Simon Murdoch

Simon Murdoch, CNZM (born 1948) is a New Zealand diplomat and public servant. He was New Zealand’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade and was previously New Zealand High Commissioner to Canberra, and Chief Executive of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Simon Murdoch

CNZM
Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade
In office
2002–2009
Preceded byNeil Walter
Succeeded byJohn Allen
High Commissioner to Australia
In office
1999–2002
Preceded byGraham Fortune
Succeeded byKate Lackey
Chief Executive of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet
In office
1991–1998
Prime MinisterJim Bolger, Jenny Shipley
Succeeded byMark Prebble

Early life and education

Murdoch attended University of Canterbury, where he gained a first class master's degree with honours in history.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Murdoch joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1972. He had an early posting to Canberra, before joining the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in 1980 as foreign affairs adviser to Prime Minister Rob Muldoon.

In 1983, Murdoch was assistant head of the Asian division in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Later that year, he was posted to Washington DC as political counsellor, and the New Zealand intelligence liaison officer to the United States.

In 1987, Murdoch returned to New Zealand and became head of the Australia Division in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In 1989, Murdoch was seconded to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to be head of the Policy Advisory Group. In 1991, State Services Commissioner Don Hunn appointed Murdoch to the post of Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Murdoch was head of the department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Prime Ministers Jim Bolger and Jenny Shipley. He left the post in 1998, to become Visiting Professor of Public Policy and Management at Victoria University of Wellington for a year.

In 1999, Murdoch was appointed New Zealand High Commissioner to Australia. At the time, the posting was seen to be grooming Murdoch for the role of Secretary of Foreign Affairs.

In 2002, Murdoch succeeded Neil Walter as New Zealand’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs. He retired from that position in 2009.[1] In the 2009 Queen's Birthday Honours, Murdoch was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for public services, lately as Secretary of Foreign Affairs.[2][3][4]

GCSB

In 2010 he conducted a review of New Zealand intelligence agencies, and for a period before and after the appointment of Lt Gen Sir Jerry Mateparae, he was acting chief executive and director of the GCSB. During his second stint in the position he presided over the illegal surveillance of Kim Dotcom, but left weeks before the raid was carried out on 20 January 2013.[5]

gollark: Regarding actually selecting on children: I think you could make some reasonable argument about not disadvantaging children genetically or something but also people are terrible and could not be trusted to do this in a nonterrible way.
gollark: limons did mention something about just using it for membership in some group and not for deciding who reproduces, but that's not particularly eugenicsy and just vaguely stupid like mensa.
gollark: Yeees, actually, hmm.
gollark: Anyway, limons, for the purpose you specified it would work fine to just rank people on accomplishments instead of some rough "intelligence" metric.
gollark: Violent crime dropped a ton some time after leaded petrol was beeized.

References
  1. Trade, New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and. "Our early leaders". New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
  2. "Queen's Birthday honours list 2009". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 1 June 2010. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
  3. "Running great John Walker knighted". Otago Daily Times. NZPA. 1 June 2009. Retrieved 11 November 2011.
  4. "Simon Murdoch, of Wellington, receives the Insignia of a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit". The Governor-General. 2009. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
  5. 'Dotcom saga rebounds on Key Government ", 1 October 2012, ANDREA VANCE, stuff.co.nz
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