A Christchurch health worker who proudly displays her job and workplace while spouting racist and discriminatory comments on social media has come to the attention of her employer, Te Whatu Ora.
Shirley Kirby, a cardiac radiographer at Christchurch Hospital, has been called out on Twitter for her history of racist, homophobic and discriminatory tweets, with many people flagging their concerns with Health New Zealand.
It appears the tweets stating her job title and employer have been deleted in the last day or so.
A Te Whatu Ora spokesperson thanked the public for bringing her online behaviour to their attention, and would not comment further due to it now being an employment matter.
Anyone else think this is a bit cringe? Think of doing that if you were another ethnicity... pic.twitter.com/V1WrCzkupe
— One-Eyed Man V2.0 (@Sweetbabygang77) February 24, 2023
In response to a recent tweet about a “Proud to be Māori” billboard advertising Te Matatini, she tweeted, “Why do Māori do this? Is it to distract from their terrible crime stats.”
There are tweets clearly talking about her work in healthcare, at one point using disparaging words about a news article about health inequities between Māori and non-Māori.
Also, in response to a tweet saying “Why are so many frontline hospital staff so fat” in 2021, she tweeted “I work for the CDHB and I find it hard to argue with you.”
And: “They push te reo at work. Mostly coming from the management level. I ignore it.”
The comments have received a lot of backlash online, from many who had demanded answers from Te Whatu Ora and the former Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB), which she publicly admitted was her employer.
Her Twitter account includes pro-Trump tweets and shows that she was one of the #turnardern campaigners who began turning around books and magazines in stores featuring former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on the cover in 2020.
Despite many attempts to contact Kirby, Stuff was unable to reach her for comment.
Not an advanced culture.
— Shirley Kirby (@SCKNZ1) February 4, 2023
Te Whatu Ora Canterbury interim chief people officer Jo Domigan said its employment policies made it clear to staff that if they are identifiable on social media as a staff member, they must ensure that their content did not reflect negatively on the reputation of the organisation and was in line with the profession’s social media guidelines and code of conduct.
“Any breach of these policies is a serious matter and we thank the public for bringing this to our attention.
“As this is now an employment matter, we cannot provide further comment.”
And another arse has been plucked for a number.
— Shirley Kirby (@SCKNZ1) October 22, 2022
- Stuff