New Year Honours 2024: How New Zealand’s honours system works and which political party decides those chosen

Twice a year New Zealand Royal Honours lists roll in to celebrate extraordinary Kiwis and their achievements. The Herald explains how are they chosen and who makes the decisions.

Although anyone can nominate a person they believe deserves a New Zealand Royal Honour, it’s just a small team of three in the Cabinet Office tasked with collating the around 800 to 1000 public nominations a year.

Among those going through the submissions last year was secretary of Cabinet Rachel Hayward, who told the Herald in June they rely entirely on public nominations.

From there, she said the Honours Unit creates short citations about each nominee and presents the submissions from the past six months to the Cabinet Appointments and Honours Committee, which is chaired by the Prime Minister.

Hayward told the Herald the committee looks at the nominee’s length of service, sphere of influence and the nature of their achievements compared to others.

Once the committee has made a short list it gets sent to the Governor-General for approval.

From there, she said they undertake a “sounding process” whereby those on the list are approached and asked if they would like to accept the honour. About a handful of people on each list say no, she said.

“It often is in that range of somebody thinks it was a team effort and they shouldn’t be singled out, or sometimes people actually don’t want the profile that’s associated with an honour.”

The Prime Minister then sends the final list to the King.

She said people ask whether there are any political considerations involved in the list, but she is surprised “how little” politics plays into who receives an honour.

The Cabinet Appointments and Honours Committee that considered the 2024 New Year list was made up of Labour leaders and MPs including Chris Hipkins, Carmel Sepuloni, Kelvin Davis, Grant Robertson, Jan Tinetti, Dr Ayesha Verrall, Willie Jackson, Andrew Little, Nanaia Mahuta, Priyanca Radhakrishnan, Ginny Andersen and Barbara Edmonds.

Although the Queen died, a name change to the King’s Service Order and King’s Service Medal will likely take until the King’s Birthday in 2024 to take effect.

Current companions of the Queen’s Service Order, who use the post-nominals QSO, will not have to change their titles.