Labour MP Willie Jackson says people need to "stop putting the knife in" to David Clark now he's no longer Health Minister.
Dr Clark on Thursday said his continued presence in the role was "distracting from the Government's overall response to COVID-19 and the global pandemic" and handed in his resignation.
It was the second time he's offered to resign in the last few months, and this time Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern accepted, giving the job to Chris Hipkins.
Dr Clark's repeated breaches of the lockdown rules caused outrage, and the final straw was perhaps his deflecting of responsibility for mistakes at the border to Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield.
Jackson told The AM Show on Friday it's time to ease up on the Dunedin North MP.
"Clarky is a good man, and you're not going to have me come on this show and put the knife in to someone who's had a pretty terrible last few days," he told host Duncan Garner.
"He resigned, and I suppose he had to in the end. We don't put the knife into our people. I think the Prime Minister was pretty clear the public had lost faith. It's hard to operate as a minister if every second minute everybody's putting the knife in, and that's what was happening with Clarky.
"He tried, he gave it a good shot, but obviously some key mistakes and the Prime Minister had to move in and manage the situation. He resigned in the end."
He praised Dr Clark's performance as Minister of Health prior to the pandemic. As did Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Sarah Dalton, who told Newshub Dr Clark's work over the last few years would leave an impact.
"We all know that he had his rocky moments, but I think in terms of seeing through the Simpson review - which has the potential to lead to some really important shifts - there could be quite a legacy there."
Jackson said he wished Dr Clark and his whanau good luck for the future.
"It's pretty stressful. I know you're all sitting around having a laugh at his expense. It's a bit sad, a bit sad really. We've got to stop putting the knife in."
National MP Judith Collins said Dr Clark is "still a human being... He still has family and everything else, and it's very hard for him."
But his fate was perhaps sealed when he stayed in Dunedin during the lockdown, rather than basing himself at the Beehive. Most ministers stayed in their family bubbles during level 4, but critics have said Dr Clark - as Health Minister - should have been an exception.
"But his big mistake was this - Clark should have been in Wellington during the pandemic issues, and Jacinda Ardern obviously didn't want him there. She did not want him there. In Dunedin he [had] nothing to do and did stupid things, and that's the problem."
Hipkins, the new Health Minister, has a lot on his plate. He's already Minister of Education, Minister of State Services, Leader of the House and MP for Rimutaka.
Jackson said Hipkins is a "political machine", and Dalton said giving the job to a senior minister showed the Government still considers health a priority.
Collins said other MPs were overlooked, with most of the Government's big jobs now concentrated amongst only four MPs - presumably Hipkins, Ardern, Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Megan Woods, who recently took over responsibility for the isolation and quarantine systems, who also holds the science, Christchurch rebuild, energy and housing portfolios.
"There are four people in that Government who have the big-lifting portfolios. Willie was overlooked, and he should have been given a chance because he would have been better than David Clark. Why not?"
Dalton said Hipkins would do fine.
"There are also three other Associate Ministers of Health - Julie Anne Genter, Jenny Salesa and Peeni Henare - so it's not like it's a complete change. There are multiple people keeping an eye on the ship."
Whether Hipkins stays on in health after the election isn't clear.
"The reason I chose Minister Hipkins is in part because of the experience he has with an operational ministry of significant scale but also his role in state services," Ardern said on Thursday.
"I will be giving it my all up until the election," said Hipkins. "What happens after that is a question for the Prime Minister."
