Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield has commented on one of the most iconic political moments of the first year of the pandemic as he readies to stand down from his role.
Back in June 2020, Newshub cameras captured Dr Bloomfield's reaction as then-Health Minister David Clark lumped responsibility on the Director-General for a blunder that saw people let out of quarantine without being tested for COVID-19.
"The Director-General has accepted that the protocol wasn't being followed. He has accepted responsibility for that," Clark said, as Dr Bloomfield stood quietly behind him.
The moment went viral online, with the suggestion being that Dr Clark had thrown Dr Bloomfield under the bus for the testing mishap. The Health Minister was already under pressure for breaching lockdown rules and the Opposition was calling for him to be moved on.
But speaking to AM on Thursday morning, Dr Bloomfield rejected Clark had thrown him under the bus.
"I don't think that he was throwing me under the bus at all and I was just doing my job," Dr Bloomfield said.
"The incident that had happened, as the minister said, I had fronted up and accepted responsibility for that in the role that I'm in and said what I do about it to sort it out. That's what I was focused on."
He said Clark had pointed to the fact that he had fronted up and taken accountability.
A little over a week after Newshub's story, Clark stepped down as Health Minister, saying he had become a "distraction" during the pandemic. He previously offered his resignation after breaking the rules, but the Prime Minister said she wouldn't accept it while the country was locked down.
Dr Bloomfield told AM on Thursday that he is "feeling a bit of a sense of relief" to finishing up in the role last week, but it's also "bittersweet" to be leaving behind "fantastic people" he works with.
"It's 25 years since I started in the Ministry of Health. I've been out and worked in District Health Boards. It's a big move for me, so I'll take a bit of time to get used to that," Dr Bloomfield said.
"Some days, especially through the real pressure of the pandemic, it was pretty tough in the mornings thinking, oh, I'm not sure I've got the energy to do this today, but you come into work and immediately you're surrounded with these great people just doing great work."
He doesn't have any regrets about New Zealand's approach to COVID-19, noting that the Government moved quickly as the World Health Organisation recommended early in 2020.
But he also rejected that he had been politicised in the role by standing with the Prime Minister at press conferences nearly every day during the early stages of the pandemic.
"I was on TV every day with the Prime Minister and was operating right at that political interface. Aspects of the response became politicised. My job was to do my best to just remain outside of that politicisation and keep doing my job as a senior public servant. I'm confident that I did my absolute best to do that."
He said it was important for him to be held to account and he was always open to criticism.
