Wellington.Scoop
Two Wellingtonians have become Companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit in today’s New Year Honours List:
Sue Chetwin, for services to consumer rights.
Having begun her career in journalism, Ms Chetwin was editor of the Sunday News from 1994 to 1998, the Sunday Star-Times from 1998 to 2003, and founding editor of the Herald on Sunday from 2003 to 2005. As Chief Executive of Consumer New Zealand from 2007 to 2020 she successfully campaigned for many important consumer law reforms, including prohibitions on unfair contract terms, fairness in consumer credit contracts, country of origin labelling, and controlling door knockers. She has led other successful campaigns on behalf of consumers including calling for mandatory standards for sunscreens, helping to regulate mobile truck shops, and calling out businesses on misleading claims such as greenwashing. Her commitment to consumer rights have contributed to New Zealand having a strong consumer protection ethos. She has advocated for consumers at Parliamentary committees and other public arenas both nationally and internationally. Ms Chetwin serves as a Board member of the Financial Markets Authority and Food Standards Australia New Zealand, is a member of a Law Society Steering Group for the review of the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006, and is Chair of the InternetNZ Policy Review Advisory Panel, reviewing the ‘.nz’ domain name space.
Distinguished Professor Philippa Lynne Howden-Chapman, QSO, for services to public health.
Professor Howden-Chapman is currently co-director of He Kāinga Oranga/Housing and Health Research Programme. This programme examines and clarifies the links between poor housing and ill health and, under her leadership, was recognised with the Prime Minister’s Science Team Prize in 2014. She has conducted randomised housing trials in partnership with local communities, which have had a significant influence on housing, health and energy policy in New Zealand. She has collaborated on several research publications on health and social impacts caused by inadequate housing, including ‘Home Truths: Confronting New Zealand’s Housing Crisis’ (2015). She chaired the World Health Organization Housing and Health Guideline Development Group and was a member of the Children’s Commissioner’s Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty in 2012. She is a professor of public health at the University of Otago, Wellington where she teaches public policy, and in 2019 was appointed one of seven inaugural sesquicentennial distinguished chairs. Professor Howden-Chapman is director of the New Zealand Centre for Sustainable Cities, Chair of the International Science Council Urban Health and Wellbeing Committee, and a director on the Board of Kainga Ora – Homes and Communities.
Ten people in the Wellington area have become Officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
Professor Jonathan George Boston, for services to public and social policy
Professor Boston has extensive expertise in the fields of governance and public policy, especially social policy and climate change policy, and is Professor of Public Policy in the School of Government/Te Kura Kāwanatanga at Victoria University of Wellington. He has been Director of both the University’s Institute for Governance and Policy Studies and the former Institute of Policy Studies. He was a member of the Tertiary Education Advisory Commission in 2000/2001, and later helped to design, implement and evaluate the Performance-Based Research Fund. He has published widely across various subjects, including public management, social policy, climate change policy, tertiary education policy, and comparative government. His recent books include: ‘Child Poverty in New Zealand’; ‘Governing for the Future’; ‘Safeguarding the Future’; ‘Social Investment: A New Zealand Policy Experiment’; and ‘Transforming the Welfare State’. He assisted the Children’s Commissioner as Co-chair of the Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty in 2012/2013, applying his expertise to the formulation of policies aiming to benefit thousands of New Zealand children. He sits on the governance boards and advisory boards of several organisations, including Oxfam New Zealand and the Centre for Christian Studies. Professor Boston’s recent research projects include designing institutions to manage the challenge of climate change adaptation, reforming the welfare state, and reforming parliament.
Professor Angela Rosina (Angie) Farrow, for services to the arts, particularly theatre
Professor Angie Farrow has been active in theatre, creative leadership and arts education in New Zealand since 1990. Beginning her career in the United Kingdom, she has written more than 50 plays across a range of formats, which have been widely performed internationally. She scripted, produced, and directed two award-winning, full-length community plays, “Before the Birds” (2009) and “The River” (2011), and from 2008 to 2019 she was Executive Producer of the annual Manawatū Summer Shakespeare. She began lecturing with Massey University in 1995 and in 2019 became the first Professor of Theatre Studies at Massey University. She instituted the Expressive Arts programme within the University’s Bachelor of Communication. She set up a resident artist scheme in partnership with Palmerston North City Council, Massey University and Square Edge Community Arts, which has run for 14 years. She developed the Festival of New Arts, in which students from Massey University collaborated with members of the public to devise original scripts and choreograph stories, performances and multimedia presentations that were performed for the public in a festival format. Professor Farrow was Chair of the Manawatū Arts Committee from 2001 to 2018, is currently President of the Playwrights Association of New Zealand, and has been a judge of the Women’s International Playwriting Conference.
