The old year has blown away, and a brave new landscape opens up before us. I’m choosing to feel optimistic, even as our economic aircraft experiences extreme turbulence, and the ground proximity warning system is beginning to scream in our ears.
As The Spinoff’s Stewart Sowman-Lund writes, “Every year since 2020 has got progressively worse – surely 2025 is going to buck the trend?”.
This is the kind of dumb, life-affirming optimism we need. Who wants to dwell on scary stats? Not the government, who likes to quote economic research, but not to fund it.
Sowman-Lund’s quote comes from an end-of-year Spinoff piece titled The world in 2024, in one sentence, a joint effort from writers including RNZ host Mihingarangi Forbes. The least glib of journalists, she gets a lot into one sentence. Last year, she said, was “Testing and unsettling but an opportunity to learn; to be more focused, disciplined and grateful while being less reactive and angry, ultimately to refocus, draw from positive energy sources and share the aroha far and wide.”
Sharing the aroha sounds good to me. ‘Tis the season for resolute optimism in crazy times. ‘Tis also time for the national puffing out of chests – the New Year’s Honours List is upon us.
Getting a gong from Charles III, King of New Zealand, makes a lot of people and their families proud and happy, even if no one thinks there should be a King of New Zealand, and hardly anyone can tell an ONZ from a PCNZM.
Knighthood and damehood titles though – pinnacles of achievement, or clanking chains to feudal England?
“My government in 2000 removed knighthoods and damehoods from the New Zealand honours list,” Helen Clark (ONZ, PC) tweeted crisply in 2018. “Unfortunately, the next government brought them back.” (Her PC stands for ‘Privy Councillor’, by the way.)
Although one advantage to the ‘sir’ and ‘dame’ titles, at first glance, would appear to be simplicity, this is an illusion. The titles are complex and come with a subtle ranking. Captains of industry and politicians somehow manage to dominate the most gilt-edged of honours. You can be dumped from the club, though, as two businessmen recently discovered.
Most New Zealand honours fit within three Orders: The Order of New Zealand; the New Zealand Order of Merit (which has five levels); and the King’s Service Order (and associated King’s Service Medal). Except for the Orders of Chivalry, which are fading as the government no longer nominates Kiwis. Dame Anne Salmond has DBE after her name because she is a Dame of The Order of the British Empire: an Order of Chivalry.
The Order of New Zealand (ONZ) might sound plain, but it is the highest honour in New Zealand, and especially cool as it doesn’t come with a title. Helen Clark has one. So did the late Waiheke Islander Sir Murray Halberg, (ONZ, MBE). ‘Ordinary’ membership is limited to 20 living people. Confusingly, ‘Additional’ members can be appointed to mark important occasions, which is why there are now 22.
Dame Jacinda Ardern is a Dame Grand Companion of The New Zealand Order of Merit (GNZM). This is also an exclusive club, just not quite as exclusive as the ONZ, as it is limited to no more than 30 living people. As I write, there are 14 members, who include Sir Bill Birch and Sir John Key, the PM who did so much to reinstate lordly-sounding titles.
The Order of Merit comes in five tiers. Knight or Dame Grand Companions (GNZM) like Dame Jacinda Ardern are at Level 1. Level 2 is for Knight (KNZM) or Dame (DNZM) Companions like Waiheke’s Dame Karen Sewell (DNZM, QSO), Dame Valerie Adams and Dame Jenny Shipley. Then there are Principal Companions (PCNZM) and Distinguished Companions (DCNZM) for those who don’t want a title, like Witi Ihimaera.
Level 3 are Companions (CNZM); Level 4 are Officers (ONZM); Level 5 are Members (MNZM), like Waiheke Islanders Michelle Hooper, Dr Hinemoa Elder and Charlotte Lockhart.
For a small island, Waiheke has quite the clutch of royal honours, including Dame Karen Sewell (DNZM, QSO), Sir Graham Henry (KNZM), Sir Peter Leitch (KNZM, QSM), Sir Ralph Norris (KNZM) and the late Sirs, Rob Fenwick (KNZM KStJ) and Murray Halberg, (ONZ, MBE). Sir Rob’s KStJ means he was also a member of the Order of St John, an order of chivalry. Islanders Catriona McDonald Foster (QSM) and Ngaio Lewis (QSM) don’t need to change the initials after their name, even though their award is now the King’s Service Medal, and not the Queen’s.
There are also islanders who have honours from other countries, like actor Roy Billing, who has an OAM (Medal of the Order of Australia).
Most of us are happy to see Waihekeans receive recognition for the work they do for others, and the environment, even if our honours system is flawed in too many ways to name.
If you think someone deserves an award, you’ll find details of how to nominate them at the website for the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
• Jenny Nicholls
© Waiheke Gulf News Ltd 2025
