The government has announced the membership of the new Health Promotion Agency, the successor to ALAC and the Health Sponsorship Council. And naturally, they couldn't pass up this opportunity to give a job to a crony, so they've appointed former National MP Katherine Rich.
But it gets worse. Rich is also CEO of the New Zealand Food & Grocery Council, which "represents the manufacturers and suppliers behind New Zealand's favourite food, beverage and grocery brands". She thus has a direct conflict of interest when serving on a body whose purpose is to advertise for public health (and therefore against some of those brands). A person with that sort of conflict should never have been appointed. But I guess that for National, "jobs for the girls" trumps integrity in our public agencies.
