at Healthway, and why didn't he do something about it," Mr Cook said.
"There's a whole range of questions that should be asked around the conduct of the minister, of the Healthway board, and of the Public Sector Commissioner."
