Did he jump or was he pushed ?

I think he jumped.
There are numerous articles this morning saying how he had credibility and technical competence. I agree with that.

The problems came about when he started doing the Minister's jobs for them. But this was mainly because the Ministers are incompetent. Anyone remember Health Minister David Clarke? Blamed Bloomfield for screwing up the PCR testing capacity whilst standing next to him.
Then there was Bloomfield having to justify govt policy on lockdowns etc, which is clearly the Ministers job.

A major perception issue now is the govt have lost a pile of credibility in their covid response. Hipkins is full of waffle and shoulder shrugging. So how can the 1 pm podium of truth have any truth now? (assuming it ever did).

Further, these two replacements. Both ethnic minority females. How convenient. Fits the narrative. There is a very strong perception that they are there because of demographics and not qualifications. One or both of them may well be highly qualified, but the perception is strong, that Labour's ideologies have chucked out the grey male for a minority chick with some scribbles on her face.

Two other highly capable, experienced & qualified females have also resigned. But they don't have scribbles on their faces. I wonder if there was even an open and objective recruitment process for the Health NZ roles? I don't think it is helpful to be loosing capability and experience at the moment.

PS, I haven't seen or heard from Andrew Little in a long time. Is he still the Health Minister? Missing in Action.

I suspect he jumped too. I imagine he's suffering from burn-out / adrenal fatigue. Half the country's Labour-luvvies are burnt-out just from watching him!

I don't think he's a bad person - I think he found himself drawn into a vipers nest and as a result his role was politicised well beyond the job-description.

And the final straw was probably the proposed reforms:

"So, let me get this straight, PM? For the last 2 years you have asked me to step in, roll up my sleeves and help you run your Gov'ts critical day-to-day Covid response.

But now you're saying that under the new reforms you no longer need my services beyond some high-level strategy & ideas. And someone else will drive the real day-to-day action?

Gee, thanks.

Bye!" 

Resignation was probably his best decision in recent times (not in an unkind way). I'm sure he's actually a really nice bloke outside of all this rubbish. I wish him well and don't hold any resentment for the last couple of years. I think he has actually been used quite blatantly and now effectively 'spat out'. So resignation was probably his way of saving some dignity for himself. 

I think a lot of people will be against him receiving any kind of honour for his service because the associate him with Labour and making policy decisions that either hurt them or they disagreed with.

I disagree with many of his recommendations / decisions. But I understand that as DG Health he was obviously looking through a health lens meaning he would always be cautious around health. Which was to be expected. It was up to the government to say “I hear you, Ashley, but no we are not going to do that this time.”

So in that context I think he did actually show strong leadership under extraordinary circumstances which deserves recognition.

and check this out from Chantelle Baker, doing the work that "real journalists" should be doing
www.facebook.com/ChantelleBakerNZ/videos/1336561776829716/
as suspected, now clear evidence that the jab pass is/was the Trojan Horse for a digital identity pass

Fuck being a good guy with a fucked up moral compass pointing to an unethical SSE!

I'd would rather see a honest and transparent asshat than a political puppet that couldn't stand up to political manipulation.

I understand that you have to be careful not to spook the masses but there were many times he let Donkey mouth talk all over him inorder to control the story.

He should have stood up to her , Clark, and chippy and put them in there uneducated place.

Sorry, but I don't want a nice lame duck when I can have someone with a backbone.

Ashley didn't save us! The written protocol he followed did and we did!. . .. if anything he made it harder than it had to be with piss poor management of masks, vaccines, testing....