KEY POINTS:
John Belgrave, DCNZM, Chief Ombudsman. Died aged 67.
Of all the positions John Belgrave held in a long public service career, he counted being Chief Ombudsman among the best.
"This is probably the most challenging and satisfying. You can do something for the little guy".
For Belgrave,
public service was just that - a chance to serve his country, here and overseas. His public service career was diverse, including periods with Trade and Industry, Customs and Commerce. He also spent time in the High Commission in London, was New Zealand Consul-General in Melbourne and senior trade commissioner in the New Zealand Embassy in Tokyo.
He grew up in Auckland and went to Sacred Heart College before heading off to Wellington to start a long career in bureaucracy. He studied part-time for a degree in economics while working for the then Department of Trade and Industry, before heading overseas, to London, and later, from 1969 to 1972, Melbourne. He returned to Wellington to run the prices and stabilisation division at Trade and Industry. In those days, New Zealand's economy was highly regulated and Belgrave took part in stormy sessions in front of the Price Tribunal, which adjudicated on price fixing.
"When people looked for price increases, things like food and alcohol were the two most significant ones."
Most basic products were controlled, as well as wages. Belgrave felt that a shift to a freer market was the right move, and that competition was the best way to price determination.
In 1976, a move to Japan brought a chance to help negotiate market access for and from both countries. It also allowed the unusual sight of a New Zealand embassy being picketed.
Members of the Japanese seamen's union, which crewed their fishing fleet, turned up to protest at the New Zealand Government's hard line on fishing ventures.
It was part of a plan to link Japanese fishing rights in New Zealand waters with increased access for our agricultural products in Japan. The strategy worked and Japan became, and still is, one of New Zealand's largest trading partners.
John Belgrave was involved in many momentous events of the 1980s.
As deputy director-general of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, as it was in 1984, he became involved in the dismantling of Robert Muldoon's SMPs (supplementary minimum prices), a scheme which guaranteed unnaturally high prices for farm produce, meat in particular. The farmers were, naturally, upset.
In 1985, Belgrave was appointed Comptroller of Customs. His efforts went towards making it easier for travellers to get through airports, while concentrating on drug control and duty evasion. The number of customs staff increased dramatically, taking on responsibility for collecting GST at points of entry to New Zealand when the tax was introduced in October 1986.
Government departments changed names in the 1980s almost as regularly as they do now. In 1988, Belgrave headed a new "superministry" of commerce, which took over the old Trade and Industry. A priority task was to canvas business leaders' opinions of government policies and to get costs under control. He was also an advocate of co-operation between government departments, sorting out problems with colleagues rather than bothering ministers.
As chairman of the Commerce Commission, appointed in 1999, he had helped introduce the Fair Trading Act, including its prohibition of misleading advertising. "We focus on areas which are important to people, like real estate, food and pyramid selling."
All this in addition to topics such as the regulation of telecommunications and electricity networks.
In addition to his public service career, or despite it, Belgrave spent two periods in the private sector - once as head of the Bankers' Association, and later as chief executive of the Electricity Supply Association.
John Belgrave is survived by his wife Judy, three daughters and a son.
