A passion for health collides with a taste for robust debate
NO ONE is lining up to doubt Deputy Mike Hadley's passion. He has it in bucketloads and it has set him on a collision course with Housing minister Dave Jones, who loves a robust debate.
NO ONE is lining up to doubt Deputy Mike Hadley's passion. He has it in bucketloads and it has set him on a collision course with Housing minister Dave Jones, who loves a robust debate.
The clash is over housing licences and it got its first proper airing in the debating chamber last week as the department called for the current law to be extended as work on alternatives by a Policy Council sub-group was taking longer than originally expected.
No one, it seems, is a fan of the current system, but equally, none of the critics has come up with a viable alternative.
We should see a Green Paper from the Population Policy Group soon.
It took Deputy Hadley more than 25 minutes to attempt to get his point across.
He was pulled up short on a few occasions as it was ruled he was in danger of identifying individual cases - Deputy Hadley later said he had had permission to do so.
For Deputy Hadley, the current system was flawed, costly and led to problems in many services, such as health and education.
Having left the Health and Social Services Department, he now believes he will have more latitude to speak out.
Deputy Hadley claims the department's media policy led to attempts to gag him when he gave an interview to BBC television a month or two ago.
He has been threatened with referral to the Code of Conduct Panel and told that he has breached data protection legislation.
All quite a start to a political career in the island - and to some the way he goes about things is not 'the Guernsey way'.
Deputy Hadley says he stood for election to effect change and there are few signs of him adjusting his attitude towards achieving that.
'I offered my resignation, as I have said, with much regret, because I think that this Assembly elected an excellent board with an excellent minister,' said Deputy Hadley.
'The problem is that they feel I am not acting properly in talking to the press. One of them said that my actions are counterproductive. One of them said that I am the problem rather than the solution.
'At a recent meeting I was told that it was more important to have a good relationship with Housing and that if I upset them, it would be more difficult to obtain licences in the future. I do not agree.'
He said that that was the way that the HSSD had proceeded for years.
'There has to be a policy and a procedure. If you follow the policy and the procedure, then your hands are clean. I am not prepared to follow either the policy or the procedure, because the situation is too urgent.'
For Deputy Jones, far too much blame was being put at Housing's door.
He turned the focus back on Health with figures showing that no single housing-licence application from that department had been rejected outright.
He stressed the good working relationship between the two departments, something echoed by Health minister Hunter Adam.
Deputy Jones said that Deputy Hadley had acknowledged that the real problem was health staff pay.
'We suspect that Deputy Hadley's statement on pay might be accurate, as we have other figures to show that the biggest turnover of HSSD staff is among those who occupy their own accommodation where they do not require licences, so there is clearly some problem other than housing licences.
'Indeed, over the past 12 months it has become increasingly obvious that housing licences are being used as a sticking plaster to cover up the deficiencies in the public service pay structure.'
Deputy Jones has written to the Public Sector Remuneration Committee over the issue because it costs money to bring workers and their families to the island.
We are not likely to see the end of this political argument any time soon, especially given the passion of the two main players.
