Are Lester Levy and Shane Reti “cooking the books?”

Written By: - Date published: 11:51 am, December 7th, 2024 - 12 comments
Categories: debt / deficit, health, Privatisation, Public Private Partnerships, Shane Reti - Tags: , , , ,

Related Article: Mickey Savage: Creative Accounting

In July, after most Health NZ Board members had already resigned – many without notice, Shane Reti and Christopher Luxon held an extraordinary press conference to announce they were sacking the Health NZ Board and replacing it with Lester Levy, a part time IT Professor, private health companies Director, and man who has a history of wanting to run health as a business.

Their pretext was clear: They claimed Health NZ was heading towards a $1.6bn deficit, brought on by (you guessed it) the last government.

In the press conference that day, a journalist pointed out the deficit happened on National’s watch – so why were they blaming Labour?

“Will you take responsibility?” the journalist asked in July – but he probably didn’t know who he was talking to.

* mumbo jumbo* as Luxon and Reti looked solemn and Luxon’s stern nature thrust forward again. They parried the question, denying blame and threw out a series of excuses and reasons – primarily being “14 layers of management” and “botched merger” for the “unexpected deficit”.

One, mergers inevitably take time to rationalise and resolve.

Two, this government has a history of lying – including about Health NZ

Three, the NZ Tory Prime Minister admitted he knew about the “deficit” in November 2023, but intentionally underfunded health anyway,

Four, they later admitted there was nothing even close to 14 layers of management and it didn’t exist, but it was just another creative invention they no longer cared about.

But with the new Tory government in NZ taking a leaf out of the UK and Republicans, facts are no barrier when it comes to political messaging.

Throughout these months, Lester Levy has consistently been in the news raving about how the deficit is getting worse, and things are very, very dire financially.

Well this week it turns out the “deficit” was $722m – $1b less than one of their higher estimates.

And most of the deficit was simply due to filling nursing roles, as Newsroom’s Marc Daalder reported months ago.

i.e. It looks very much like this government used a fake pretext to manufacture a crisis to give them an excuse to “fire” an almost non existent Board, put an amenable and ideology aligned Lester Levy solely in charge, and slash our public health investments and capacity to ready it for privatisation.

Worryingly, Lester Levy and Shane Reti have been alleged to “cook the books” – e.g. they attempted to move the current year’s restructuring (including firing) costs to last year – to make the former Government’s 2023/24 deficit deficit year look worse – and Lester Levy & Reti’s 2024/25 year look better.

The Attorney General stopped it. But he only cottoned on after former CFO of the year and Health NZ scapegoat, Rosalie Hughes, advised the AG of Levy and Reti’s antics.

It strains belief that there are no repercussions for this conduct. I can’t imagine any private or public organisation where this is not a sackable – or even criminal offence.

The media have moved on – but the fact that this is not making top headlines and Reti and Levy are not being chased down (versus for example, Golriz Gharaman) is a travesty on our existing political and media environment.

Kudos to Newsroom for their excellent reporting on the topic.

VIDEO – See for yourself how Reti tries to explain it away.

lprent: added a few links about Marc Dalder’s scoop in July on nursing recruitment, and the Auditor General curbing Reti and Levy fiddling the accounting on their deficit.

12 comments on “Are Lester Levy and Shane Reti “cooking the books?” ”

  1. Ffloyd 1
    7 December 2024 at 1:10 pm

    The creepiest part of that clip was Reti trying to smile.

    The rest was just excellent verification of the skulduggery going on in CoC. Reti unable to name 14 layers of management at Health NZ by previous government was a golden moment.

    Lots of hand waving and ‘Lord knows’ doesn't constitute an answer.

    Reti and Levy should not be able to get away with this crash and burn of the Health Board by razing it to the ground in order to Privatise it.

    How can they be held accountable for their deliberate lying and withholding documents to be debated.?

    Isn’t this corruption?

    Reply
  2. Incognito 2
    7 December 2024 at 1:36 pm

    The YT Short with Rob Campbell was illuminating; the Coalition of Cookers has been paving the way for reduced involvement of the State (read: taxpayers) and increased privatisation across the board of “public infrastructure” and that this has been on the agenda for some years, i.e., it’s nothing new.

    Reply
  3. SPC 3
    7 December 2024 at 2:05 pm

    He came, he presided over some creative accounting and then he left.

    And then the HB levy was dry.

