Obituary: Paul Molineaux

Paul Molineaux was SIS head during the Sofinsky affair and the embarrassing debacle of the agent's lost briefcase.

Paul Molineaux, CMG. Former director Security Intelligence Service, Privacy Commissioner. Died aged 85

When Paul Molineaux became director of the Security Intelligence Service in 1976 he dismissed descriptions of it as a "cloak and dagger organisation". And he described as "flippant" an evening newspaper headline reading "Our New Spy Catcher".

Paul Molineaux was not a flippant man.

But during the next seven years the service was involved in such colourful incidents as the Muldoon Government almost joyously expelling the Soviet Union's ambassador in Wellington.

And there was an incident where an SIS agent's briefcase was found in a Wellington street in 1981, which was much enjoyed by the country's media.

Molineaux was praised at the time of his appointment as level-headed and fair. As a judge he was known as a stickler for protocol but was also respected in his native Christchurch for his understanding of human nature.

And he declared that the question of national security would be the sole criterion for setting any activities of the SIS into motion. No officer of the service would be set on to private inquiries that bore no relation to that criterion.

He was aware, he said on leaving the SIS in 1983, of "a fear that people had that perhaps the service could be used for political purposes. I tried to demonstrate that in fact you could be impartial."

Being the director of an intelligence service is a job with great constraints upon what can be uttered publicly, especially in the days of the "them and us" relations with the Soviet Union.

At the end of his term, for example, Molineaux revealed that the SIS organisation was twice the size it was when he took over. The service when he started was too small to do its job, he said.

But he would not say how many people the service now employed, or how many it had when he took it over.

And he asked not to be pushed too hard on the matter as the media would get information that would be valuable "to the other side".

In January 1980 the Soviet Ambassador Mr Vsevolod N. Sofinsky was expelled on the grounds of interfering in the domestic policies of New Zealand. It involved evidence, the Government said, of his being involved in providing funds to the Socialist Unity Party.

Denials and counter-allegations flew thick and fast, with the SIS firmly in the background.

"It is not possible to divulge the evidence," said Acting Prime Minister Brian Talboys. "It would prejudice sources. There are vital interests at stake here."

It later appeared the amount given to the SUP was about $10,000. The Herald later unearthed one suggestion that the party had asked for the money as it needed cash for day-to-day expenses, including staff Christmas wages.

The SIS agent's bag in a Wellington street incident was an embarrassment for Molineaux. He took unspecified corrective action but believed national security had not been compromised.

A 10-year-old son of a radio journalist found the briefcase in December 1981. It was reported to contain three identification cards, including one identifying the owner of the briefcase as an SIS officer. It is believed the other items in the case were three meat pies, two slices of cake, copies of Penthouse and the Listener, the agent's letter of appointment and other papers.

Outside his secretive SIS years, Molineaux led an interesting life.

Educated at Christ's College, he went to the Royal Military College at Duntroon, then served in the Pacific in World War II. He gained a master of arts degree with honours at Canterbury University in 1945 and an LLB in 1952, before becoming a crown prosecutor in Blenheim.

He was a magistrate in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and in 1961 he was Attorney-General in Western Samoa and a year later Chief Justice. Five happy years there gave him enough Samoan to tell off Samoans in their own language in his court back in Christchurch.

After the SIS he was Privacy Commissioner for 10 years - a watchdog charged with making sure official information held on people in the Wanganui computer was correct.