Murray Campbell Lynch, for services to theatre over more than 40 years.
Mr Lynch began his professional theatre career in 1973 at Four Seasons Theatre, Whanganui. He was an Associate Director and later Artistic Director of Centrepoint Theatre, Palmerston North. He has served as Associate Director of Theatre Corporate in Auckland and Artistic Director of Maidment Arts Centre at Auckland University. He was Founding Director of Tantrum Theatre Company in Auckland. He worked as a projects administrator for QE11 Arts Council and in 1991 became Associate Director of Wellington’s Downstage Theatre, of which he later became Director in 2000. He was Head of Actor Training and Directing at Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School in the 1990s and helped develop the joint Toi Whakaari/Victoria University degree of Master of Theatre Arts (Directing). As Director of Playmarket since 2010, he is responsible for supporting the work of New Zealand playwrights through the agency and with seminars, development workshops, publications and play readings. As a director and teacher his theatre experience spans Shakespeare and musicals, with a special focus on New Zealand works. Mr Lynch has served on many boards, currently for Theatre Archives New Zealand and the Hannah Playhouse Trust.
Brenda Pilott, for services to social and public service sectors
She advocated at the national level for pay equity for women and social services sector workers, recognition of domestic violence, and better resourcing for public services. Her initial career in the 1980s focused on domestic violence and she became National Coordinator of the National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuges, followed by various public service roles in family violence, community and social services policy. She was National Manager of the Public Service Association from 2004 to 2014 and has been National Manager of Social Service Providers Aotearoa (SSPA) since 2016. With SSPA she has overseen an increased level of engagement and collaboration with government funding agencies and other key players, ensured the 200 SSPA member organisations have access to helpful resources, facilitated professional development opportunities across the sector, and convened SSPA’s annual conference. She led a process to provide feedback on the nationwide requirement to change NGO contracts to provide individual client level data to government, including engaging the Privacy Commissioner. She commissioned a 2019 report to highlight the need for better resourcing for community social services. She has been a member of numerous advisory boards and committees. Ms Pilott contributed advice on increasing professionalism of the sector, supporting the Social Workers Registration Bill 2019.
Joanna Ruth (Jo) Randerson, for services to the performing arts
Jo Randerson has had an award-winning career in theatre and has pioneered the field of participatory performance arts projects and interactive community works. She co-founded the theatre group ‘Trouble’, whose show ‘Bleach’ was part of the 1998 New Zealand Fringe Festival and toured to the Edinburgh Festival and the Tramway Festival. She received the Bruce Mason Award for her first play ‘Fold’. She founded her own theatre company, Barbarian Productions, whose award-winning shows have played in Melbourne, Prague, Edinburgh, Adelaide, Norway and Brisbane, as well as nationally. Through Barbarian Productions she has supported projects benefiting communities and creating dialogue opportunities. Such projects have included ‘Kids Election’, run alongside Te Papa’s Suffrage 125 exhibition and allowing children to have a ‘hands-on’ look at democracy, the music theatre project ‘Sing It To My Face’, a cross-generational choir performance exchanging inter-generational viewpoints, and ‘Political Cutz’, a pop-up hair salon offering free haircuts in exchange for political conversations. She received the Robert Burns Fellowship, the Creative New Zealand/Department of Conservation Wild Creations Residency at Cape Kidnappers, and was a Winston Churchill Fellow. In 2008 Ms Randerson was recognised with the Arts Foundation New Generation Award and she has been involved with a community re-purposing a former bowling club as a creative space in Vogelmorn.
