Health Minister Tim Nicholls has denied forcing a prominent abortion advocate from a state health service board because he lacked the legal power to sack her.
Former Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service board member Daile Kelleher resigned in May after Nicholls told her to “resolve” what he deemed to be an unmanageable conflict of interest with her work.
Kelleher, a one-time Greens candidate for Nicholls’ Clayfield seat, spoke out after parliament last week passed laws giving cabinet the power to dismiss health service board members without reason.
Health Minister Tim Nicholls has been accused of forcing former Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service board member Daile Kelleher to quit.Credit: Jamila Filippone
“No, I saw that claim, and that’s actually not correct,” Nicholls said at a Tuesday media conference when asked whether, in the absence of powers, he used the conflict process to dismiss Kelleher.
“I was contacted by the chair of the board, and the board advised me that they … were unhappy and unsatisfied with the conflict of interest arrangements that had been put in place, and referred it to me.”
Kelleher was – and remains – chief executive of Sexual and Reproductive Health Australia. She also led Children by Choice during the Queensland campaign to decriminalise abortion.
In this role, and through a Churchill Fellowship that ultimately included calls for government to broaden abortion access, Kelleher was required to speak publicly – including on government policy.
Board members are technically bound by public service codes of conduct barring media commentary about government policy, but they can carefully contribute to public discussion in a private capacity.
But it was media comments about the importing of US-style abortion politics to Australia after last year’s state election, during which the issue dogged the LNP, that set off board concerns.
Updated Integrity Commissioner advice then sought by Kelleher noted the board had raised concerns about reputational risk, but also the risk of damaging its relationship with Nicholls.
Kelleher said she was placed under intense scrutiny by a board she had only joined in April last year and which she believed felt spooked by the change of government.
The advice, shared with this masthead, showed commissioner Linda Waugh found conflicts around board “matters or decisions regarding abortion or sexual or reproductive health” could be managed.
Under a plan drafted in December, Kelleher would be “quarantined” from such matters and would also liaise over any planned public comments or activities. It was never approved by Nicholls.
In letters to Kelleher directing her to “resolve” what he deemed was an unmanageable conflict, Nicholls also said her Churchill Fellowship call was at odds with the government position.
“Which is to make no amendments [to abortion laws] in this term of government,” he said.
A spokesperson for Nicholls declined to comment last week when first contact by this masthead, citing an inability to comment on individual workplace matters.
But on Tuesday, Nicholls said his role was to “request people to resolve their conflicts of interest”.
“I acted in accordance with the advice I received, the legal advice I received, from the department … The legal advice was that Ms Kelleher had to resolve her conflicts of interest,” he said.
“Now, there are a number of options that were available to her, and she chose to resign. And that’s the way she chose to resolve that conflict of interest.”
In a statement to this masthead, Kelleher reiterated her belief that the options available were to either quit as chief executive of Sexual and Reproductive Health Australia or the $44,000 per-year board role.
She said Nicholls’ claim that his role was to ask people to resolve conflicts was incorrect, as it was also his decision to deem her conflicts unmanageable and not approve her management plan.
“I gave him real options by presenting a management plan, and he backed me into a decision I was forced to make,” she said.
“If the conflicts weren’t about abortion and this government’s political fear of reproductive rights, he would be applying this same logic to other HHS board members and you’d have zero health experts on government health boards.”
The Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service is yet to respond to a request for comment.
Contacted about the matter, Transparency International Australia chief executive Clancy Moore said Queensland had long been a leader in transparency and integrity.
“[This includes] the establishment of the Integrity Commission model to give advice on conflicts of interest and other ethical issues,” Moore said.
“Trust in our democracy suffers when governments are seen to be appointing their mates to board roles or removing people they don’t agree with.”
Despite the LNP’s sweeping changes to other boards, revealed by this masthead, it could previously only remove health service directors for reasons including convictions, insolvency, or incompetence.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
