Brown overrules Medical Council, rejecting its own leadership recommendation

Health Minister Simeon Brown declined to reappoint Medical Council chair Dr Rachelle Love and deputy chair Simon Watt after the Council recommended their reappointment. Brown cited concerns the regulator was becoming distracted by politics and ideology. The move breaks with convention that a council's own recommendation carries substantial weight, and health professionals warn it sets a dangerous precedent for ministerial interference in an independent statutory regulator.