Nottage retires before Apec

The head of Foreign Affairs, Richard Nottage, is retiring just weeks before the September Apec summit in Auckland.

Mr Nottage has been Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade since 1991.

He will retire on July 31, just before the key Apec meetings in the first two weeks of September.

Mr Nottage said huge teams were involved in the preparations.

"One modest little individual is not going to make any difference."

When his contract was extended three years ago, July 31 was the expiry date and there had been no reason to change it, he said.

Possible successors include Maarten Wevers, the ministry official organising Apec; Simon Murdoch, formerly head of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and now High Commissioner in Canberra; Graham Fortune, former High Commissioner to Australia; and Neil Walter, ambassador to Japan.

The Secretary of Defence, Gerald Hensley, retired yesterday.

He is a former diplomat and was a senior adviser to the former Prime Minister Sir Robert Muldoon.