New Zealand Listener - May 26, 2018

30 LISTENER MAY 26 2018

I worked for unions until about 1990.

It took a toll on me. I ended up pretty

much burnt out in my early forties, totally

exhausted. My marriage ended, too. It

was a low point in my life. But you have

to take responsibility for yourself. For

example, there was quite a big drinking

culture in the unions, so I gave that up,

and I started life again. After five years at

a relaxed and low-key firm in Newtown, I

set up my own firm in 1995. I have been

blessed with a reasonable amount of work

and enjoyed the sort of human interest

you get from employment law. You feel

like you make a difference from time to

time, and that is satisfying.

Are our employment laws fair?

Yes. I have been an employer for some

years, and so I have seen the problems

employers face. I am also president of the

Wellington Chamber of Commerce. I see

the world through the eyes of employers –

most of them are medium- or small-scale,

people putting their house or their savings

on the line to run a business. Sometimes

they go broke and sometimes they sur-

vive. It is often a hard struggle.

You are honorary consul for Colombia.

How did that come about?

I love travelling. When I went to Latin

America, I fell in love with it and won-

dered why we did not have a better

connection with the continent. Then I

was lucky enough to be invited on John

Key’s business delegation to Latin America

in March 2013 and, shortly after, I was

appointed honorary consul for Colom-

bia. It gave me great pleasure to see New

Zealand open an embassy in Bogotá in

February. I am hopeful Colombia will

reopen an embassy here, although that

might be the end of the honorary consul.

You have many medals for swimming.

What’s the story behind them?

I started swimming about 30 years ago

and I swim every morning at Freyberg

Pool in Oriental Parade. There are old-

timers like me and young ones like Lewis

Clareburt, the only able-bodied swimmer

to win a medal at the Gold Coast Com-

monwealth Games. I sometimes compete

in the butterfly at the Masters Games.

Most of the others who did butterfly in

my age group have now died or don’t like

doing it any more, so as long as I keep

going, I have great medal prospects.

There’s a recurring spiritual theme in what you

say about your life.

I have always had a spiritual side to my

life that is a source of inspiration and

peace. My three favourite stories are bibli-

cal: the prodigal son, the good shepherd

and the good Samaritan. I love Rem-

brandt’s painting The Return of the Prodigal

Son – I have a copy above my bed. I love

looking at it and get a lot of comfort from

the unconditional love of the old father to

the son. One of my favourite books is The

Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Home-

coming, by Henri Nouwen. Another of his,

Life of the Beloved, is a favourite, too.

It’s surprising you don’t mention the parable

of the loaves and ishes, given the numbers

you cater for at your breakfasts. What’s the

origin of the Cullen breakfast?

Initially it was just small, about eight

people. We have so many people who are

treasures in the community, and I thought

it would be good to get to know them,

so why not have a simple breakfast and

talk? It went like that for a long time but

it grew, and we had to find bigger places

to meet. Now the purpose has changed,

too. It is still about treasuring people, but

it is also a way of expressing gratitude

for what I have in life. Suzanne Aubert

[a French Catholic nun, who came to

New Zealand and established a home

for orphans and the underprivileged

in Jerusalem on the Whanganui River]

said, “Gratitude is the most beautiful

ornament of the human heart.” I think

you have to be grateful for what you

have, and these breakfasts are my way

of showing that. I have no interest in

publicity for them, and in fact have tried

to stop it. It is not a stunt. We observe

the Chatham House Rule, but now it

is so large, it is getting hard to enforce

that. We had 400 for Jacinda Ardern,

and squeezed in 420 for Bill English.

Will it get bigger?

I don’t want it any bigger; it would

lose its character. I used to pay for it all

myself but now we charge $25 a head

or $30 for a couple. We invite schools

to send a couple of prefects each and we

pay for them. At the last breakfast, 70

or 80 of our guests were senior students

and their teachers. Jacinda Ardern met

and spoke with the students: today’s

students are tomorrow’s leaders and

they need opportunities like that.

Who would you most like to get as

a guest speaker but haven’t yet?

Bishop Vincent Long of Parramatta, who

was a Vietnamese boat person. He was

abused in institutions as a young man,

and is now a bishop. His is a powerful

story. Everyone wants to get him, and

he is very busy, but I will keep trying.

We have had a wide range of people,

from World of Wearable Art founder

Dame Suzie Moncrieff to author Joy

Cowley. She is a real treasure and we

would love to have her again. We have

had historian Chris Pugsley as a guest;

I enjoy his books. While I am on the

topic of books, I want to mention Gabriel

García Márquez, the Colombian writer

who died in 2014. I love his writing.

What is the dierence between your breakfast

gatherings and other events at which people

can see and hear political and other leaders?

We are off the record, there is no media,

and people can get around to meet the

speaker. It is still small enough for that to

happen. Wellington people love that. The

other thing that is important is respect

and looking for the good in people. I

always try to do that. l

SHELF LIFE

I have always had a

spiritual side to my

life that is a source of

inspiration and peace.

On the Milford Track in the early 1990s.