Campbell's last stand

On the day we talk, Rob Campbell is in his studio near his Freemans Bay home, and not long back from the dentist. The day stretches ahead, filled with yet more media interviews about his outspoken posts on LinkedIn.
"I'm both liberated and disappointed I've gone," he reflects.
Sacked as chair of the boards of Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand and the Environmental Protection Authority, the 72-year-old is used to leaving fires burning when he has diverged from the norm or spoken out. It's what he has done for much of his working life, as far back as the late 1970s when he was a unionist and former prime minister Rob Muldoon lambasted him as "a communist".
Having so much time on his hands is a huge shift for a self-described workaholic who, when asked about his hobbies outside of work, shakes his head. In 2021, he gave up three roles chairing private companies worth hundreds of millions (casino operator SkyCity, tourism operator THL, and retirement village operator Summerset) to dedicate himself to the health job.
"When I was approached about the health role, I was told that they respected my governance and competence and business knowledge. My heart was always with people facing inequity and it coincided with those thoughts. [In the corporate sector], I had been thinking I wasn't sure that I wanted to finish my working time like this."
Since his sacking, he has spent his days "driving those who live with me nuts" as he responds to all the messages he has received with personal thank-you notes. Although it's clear that many of those who know Campbell believe he was, indeed, asking for trouble, there have been some who have been prepared to join him in battle, such as fellow rebel Sir Ian Taylor. Others have stuck to the usual Kiwi way of doing things, by offering their anonymous support.
Bu hikaye New Zealand Listener dergisinin March 18 - 24 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye New Zealand Listener dergisinin March 18 - 24 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap

Behind the curtain
Jacinda Ardern's memoir lets us into the mind of a PM under crisis, but says less on whether she made right calls elsewhere.

Learning to swim
At 80, one of our most celebrated authors, Witi Ihimaera, threw himself in the deep end: a year-long commitment to a full-time Māori language immersion class.

Wing and a prayer
It was a winter Sunday in 1983 above a seething Wellington sea when Robert Muldoon glanced up from The Economist magazine.

The new old thing
Music from a pair of 60-somethings proves as vital as ever.

Love my way
The new series of Brokenwood Mysteries kicks off with an obsessed fan and a certain doctor living out his pop-star fantasies.

Defying gravity
EM Forster appears never to have seen a flying fish, but if he had, he might have recognised the way they inhabit two worlds. BY MATT VANCE

Lest we forget
In 1975, Frances Palmer was in Vietnam dealing with the fallout of war. Fifty years on, she asks why the lessons of war have still not been learnt.

Political overreach
The courts and judges have come in for criticism of late. Roger Partridge of the New Zealand Initiative was critical late last year of recent decisions of the Supreme Court in a lengthy paper entitled “Who makes the law?” - the obvious answer being Parliament.

Speed rules
All over Auckland, on more than 1500 local streets, new signs have been appearing.

Transparency in transit
Two recent court rulings in Europe practically caused oxygen masks to appear before air travellers, such was the shock they caused.