Right-wing blogger David Farrar, the National Party’s go to spin merchant, has been at it again with another smear job, this time targeting New Zealand’s senior doctors. His latest hit piece, as dissected by Ian Powell on Scoop, is a textbook example of how to prop up a failing government’s anti-health agenda with half-truths and bad faith. Farrar’s attack on salaried senior doctors at Health New Zealand (HNZ) isn’t just lazy propaganda…it’s a deliberate attempt to distract from the Coalition’s gutting of our public health system.
Farrar’s blog, Kiwiblog, has long been a mouthpiece for National’s talking points, and his recent post attacking senior doctors is no exception. He paints them as overpaid, underworked, and somehow responsible for HNZ’s woes. Sound familiar? It’s the same tired playbook National always trots out to justify slashing health budgets and privatising services. Powell nails it: Farrar’s “predictable smear” cherry-picks data to vilify doctors while ignoring the real issues…chronic underfunding and mismanagement by a government hell-bent on austerity.
Yesterday, Scoop reported:
Joining in on misrepresentation and smearing
Now right-wing blogger David Farrar has jumped in support of Brown with his own smear on his Kiwiblog site (7 May): Perks smear. He alleges that salaried senior doctors employed by Health New Zealand and the Ministry of Health received “huge perks”.
It is important to understand what perks are (and what they are not). They are additional benefits to enhance the employment package such as health insurance or a company car. They don’t involve reimbursement of actual and reasonable work-related expenses.
The problem with Farrar’s argument is that it is based on major errors and sloppy homework. This is not new territory for him.
I have previously called him out (11 December) for erroneous claims about resident (junior) doctors leaving for Australia: Farrar’s incomplete health workforce analysis.
Farrar’s hearsay evidence
On this second occasion his evidence is based on a reader writing to him claiming that salaried senior doctors employed by:
… Health NZ and the Ministry of Health get generous leave and expenses for so-called professional development – which is often an overseas conference in an exotic location – flying business class and staying in a premium hotel. I have this on good authority from someone who processes the claims! This leave and generous allowance which can accumulated for two or more years.
This is hardly robust investigation. At best it is hearsay. To begin with, Health Ministry employed senior doctors are not covered by the collective agreement covering Health New Zealand employed senior doctors.
Farrar is discussing something that applies to the latter, not the former. Further, claims to the two different employers would not be processed by the same person
By referring only to one part of the entitlement and then incorrectly calling it an allowance, he is both selective and factually wrong.
Everybody should realise that senior doctors aren’t the problem. They’re the backbone of a public health system stretched to breaking point by years of neglect. HNZ is bleeding staff, with junior doctors fleeing to Australia for better pay and conditions, as Powell’s earlier piece on Farrar’s “incomplete” workforce analysis pointed out. Yet Farrar has the gall to scapegoat doctors, who are working overtime to keep hospitals running despite crumbling infrastructure and impossible workloads. Farrar’s blog post isn’t analysis; it’s disinformation designed to soften the ground for National’s next round of cuts…all with the long-term goal of privatising our health system.
The timing stinks, too. National’s health policy is a shambles...with Health NZ’s disestablishment of expert teams and a “slash and burn” approach under Commissioner Lester Levy starting to really bight. Farrar’s smear dovetails perfectly with the government’s narrative that public sector workers, not government incompetence, is to blame for the crisis. Powell rightly calls this out, noting how Farrar’s attack aligns with National’s push to deflect from their failure to fund health properly. It’s classic misdirection: blame the workers, not the policies causing the problems.
What’s galling is Farrar’s intellectual dishonesty. He ignores the complexity of healthcare delivery, where senior doctors juggle clinical work, training, and system leadership. Instead, he spins a simplistic yarn about “productivity” to fuel public resentment. This isn’t just wrong, it’s dangerously disingenuous. Eroding trust in doctors undermines the entire health system, paving the way for National’s mates in private healthcare to swoop in and scoop up talent they haven’t paid for. You might call me paranoid, but just look at the creeping privatisation under this government, from private hospital contracts to outsourcing services to make waiting times look better than they actually are. Privatisation is the goal, and the National-led government isn’t afraid to gut our health system or demoralise Doctors to achieve it.
Most New Zealanders know this game. National’s anti-health policies (underfunding and now smearing frontline workers) are underhanded tactics tearing apart a system we all rely on. Farrar’s role is to provide the ideological cover, dressing up austerity as reform. But we’re not buying it. Senior doctors deserve our support, not baseless attacks from a blogger shilling for a government that’s failing on numerous fronts.