Victor John Rodger, for services to theatre and Pacific arts
Victor Rodger is an award-winning playwright whose works deal with race, racism and identity including issues confronting Pacific peoples and voicing issues for the gay community. His first play ‘Sons’ premiered in 1995, which he later rewrote and had performed in 1998 at Downstage Theatre, winning four Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards. His 2013 multi-award winning play ‘Black Faggot’ was performed at the Auckland and Melbourne Fringe Festivals, as well as in Hawaii and the United Kingdom. His other plays include ‘Ranterstantrum’, part of the 2002 New Zealand International Festival of the Arts, ‘My Name is Gary Cooper’ (2007), ‘At the Wake’ (2012), and ‘Uma Lava’ (2019). In 2015 he founded FCC, which has presented works on stage in New Zealand and in January 2020 he produced ‘Wild Dogs Under My Skirt’ at the SoHo Playhouse in New York. He has worked with Pacific secondary school students through Tautai Arts Trust Fresh Horizons workshops. Within the screen industry he has worked variously as a writer and actor on New Zealand television shows ‘Shortland Street’, ‘Mercy Peak’, and the Māori television series ‘This is Piki’. He was awarded the Creative New Zealand Contemporary Pacific Arts Award in 2013. Mr Rodger has been awarded several writer’s residencies, including the Robert Burns Fellowship in 2016.
Roger Wilson Steele, for services to the publishing industry and the arts
Roger Steele, as publishing director of Steele Roberts Aotearoa in Wellington, has supported hundreds of authors and poets, providing a platform for emerging writers through the production of around 600 books since its first publication in 1996. Steele Roberts has published around 30 to 40 books annually, prioritising a platform for those who may not have a huge market but add to New Zealand’s cultural landscape and history. Steele Roberts publishes primarily in the genres of history, culture and politics; autobiography, biography and memoir; poetry, art and music; and social issues and civil liberties. Mr Steele has facilitated biographies and memoirs that have brought many New Zealand lives and aspects of New Zealand history to public attention, from national figures to those lesser known, such as from within the Rainbow community. He has also been a significant supporter of the development of New Zealand poetry. A number of authors published by Steele Roberts have won Montana New Zealand Book awards, including Glenn Colquhoun, J.C. Sturm and Hone Tūwhare. Mr Steele was also a Trustee of the Wellington Sculpture Trust for five years and provided the Trust with free office space for a further 12 years.
Adjunct Associate Professor James Alan (Jim) Tully, for services to journalism and education
Adjunct Associate Professor Jim Tully has contributed to journalism in New Zealand across 18 years as a journalist and 32 years as an educator. He began his career as a reporter in 1969 before holding senior editorial roles at the Opotiki News, Auckland Star and 8 O’Clock News. In 1987 he was appointed Head of Journalism at the University of Canterbury, has since held other Head of School positions, and was Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Arts). Since 2013 he has been a Researcher in Residence and Senior Tutor at Massey University. As an educator he has trained more than 600 journalists, many of whom have gone on to hold influential posts in print and broadcast media nationally and internationally. He organised and judged the New Zealand Secondary Schools Newspaper of the Year competition from 1989 to 2004. In the 1990s he was a UNESCO consultant on journalism in the South Pacific. He has contributed to industry standards, research and accreditation, with a particular focus on the reporting of mental health, suicide and trauma. In 2004, he chaired a process between the Ministry of Health and the Commonwealth Press Union Media Freedom Committee to negotiate protocols for the reporting of suicide in New Zealand. Associate Professor Tully is a voluntary member of the Suicide and Media Expert Panel.
Colleen Mary Upton, for services to the plumbing and gasfitting industry and women
Colleen Upton has been involved in the plumbing and gasfitting industry since the early 1990s and has been an advocate for female representation in the trades. She joined the Hutt Valley Wairarapa Master Plumbers Association in the early 1990s, later joining the Executive Committee in 2006 and serving as President of the Association from 2010 to 2014. In 2015 she became the first female Board member on the New Zealand Master Plumbers Board, where she was instrumental in initiating the development of a Diversity Policy. She has mentored and overseen the training programmes of more than 50 apprentices since 1992. She has sought to change behaviours to increase the number of women in the industry. She supported and employed her first female plumbing apprentice in 2000 and her own business now employs three of only 44 female plumbers and gasfitters currently active in New Zealand. She established a group at the New Zealand Plumbers conference to work on increasing women’s presence at secondary school career events and the hiring of female apprentices. Ms Upton is on the Board of the National Association of Women in Construction, Weltec Advisory Group and Interim Skills Leadership group, and previously served on the Masterlink Ltd Board, Plumbers Journal Board and the Skills NZ working group reviewing New Zealand plumbing qualifications.