    Why would it be any different, this time, at Health NZ?

    When they wish to “diminish”, they call in those with form – a record of lack of achievement (English part of a government that applied market rents and state housing sell off 96-99 and Minister responsible for Housing New Zealand Corporation 2011-2014 … doing the Kainga Ora review …).

    Reply
    • Incognito 3.1
      7 December 2024 at 2:16 pm

      Lester Levy is acting like a reverse-Robbin Hood: takes from the many (poor) and gives to the few (rich). You know that democracy has a long way to go when people like him are in positions with that much power, which they use the deflect personal accountability – absconding is my word of the day.

      https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/12/07/amid-doubt-and-uncertainty-democracy-slips/ [HT to Stephen D]

      Reply
    • SPC 3.2
      7 December 2024 at 2:25 pm

      New Zealand’s National-led government (2008 to 2017) made no secret of its plans to downsize the state’s housing stock. This downsizing is being achieved through demolitions, transfers and sales.

      It all started quietly in 2011 when the number of state tenancies peaked at 69,700. By mid-2015 this number had diminished by almost 2,500 units and is set to fall even further with various transfers now underway.

      https://www.unitec.ac.nz/whanake/index.php/2017/12/13/state-housing-in-aotearoa/

      Issue then and now 2023-2026

      To some extent the community housing sector brought this response onto itself both by being complicit with the Government’s privatisation agenda and by failing to offer an alternative analysis which focuses on housing need. The sector’s peak body, Community Housing Aotearoa, is essentially an agency of the state, as it receives the majority of its funding through government grants. Its most recently published accounts for 2013-14 report total revenue of $291,000 of which 78%, or $226,000, was from government grants (Community Housing Aotearoa, 2014a). As such it has tended to be narrowly focused on how it can persuade government to transfer public housing stock to its member organisations (Community Housing Aotearoa, 2014b) rather than on broader questions of housing policy and, in particular, housing supply and housing affordability.

      Compare this performance against that of the Community Housing Federation of Australia, which took exception to the bias in Australia’s federal tax laws, claiming that they exacerbate inequality and social exclusion ( Australian Council of Social Services, 2015). This lack of independence of New Zealand’s community housing sector, and its unwillingness to be an advocate for broader housing issues, tends to undermine its potential role in civil society as a legitimate and reliable alternative provider of social housing.

      This initial discussion of the former Government’s social housing reform agenda is relevant to any future direction for state housing for at least two reasons. Firstly, it is important to acknowledge that while this reform agenda is serving some definite ideological purpose, there was still a prior need for some reform. Secondly, these reforms, and in particular the admission of private sector interests into the ownership of social housing, potentially pose a number of legacy problems for any government keen to embark on a fundamentally different strategy.

      Despite all of this, the policy 2023-2026, to diminish KO and rinse and repeat.

      The only positives government funding rebuilds/new builds on land already held by social housing providers (and iwi).

      Reply
  4. Christopher Randal 4
    7 December 2024 at 7:10 pm

    "The media have moved on – but the fact that this is not making top headlines and Reti and Levy are not being chased down (versus for example, Golriz Gharaman) is a travesty on our existing political and media environment."

    In case you haven't noticed Reti and Levy and male. Gharaman is female and that is why she and Kiri Allan were targeted by the media. Same with the stale males in the House targeting Chloe Swarbrick for her attack on Doocey

    Reply
  5. aj 5
    7 December 2024 at 8:53 pm

    This short video is a useful instruction on the evolution of health insurance in the USA, amid our concerns in the direction we are being led in NZ.

    The $1 Trillion Ptivate Health Insurance Scam

    More Perfect Union’s mission is to build power for working people. Here’s what that means:

    We report on the real struggles and challenges of the working class from a working-class perspective, and we attempt to connect those problems to potential solutions.

    We report on the abuses and wrongdoing of corporate power, and we seek to hold accountable the ultra-rich who have too much power over America’s political and economic systems

    https://youtu.be/cQR67WRcVUg?si=8bkqgCGFxWaXPCEI

    Reply
  6. lprent 6
    9 December 2024 at 12:13 pm

    Added a couple of missing links to the post with explanatory articles.

    Reply
  7. stephen bradley 7
    9 December 2024 at 8:01 pm

    Every time I see him on TV, Lester Levy is looking decidedly unhealthy for a man that is not that old. I wonder what kind of illness he's got. I hope he can soon recover to full health.

    Reply

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