Sacked official defends 'handshake’

Press, 5 July 1978, Page 24

Sacked official defends ' handshake’

PA Wellington > omments by the Conoller and Auditor-Gen-eral about "golden handshakes” show a "lack of understanding of wider human issues.” says one cf the sacked Local Government Commissioners, Mr Mervyn Blakemore. Compensation he had received in no way mad> up for the upheaval tht sacking had caused, he said. He had been “up rooted” from South Canterbury, brought to the strange land of Wellington and was now unemployed. “The Auditor-General’s comments mean that if anyone- accepts an appointment with the NewZealand Government thev have no security. “I was required to sever al! connections with local government in South Canterbury to come to live in Wellington, and now they say I should not

have expected anv security.” In his report, the Controller and Auditor-Gen-eral (Mr A. C. Shades), said the payments of $48,365 to the five sacked commissioners illustrated the difficult problems facing a Government when board members retired prematurely. Such people should not >e entitled to assume their position would always be in existence, he said. They should realise they were subject to changes in Government policy, and there fore should not automati cally have a right to compensation. Members of Government boards were not normally employed on a career basis and in very few cases were they dependent on the appointment for their main source of income. Mr Blakemore said he had leased out his house at Pleasant Point in South

Canterbury for, five years, to take up what he expected would be a fiveyear contract in Wellignton from July last year.

“Unlike the Government I’m not prepared to break a contract. Their contract was not worth the paper it was written on.” To leave South Canterbury he had to sever connections with 29 separate organisations to live in a strange city where, he says, he hardly knows anyone. As a matter of pride hi foes not want to return to his home area so soon after leaving, and is thinking about moving to Christchurch to be nearer other members of his family. He is unemployed and trying to sell his Tawa house “and that is not easy.” To occupy himself he has been playing Occasional games of golf with other members of the

sacked commission, and knitting clothes for a grandchild on a family knitting machine. “I have virtually- been cast on the rubbish heap. I’m rather cynical about it all,” he said. Mr Blakemore did not want to say the amount of compensation he received, but it was no more than any other member of the commission, and it had been taxed. The money in no way ■ompensated’ for the upheaval, he said. He does not intend to return to local government politics. Before coming to Wellington'he was deputy chairman of Strathallan County. "There is too much lack of honesty for me. Decisions are made, not on what is right or wrong, but on what is politically expedient.” In South Canterbury he had been a subscriptionpaying member of the

National Party. Now, if he is approached for a subscription, he said, there was “no wav” he would pay. Other members of the sacked Local Government Commission have backed Mr Blakemore in his comments. The former commissions chairman, Mr Fullarton, said that the report gave no recognition of the personal sacrifices involved in serving on the commission. Mr Blakemore had been rhe most sorely tried of any commission member in this way, he said. Another commission member, Mr N. G. Pickering, said Mr Blakemore had been “more shabbily treated” than anyone he had known. Mr Fullartbn said it should be noted tha the Controller and AuditorGeneral had not questioned the actual payments.