Speech
Chartered Secretaries New Zealand Inc 70th Jubilee Dinner
Ladies and Gentlemen, I greet you in the languages of the realm of New Zealand - English, Maori, Cook Island Maori, Niuean, Tokelauan and New Zealand Sign Language.
Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni and (Sign)
Specifically I greet you: Your Worship, Dick Hubbard, Mayor of Auckland; and you Sandra Anderson, President of Chartered Secretaries New Zealand Inc; and Past Presidents of the Institute.
I am pleased to be here this tonight as this organisation's Patron. It is a position that I believe I am the first New Zealand Governor-General to hold.
I am in good company in this Patronage. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is Patron of ICSA International—a form of royal endorsement that has been in place since King Edward VII granted the organisation a Royal Charter in 1902.
We are here this evening to acknowledge the history of the New Zealand division of the ICSA International, known as the Chartered Secretaries New Zealand.
In a message of endorsement I very recently provided for this organisation's 70th Jubilee commemorative journal, I acknowledged the vast contribution your members have made to New Zealand.
If I may, I would like to briefly reiterate what it is I believe makes this organisation so fascinating, and so relevant, to New Zealand.
It is that your membership has a reach into almost every aspect of New Zealand community. We would be hard pressed to find any formal grouping of New Zealanders, whether large or small, corporate or social, sporting or political that has not benefited from the skills of your members hold.
This is because the proper functioning of any organisation requires that the principles of good governance be applied. Irrespective of the purpose, size or budget of an organisation, it can only achieve its objectives if has effective administration and sound governance.
It is hardly surprising, then, that your members are in high demand—both in a paid and voluntary capacity.
Few chartered secretaries, once recognised as such, have the opportunity to sit quietly at the back of a meeting room to watch proceedings without participating. Once seen for the chartered secretary that they are, they are inevitably given a position of responsibility and any secretly harboured ambitions of being a bystander are quickly dispelled.
But I jest. The point I am making is that we rely heavily on the skills of your members, not only in the role they play in business, but in the community too. I am pleased to acknowledge the enormous contribution Chartered Secretaries New Zealand has made to New Zealand over the last 70 years.
I began speaking in all the New Zealand realm languages. May I close by speaking in Maori, issuing greetings and wishing you good health and fortitude in your endeavours.
No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tena koutou katoa