The Dominion Post
February 24, 2004
The perpetual public servant
by Mary Jane Boland
At 66, Dame Margaret Bazley has
done her fair share of investigations into the doings of the public service.
Now she has been given another task -- to investigate allegations of sexual
misconduct in the police. Mary Jane Boland assesses the woman who could be
called the Lazarus of the public service.
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File pictures of Dame Margaret Bazley show a rather
motherly-looking soul, dressed conservatively.
The usually neutral, tailored clothes were most obvious when she took over from
former Work and Income chief executive Christine Rankin, the flamboyant public
servant who turned
It is perhaps the desire not to attract attention that made her one of the
finest public servants of her generation, as State Services Commissioner
Michael Wintringham described her when she retired in
2001.
She told the Evening Post on her retirement: "People tend to focus on the
glitches but it's largely been 20 years of non-event. That's how you measure
the success of a public servant."
A spokeswoman for the Fire Ser vice Commission, where Dame Margaret is
chairwoman, said when approached for this article she was refusing all interviews.
That withdrawal from publicity will be increasingly important as Dame Margaret
fills the mandate of commissioner for the Government's commission of inquiry
into alleged sexual misconduct in the police.
Prime Minister Helen Clark appointed Dame Margaret and High Court judge Justice
Bruce Robertson as commissioners last week. Their inquiries will focus on
police processes and culture, against the backdrop of rape and a cover-up
alleged by Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas.
Mrs Nicholas says she was pack-raped by three men, Assistant Commissioner Clint
Rickards and former officers Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum, in 1986. All three
deny the allegation.
Miss Clark has urged anyone with a complaint involving sexual misconduct by
police to come forward. The commission of inquiry has nine months to hold
hearings before reporting back to the Government.
So why pick Dame Margaret for the job?
With a history of helping to deal with curly issues in the public sector, such
as protracted firefighter and teacher pay talks, she
has a reputation of being tough but fair.
Most of the groups approached for comment on Dame Margaret either refused or
failed to return calls, a sign perhaps that they want her to get on with the
job.
Or was it a case of not having anything nice to say?
She certainly did not make friends with firefighters
in her early days as chairwoman of the Fire Service Commission, even getting
death threats and bullets in the mail. The firefighters
did manage, however, eventually to settle their decade-long pay dispute under
her oversight.
So, too, did secondary teachers after she was called in to chair an arbitration
taskforce charged with helping the Government and the Post Primary Teachers
Association to settle their 16-month pay dispute in 2002. Education Minister
Trevor Mallard said cabinet ministers gasped when told of the taskforce's
recommendations to bump teachers' pay up a grade. The recommendations came at a
cost of $250 million -- $70 million more than he had expected.
Dame Margaret has also been a member of the Waitangi Tribunal since 2001.
Her inquiry into allegations of police misconduct, like others she has been
involved with, is likely to draw a huge emotional response. The wider issues,
such as police culture in the 1980s, will be scrutinised carefully.
Associate Professor Bill Ryan, director of programmes at
Dr Ryan said Dame Margaret had a reputation for being tough when required but
also fair. She also had high integrity.
"I suspect that Dame Margaret can be relied upon to tackle the tough
issues and to tackle them fairly.
"There can be a difference between the exercise of wisdom and the exercise
of fairness. Whether Dame Margaret will bring wisdom to the commission's
deliberations we'll have to wait and see, but, based on her track record, I'm
sure it will be fair."
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THE PERPETUAL PUBLIC SERVANT
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Dame Margaret Bazley, 66
Former psychiatric nurse, Health Department nursing
division boss
1984: First female commissioner at State Services Commission, appointed SSC
deputy in 1987.
1988: Secretary for Transport.
1993: Social Welfare head.
1999: Made a dame for services to the public service.
1999: Fire Service Commission chair, helped settle deadlocked contract dispute.
2001: Replaced Christine Rankin as Work and Income boss.
2001: Waitangi Tribunal member.
2002: Head of arbitration panel to settle long-time pay dispute between
government and secondary teachers' union, later chaired taskforce aimed at
settling problems arising from the 16-month row.
2004: Appointed co-commissioner for Government Commission of Inquiry into
alleged police sexual misconduct, resulting from allegations made by Rotorua
woman Louise Nicholas.
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CAPTION:
Model of discretion: Dame Margaret's desire not to attract attention, reflected
in her neutral attire, will be important in her new role.