26 Jun 2017

FIZZ meeting kicked off Ack hospital grounds

8:00 pm on 26 June 2017

A conference calling for a tax on sugary drinks has been kicked off Auckland hospital grounds at the last minute for being too political.

Auckland City Hospital

Auckland City Hospital. Photo: Wiki Commons

The Auckland District Health Board agreed to let the FIZZ conference use the hospital education centre for today's event, but changed its mind on Friday.

The DHB said, as a government-funded body, it was required to be politically neutral and could not allow buildings to be used to lobby for or against issues that are part of an election campaign.

It hasn't explained why it agreed to host the conference in the first place.

One of the event organisers, Bodo Lang, said the DHB knew what was on the agenda five months ago.

Dr Lang claimed hospital staff were told they were not allowed to attend.

"It was based on a complaint by somebody who said 'look the rules are that district health boards are not meant to be allowed to be involved in this'. So whoever laid the complaint I think left it very much until the last minute to cause the maximum amount of disruption to the symposium."

Get the RNZ app

for ad-free news and current affairs