Minister As Consultant

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32120, 16 October 1969, Page 1

Minister As Consultant

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, Oct. 15. The retiring Minister of Education (Mr Kinsella) intends to set himself up in business as a Government consultant when he leaves Parliament at the end of this year. Mr Kinsella announced his retirement because of poor health recently. He has been the member for Hauraki since 1954, and a member of the Cabinet for the last nine years. Before 1954 he was a schoolteacher, an M.A. graduate from Auckland University: during World War II he served overseas with the Royal New Zealand Engineers.

Discussing his plans, Mr Kinsella said: “There is a big

demand for this type of consultancy, particularly outside Wellington. I have been approached by several overseas companies, as well as by firms in Auckland and Christchurch.”

Negotiations with the Government were a “very real problem” in business today, Mr Kinsella said. Businessmen had representations to make to the Government on import licensing, customs, industrial development and other matters. Businessmen outside Wellington did not know a great deal about the functioning of government, the machinery for processing representations, or of external factors pertinent to a particular issue.

“Commerce and industry today complain vociferously of a lack of understanding of their problems by some government departments and allege unreasonable delays. “What they do not under-

stand is that departmental officers complain just as bitterly about businessmen—that applications are incomplete, wrongly based and lodged through the wrong channels,” he said. Mr Kinsella said he envisaged that associated, activities would include drafting policy for representations to statutory, ad hoc and quasigovernmental bodies, such as various types of licensing authorities, both at national and municipal level. He suffered a badly broken leg and broken ribs, and had an operation to remove his spleen as a result of a car accident in May. “While I am not mobile enough to continue the rigorous life of a Cabinet Minister, I am quite well enough to be a consultant. In the Cabinet, with so many calls on our time, we are obliged to work a 16-hour day and frequently travel thousands of miles in a week,” Mr Kinsella said.