4 March 2011
The Honours Unit
Cabinet Office
Parliament Buildings
Wellington
Dear Sir/Madam
I am writing to you in support of Sir William Gallagher’s nomination of Roger Kerr for a New Zealand Royal Honour.
I have known Roger well since the late 1970s when as Director of one of Treasury’s economics divisions I worked with him and a very talented team of economists. Roger was just outstanding in organising the work of the group and directing its energies onto the worrying problems facing the New Zealand economy at that time. He led the preparation of a stream of foundational papers on economic policies that were presented to the National Development Committee chaired by Sir William Birch. This began a long stream of public policy analysis and advice of the highest quality and of the greatest relevance to policy topics spanning all aspects of economic policy. Roger became Director and then Assistant Secretary in Treasury where he made an extraordinary contribution to the development of advice on economic policy that underpinned much of the economic reform that went to the government in the later years of the Muldoon administration and then the Lange government.
Roger left the Public Service to become the Executive of the Business Roundtable in 1986. In this role there is barely a topic of significance in public policy that he has not made a thoughtful and clear contribution to in the twenty five years he has held this position. Many ministers have drawn on Roger’s advice on an astonishingly wide range of policy issues over the years and he has produced a remarkable body of quality literature on public policy found in the Business Roundtable archives. This work is world class and second to none in New Zealand.
Roger has played a hugely important part in ensuring that the business community argued for policies in the public interest and not in the sectional interests of business. He has attracted a long list of globally acknowledged thinkers on public policy to New Zealand to contribute to our policy debates and is himself regarded as a significant contributor to these issues internationally. He was recognised by his peers in New Zealand in the award of the Qantas NZIER prize in economics and in Australian circles by the award of Charles Copeman Medal by the HR Nicholls Society.
Roger’s extraordinary work rate, piercing intelligence, his warm personality, deep networks of colleagues and commitment to the highest standards of public policy analysis and debate, together with his outstanding abilities as an economist, have made him a truly great New Zealander. It would be most fitting for him to be awarded an honour in recognition of this profound contribution to public policy.
Sincerely,
Graham Scott CB
Related posts:
Sir William Gallagher’s nomination of Roger Kerr for a royal honor
Mr Paul Baines – letter of support
Sir William Birch – letter of support
Sir Paul Callaghan – letter of support
Mr Nicholas Calavrias – letter of support
Sir Roderick Deane – letter of support
Hon Rodney Hide – letter of support
Dr Murray Horn – letter of support
Mr Stephen Jennings – letter of support
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