Opinion: Queen's Birthday Honours important way of highlighting the good in our world

Every six months, New Zealand sees a throwback to colonial times which often cause a bit of a stir.

Today, hundreds of worthy people from all over the country, from all walks of life, received Queen's Birthday Honours, and the same thing will happen again for the New Year.

The making of sirs and dames and all the other various honours causes the same outcry every time from those who believe the system is outdated, or that the awards are given out for the wrong reasons.

Read more: Queen's Birthday Honours: Lesley Stanley, MNZM
Eastern Bay of Plenty conservationists Stuart and Margaret Slade receive Queen's Service Medals in 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours
Queen's Birthday Honours: Hockey coach Gill Gemming

I can understand this reasoning to a certain extent, but you only have to look at the list of names to see a whole lot of people who genuinely deserve recognition for the work they've done in our community.

You just need to look at our local recipients to prove the case.

We have Gillian Gemming and Carol Ngawati, who were both today made Officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit - Gemming for the hard work she has put into generations of hockey players and Ngawati for putting her all into "doing the right thing" for Māori.

Then we've got the Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit, Judy Simpson and Lesley Stanley. Simpson has put huge time and effort into the prevention of domestic violence, while Stanley supports teachers and parents in managing children's challenging behaviours.

We've also got four Queen's Service Medal recipients: Irene Curnow, Merle Fausett, Carole Long and Joe Manukau. Curnow for services to Māori and education, Fausett for services to music, Long for services to conservation and Manukau for services to Fire and Emergency.

No matter your thoughts on Queen's honours, you can't deny these people are deserving of recognition.

It's important to highlight the good work that is done in our community and the honours are one such way to do so.

Congratulations to all our local recipients, and thanks for your service.