Simon Upton (School House, 1971–1975) regards his time at St Paul’s Collegiate School as something from a distant geological era. The Cold War was at its height, people were still coming to grips with the May 1968 student riots in Paris, and the Vietnam War was coming to is dénouement. 

Appropriately, the school had attracted – under the leadership of two headmasters: JD Lewis (1960-1961) and Reg Hornsby (1963-1969) flown in from Christ’s College – a staff common room that was nothing if not diverse. Memorable characters abounded. 

There was Francis Blackburn (Staff 1964-1972), who taught fourth form English by requiring an essay a week. The first batch were fired back with plenty of 0/20 grades – Simon was mortified to ‘top’ the pack with 9/20. Blackburn comfortingly explained to the zeros that they’d be at 9/20 by the end of the year.

There was Rodney Hamel (Staff 1963-2000), who would, with a straight face, spend an entire session leading students on to elaborate bizarre historical theories before pouncing dramatically to expose the implausibility of what they had concocted.

There was Laurie Thornton (Staff 1967-2000), whose capacity to communicate physics would have been able to seduce anyone with a more functional left brain than Simon’s.

This was the Hornsby inheritance, carried forward by the liberal, Bentley-driving headmaster Tony Hart (1970-1980). A school in which non-conformism was tolerated and obsessions about career and achievement absent. Simon led a small eclectic delegation of conscientious sports objectors to argue that they should do ‘estate duties’ rather than winter sports. Hart agreed – and so began a happy time of designing and planting corners of the campus.         

Unsurprisingly, it was an environment that encouraged debating. During his time at St Paul’s, Simon was active in House and inter-school debating. He appeared in successive senior debating teams during the mid-1970s. Fifteen years after debating was established at St Paul’s, both the Junior and Senior teams won their inter-school finals in the Waikato-Thames Valley-King contest – a first for St Paul’s. On that occasion, Simon was teamed up with Rod Carr and David Kidd to debate the topic, “That politicians can be trusted”, negating the motion. Simon says he is lucky to have been a near contemporary of Rod whom he considers to be the outstanding New Zealander of his generation.

Simon was also heavily engaged in school music as a pianist, chorister and assistant organist; a tradition of student leadership continues in this organ space today.

After being named Dux of St Paul’s in 1975, Simon completed degrees in English literature, music, and law at the University of Auckland before being awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford. Continuing the somewhat contrarian tradition of his school years, he passed it up to contest the Waikato seat in the 1981 General Election. 

This questionable trade unwound in 1988 when the prospect of a second term in Opposition led him to persuade Rhodes House to reactive the scholarship. In a move that would nowadays be regarded as scandalous, he commuted between Oxford and Parliament to complete a Master’s degree in political philosophy, attending to constituency affairs through his long-suffering spouse, Bhaady, and secretary (Stephanie Hutchinson) with the aid of Wolfson College’s state-of-the-art fax machine.

Simon served as a Member of Parliament for nearly two decades. During nine of those years, he held a range of ministerial portfolios, including environment, research, cultural affairs, biosecurity, health, and state services. As Minister for the Environment throughout much of the 1990s, he played a central role in shaping New Zealand’s modern environmental policy framework as well as tracking the international environmental developments of a decade that started with the Montreal ozone protocol and ended with the Kyoto climate agreement. His opposite numbers as environment minister included Angela Merkel. He hosted the first ministerial meeting ever to be held in Antarctica. 

After leaving Parliament in 2000, Simon’s interest in the environment took him to Paris to chair the Round Table on Sustainable Development at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The Round Table brought together economists, environmentalists and politicians interested in examining the relationship between the economy and the environment. 

In 2010, Simon was appointed Director of the OECD’s Environment Directorate, which took him through the Paris climate conference and innumerable other talk fests of varying worth. In 2017, he returned to New Zealand to take up the role of Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, an independent Officer of Parliament responsible for providing advice on environmental matters. He continues in that role in his second term and is providing advice to the select committee hearing evidence on legislation that will replace the Resource Management Act he enacted back in 1991. 

Since returning to New Zealand, Simon has dived into a wetland restoration and landscaping on the family farm and local initiatives such as the Hamilton Gardens Trust and the campaign to protect and renovate St Peter’s Cathedral in Hamilton. The Hamilton Gardens are the brainchild of Peter Sergel whose very first garden creations were constructed at Southwell School when Simon was there. The cathedral featured in the life of his mother when she taught at Waikato Diocesan in the mid-1940s. 

Simon thinks these sorts of institutions need inter-generational support and engagement. While most of us will be quickly forgotten, the things we leave behind can endure if future generations pick up the baton.

A letter to Collegians from Simon Upton

Simon was a member of School House (1971-1975) and comes from a Waikato family which has supported the school from its earliest days. He is currently the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. His letter is supported by Archbishop David Moxon (the bishop of Waikato’s representative on the school board), St Pauls’ chaplain Rev Peter Rickman and the Mayor of Hamilton, Tim Macindoe. 

Dear All,

This is not a letter you were expecting, but I hope you will give me a hearing.

I am writing to ask you to join me in supporting St Peter’s Anglican Cathedral in Hamilton as it sets about the daunting task of meeting stringent new earthquake standards and bringing the fabric of the cathedral up to date.

You may well wonder why I am approaching you. I have no idea whether you have any feeling for the Anglican Church or for religion of any colour for that matter. I do know that you spent part of your schooling at St Paul’s.

Your school only exists because of the Anglican Church. The church’s presence in this country goes right back to ground zero. It has been a remarkable force for education that is demanding, reasonable, rational and informed by enduring values. New Zealand would be a poorer place without its dedication. Your old school has grown to become a significant player in the educational landscape. It is well-endowed and successful. So are many of those who have been through its gates.

Very simply, the mothership that put so many schools to sea now needs help in turn. The Cathedral is seeking to give itself new life – both physically and in terms of what it can offer the community through music and service. More information is found here. 

If you can give anything, you would be giving back to the institution that, generations ago, made such a profound investment in the future that is today represented by schools such as St Paul’s.

With kind regards

Simon