William Raymond (Ray) Wallace JP, for services to local government and the community
Ray Wallace has had a 30-year career in public and community service, most recently as Mayor of Hutt City Council from 2010 to 2019. As a Councillor, Mr Wallace led the establishment of the Hutt Youth Council in 1998 and championed youth initiatives, including fundraising for the establishment of a skateboard park. He helped establish the Wainuiomata Community Patrol Group. As Deputy Mayor, he joined the Board of the Hutt Rape Crisis Centre and drove fundraising to help keep the Centre open. As Mayor he oversaw a major rejuvenation programme for Hutt City, with several new community facilities built. He was a key driver of the Wainuiomata Hill shared cycle/pathway, completed in 2019. He organised fundraising for the Wainuiomata Volunteer Fire Brigade, founded the Wainuiomata Youth Awards and co-founded the Wainuiomata Budget Service. He chaired his local community trust for more than 10 years, overseeing school holiday programmes and a work initiative for long-term unemployed people. He was Secretary of the local foodbank for seven years and organised many community wide food collections. He is Vice President of Sister Cities New Zealand and initiated Hutt City exchanges with Japan, China and the United States. Mr Wallace chaired the Local Democracy Coalition from 2013 to 2016, which aims to retain local democracy and decision making within regions.
New Wellington Members of the NZ Order of Merit include
Professor Michael George Baker, for services to public health science
Professor Baker is one of New Zealand’s leading epidemiologists and has been involved with public health for more than 30 years. He has been Professor of Public Health at the University of Otago in Wellington since 2013 and is Director of the Health Environment Infection Research Unit (HEIRU). He is Co-Director of the University’s He Kainga Oranga/Housing and Health Research Programme and the Public Health Summer School. He has a range of public health research interests, with a particular focus on infectious diseases, environmental health, and housing, and has published widely in these areas. He is a member of the Ministry of Health’s COVID-19 Technical Advisory Group. He was a strong advocate for eliminating COVID-19 and keeping it out of the country, over the approach of flattening the curve. His commentary helped inform the Government’s nationwide lockdown. He is an active science media commentator and member of the Science Media Centre’s Advisory Board. Internationally he is a member of the World Health Organisation Regional Verification Commission for Measles and Rubella Elimination and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council’s Centre for Research Excellence on Integrated Systems for Epidemic Response. Professor Baker’s contributions have been recognised with the HRC Liley Medal in 2013 and the Prime Minister’s Science Prize in 2014.
Christina Joy Barton, for services to art history and curation
Ms Barton is a leading art historian, art writer, and curator. Early in her career, she worked as the Assistant Curator at the Auckland Art Gallery and from 1992 to 1994 as the Curator of Contemporary New Zealand Art at the Museum of New Zealand in Wellington. She taught Art History at Victoria University of Wellington from 1995 to 2007, before becoming the Director of the University’s Adam Art Gallery, a position that she continues to hold. Her work has been especially important in drawing attention to and raising the profile of female artists in New Zealand. She was co-editor of the 1990s art journal ‘Antic’ and in 1993 she co-curated the landmark exhibition of feminist art ‘Alter/Image: Feminism and Representation in New Zealand Art 1973-1993’. Since then, she has produced often the first exhibitions and publications on certain underrepresented and emerging artists. As a teacher, museum curator, and gallery director, she has mentored numerous young students in these fields over 25 years. She has written or edited more than 100 books, book chapters, and articles. Ms Barton has been a selector for the Walters Art Prize and for New Zealand’s representative at the Venice Biennale.
