Why Health NZ's financial chaos led to a major governance shake-up

"Health NZ had no idea how it was spending its money," says Simeon Brown. (Image: Getty)

Fri, 07 Mar 2025

The new health minister says Health New Zealand never implemented the right systems to control its finances because of rushed reforms.Simeon Brown made the damning remarks as he announced the end of Lester Levy’s reign as health commissioner and a return to a traditional board system of governance for the Crown entity that employs more than 80,000 people and had a budget of about $25 billion in the previous financial year.Concerns over mounting deficits and disputes as to their cause mounted during 2024, which led to Levy commis...

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