Announcement of a new Governor General of New Zealand

THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT IS ISSUED BY THE PRESS SECRETARY TO THE QUEEN

The Queen, on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of New Zealand, has been pleased to approve the appointment of Judge Anand Satyanand as the next Governor General of New Zealand.

Judge Satyanand will serve in succession to Dame Silvia Cartwright and will assume office in August 2006.

Background

Judge Anand Satyanand, DCNZM, has until recently been a Parliamentary Ombudsman in New Zealand.

His work in that role involved dealing with complaints about unfairness on the part of government officials. He also worked in the freedom of information jurisdiction dealing with cases about the release of information by ministries, agencies involved with policy and those in the regulatory field.

This work enabled him to work with various departments and organisations including Social Welfare, Education, Health, Fisheries, Police and Inland Revenue.

Of Indo-Fijian parentage, he was born and raised in Auckland and is married with three adult children.

He was formerly a legal practitioner in the 1970s with the Crown solicitors Office and subsequently as a partner in an Auckland law firm specialising in court work.

He became a District Court Judge in 1982 and spent 12 years in that role before being appointed as an Ombudsman in 1995.

Judge Satyanand has pursued a number of interests alongside his judicial and ombudsman work. He has maintained a long term interest in Medico-legal Society proceedings in Auckland and Wellington.

He has also taken part in a range of community activities in sport and sporting administration.

He is a Government appointed Board member of the Asia New Zealand Foundation (formerly Asia 2000) and a member of the Standing Committee of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs.

Since 1998 he has been a regular contributor each year to the delivery of a Commonwealth Secretariat funded training programme for persons newly appointed to Ombudsman office.