A 35-year campaign to fix a blunder
Ministers are discussing a possible payment to recognise the damage a Commerce Commission error inflicted decades ago – but the victim of that mistake is still waiting. Rob Stock reports.
Farmer John Dickson is still fighting for justice more than 30 years after his multimillion-dollar stock trading business failed in the 1980s.
It was shut out of sale yards after a merger between rural services firms Wrightson and Dalgety Crown.
The Commerce Commission approved the merger of Wrightson and Dalgety in 1986, attaching to it ‘‘behaviour’’ conditions designed to ensure Dickson’s business could continue to access the yards.
But the commission did not enforce the conditions, and it was not until 1992 that it admitted they were legally unenforceable.
Dickson vowed to fight for justice for the rest of his life.
Just over 10 years ago, he was led to believe he was closing in on compensation for the $5.9 million he sought for the destruction of his business. A report from the Ombudsman said an ex-gratia payment should be considered, but that was refused by thenCommerce Minister Simon Power.
Now Dickson has discovered government ministers more recently discussed offering him an ex-gratia payment of just $500,000.
In letters released to Dickson under the Official Information Act, minister Andrew Little wrote to Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Commerce Minister David Clark, recommending offering him the money, saying the farmer’s plight epitomised the type of injustice MPs went into politics to fix.
But Dickson said the $500,000 discussed fell far short of the losses he suffered.
‘‘They offered me $6m in 2010. They put it on the radio with Marcus Lush. That was totally embarrassing,’’ Dickson said.
Dickson said Little’s letters, written between 2018 and 2020, undervalued his losses, and the recommendation for the $500,000 payment had not even resulted in an offer to actually pay it.
When contacted by Stuff, Clark’s office said: ‘‘There is currently no material change to report.’’
Dickson said the pre-merger value of his company had been put at $6m by expert valuers in the
1990s.
He had been communicating for about five years with Little, Dickson said.
Little told Robertson in one of his letters: ‘‘I see this case as potentially epitomising the type of injustice that motivates us in the work that we do.
‘‘Mr Dickson has been arguing his position for too long now against the might and resources of the state,’’ Little said.
‘‘Despite the findings of select committees and the Ombudsman, and the advocacy of some politicians over a lengthy period of time, this case remains a shameful record of unintended bureaucratic outcomes, and Mr Dickson’s life remains on hold all these years later.’’
One of those political advocates was former National Party minister Lockwood Smith, who spoke in his valedictory speech in
2013 of his regret at not being able to get Dickson justice.
‘‘I can only apologise to him for my failure, a failure I feel very, very deeply,’’ Smith said.
‘‘What troubles me is not that an unlawful decision was made by an important Crown agency, as mistakes happen; it is the length that officials involved went to, spending tens of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on Queen’s Counsel to argue that black was white, including the final advice from a Queen’s Counsel that the unlawful decision involving conditions that could never be enforced represented ‘best practice’.’’
Despite recommending the exgratia payment, Little told Robertson he did not believe there was sufficient evidence to draw a ‘‘direct causal link’’ between the mistakes of the commission and the losses suffered by Dickson.
‘‘The missteps by the Commerce Commission . . . meant he [Dickson] was effectively denied the opportunity to seek redress for apparent anti-competitive conduct by Wrightson-Dalgety,’’ Little told Robertson.
Little said the case was ‘‘unique’’ and warranted special consideration.
‘‘I believe that our Government may wish to bring this matter to a conclusion,’’ he said.
Little wrote to Clark in November telling him he believed an ex-gratia payment should come from commerce funding.
Dickson said he had not heard from Clark, and vowed to continue fighting until the day he died.
He said he had not recovered financially from the failure of his business, but had clawed his way back up to owning his own beef farm, after initially working as a stock delivery driver when his business failed.
‘‘I’m over it. I’ve got to survive. I’ve had to start my life over again a couple of times. It hasn’t been easy,’’ Dickson said.
‘‘I’m over it. I’ve got to survive. I’ve had to start my life over again a couple of times. It hasn’t been easy.’’ John Dickson