Derek Leask: Media Advisory

Derek Leask yesterday 20 April 2014 made the following observations in response to a media enquiry about the recently announced appointment of Mr Nigel Fyfe, currently Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Justice (Legal and Operational Services and Legal Services Commissioner), to another equally senior position in that Ministry (Office of Treaty Settlements).

• I have been asked for my comment on the latest developments

• I am pleased to hear that progress has been made

• Nigel Fyfe has clearly been sought out to do a major task worthy of his talents and his experience.

• People on both sides of the Treaty Settlement process will find him fair, thoughtful and reasoned.

• This decision is a good one and clearly common sense has at last prevailed.

• I am pleased for wider reasons, too.

- It is evident that the Rebstock report has had to be discounted or even perhaps ignored.
- This is consistent with the objections to the Rebstock report expressed for some months now by many people.
- These include people in the legal community, former senior public servants and others who have expressed the view that the MFAT Investigation was seriously flawed and that its conclusions cannot stand scrutiny.

Derek Leask, a public servant from 1969, was formerly High Commissioner in London from 2008-2012 and retired from that position. He has filed with Scoop a number of statements and material from experts dismissing the Investigation and its Report as badly flawed.

ENDS

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