Obituary: Colin Clark

By ARNOLD PICKMERE

Former PSA general secretary. Died aged 70

Colin Clark joined the Public Service Association (PSA) in 1975 and became its general secretary in 1986, when it had about 70,000 members.

He led the organisation through troubled times with the introduction of the State Sector Act, the Employment Contracts Act, and the public sector reforms of the late 1980s.

When he retired from the post in 1991 the Government sale of state assets and privatisations was hitting public service jobs and the membership was down to about 60,000. Today it is 40,000.

His views then, as a committed trade unionist coming from an underprivileged background, were blunt:

"Over the last several years the bulk of the investment of the private sector has been in buying public assets," he said. "It has not been investment in new employment-creating activities."

Colin Clark had a varied life. Born in Christchurch in 1931, he started his working life as a labourer on construction projects such as the Roxburgh hydro station, the Homer tunnel, Waitaki hydro, the Ohai coalmine in Southland, Bluff Harbour, and the Aviemore and Benmore power station sites.

He also spent time as officer in charge of some of New Zealand's most isolated weather stations, including Campbell and Raoul islands. On Campbell his interest in ornithology and other small life led him to discover a new spider later named after him - Gohai Clarki.

Before his time at the PSA, Mr Clark was an industrial relations officer for Downers. When he left the PSA, he worked as an employment mediator and was a member of the Employment Tribunal.

He also chaired the Electoral Reform Committee, steering its factions into a working body that campaigned for seven years to pave the way for proportional representation in Parliament (MMP).

PSA president Ian Bamber described Mr Clark this week as one of life's great characters who worked tirelessly in the interests of workers and public services.

On the union side he would be most remembered for the lead role he played in setting up the Council of Trade Unions.

He had a vision for the union movement where it could speak with one voice for all workers and one of his priorities was to improve dialogue between unions and Government.

Mr Bamber said that when Mr Clark was asked, on becoming general secretary of the PSA, how he would most like to be remembered, he answered: "I hope that I would be remembered with some affection by the PSA staff".

"That is exactly how he is remembered ... he had passion, vision and commitment, but above all could relate directly to working people and their issues."