The Mary-Anne Thompson trial

The Dominion Post reports Mary-Anne has agreed there is a case to answer at depositions:

A who’s who of Wellington bureaucrats is lined up to give evidence at the trial of former Immigration chief Mary Anne Thompson for fraudulently claiming she had a doctorate.

Among them will be Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard and chairman Arthur Grimes, former State Services commissioners Michael Wintringham and Mark Prebble, Victoria University emeritus professor Sir Frank Holmes and New Zealand’s High Commissioner to Malaysia, David Kersey.

The media are going to love this trial.

Dr Bollard said Thompson worked for him as a research economist at the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research.

He said he met her in 1987 and was aware she was in the process of completing her PhD thesis for the LSE.

He said he would have believed she had her PhD because she would have told him she had. He said he would feel let down and deceived by her.

Dr Prebble said he would not have appointed Thompson as the manager of the policy advisory group in his department if he had known she did not have the qualification she claimed.

Interestingly Mary-Anne (in my experience) was exceptionally good at that role. If she had never claimed the PhD, she might still have got the job.