Major David Thomas Bennett, for services to the Salvation Army and the community
Major Bennett was involved with the Salvation Army from 1965 until retiring from active service in 2018. His involvement included more than 16 years in church leadership in Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, and the United Kingdom. His involvement also included three years as Youth Director in Otago and Southland, 14 years with Public Relations in Auckland and Wellington, four years as National Secretary for Public Relations, Training Principal of the Salvation Army Training College, and National Coordinator of Emergency Services for 10 years. As Youth Director in Otago and Southland in the 1970s he initiated an Adventure Camp in addition to planning and directing other camps, music schools leadership seminars. As corps officer for The Glenfield Salvation Army he initiated a building renovation project to expand the premises and introduced the ‘buy-a-beam’ scheme for people to invest in their church. He introduced a scheme for the Christchurch City Corps that helped the church pay down its mortgage and become debt free within 13 years. As National Emergency Services Coordinator Major Bennett helped lead and was involved with Salvation Army support following the 2010 and 2011 Christchurch earthquakes and 2016 Kaikoura earthquake, as well as Salvation Army responses to international natural disasters in Nepal, Uganda, Fiji and Samoa.
Vanisa Dhiru, JP for services to the community and gender rights
Vanisa Dhiru has been a strong advocate across gender, race, employment, leadership and age equity. She has served as Chief Executive for Volunteering New Zealand, Executive Director for the 20/20 Trust, and was National President of the National Council of Women of New Zealand (NCWNZ) from 2017 to 2019. As National President of NCWNZ, she led and guided the Gender Equal NZ campaign, increased the diversity of the national membership, led the Suffrage 125 work programme, and raised the profile of NCWNZ in the media. She led the NCWNZ delegation at the United Nation’s 70th session of the CEDAW Monitoring Committee in 2018, where she chaired the New Zealand NGO meeting to advocate for gender rights. She has volunteered on various charity boards including chairing the Inspiring Stories Trust and the YWCA of Greater Wellington. She was a Trustee of Trade Aid Wellington Trust and campaigned to make Wellington a Fairtrade city in 2009. She holds Commissioner roles with the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO and the Library and Information Advisory Commission. Ms Dhiru has been a member of various advisory panels, including for the Ministry of Social Development, Ministry for Women, Inland Revenue and the Wellington School of Business and Government at Victoria University.
Vicki Anne Heikell, for services to heritage preservation and Māori
Ms Vicki Anne Heikell is recognised as New Zealand’s leading Māori Paper Conservator. From 1993 to 1997 she was a Paper Conservator at the National Library of New Zealand, and from 1997 to 2000 was National Preservation Officer, Māori at the National Library. She was Paper Conservator with the National Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa from 2003 to 2010, alongside supporting the National Services Te Paerangi museum and iwi outreach team to develop and run marae and museum based preservation workshops. She has been Field Conservator for the National Preservation Office, Alexander Turnbull Library since 2010. She has been involved with nationally significant projects including ‘Pūkana: moments in Māori performance’ and the He Tohu exhibition of several of Aotearoa’s key constitutional documents. For many decades she has provided mentoring and advice on the care and preservation of works of art on paper and training and advice for iwi, hapū, whānau on preservation of paper-based taonga. Ms Heikell is currently on the Ngāti Porou Taonga Advisory and has been President of the New Zealand Conservators of Cultural Material collective.
James Edward (Jim) Kebbell, and Marion Wood, for services to sustainable business and the community
Jim Kebbell and Marion Wood founded Commonsense Organics, a leading example of sustainable small business in New Zealand. In 1975 they bought land in Te Horo and named it Common Property, with the aim of growing organic vegetables, before opening the first Commonsense Organics supermarket shop in Wellington in 1991. There are now five Commonsense Organics stores, four in Wellington and one in Auckland, while Common Property is a professionally run commercial unit of 11.2 hectares. They are strong advocates for organic and regenerative agriculture and seek to educate their customers and communities on how to grow their own organic food. Their values have influenced Commonsense Organics to adopt BPA- free till receipts, home compostable packaging, and to become a Living Wage employer. They are involved in a number of charitable initiatives, including Commonsense being the primary supporter of the Porirua School Gardens scheme. They are founding members of the Organic Traders Association of New Zealand. Mr Kebbell is an Honorary Life Member of BioGro New Zealand, having previously been Chair. Ms Wood is a member of the Fair Trade Wellington Board, chairs the Soil and Health Association of New Zealand and the Organic Traders Association of New Zealand, and has been Vice Chair of the Sustainable Business Network.
Janet Lyn Lane, for services to tertiary education
Mrs Lane was appointed Chief Executive of MITO New Zealand Incorporated (MITO) in 1999, the standard setting body for the automotive, transport, logistics and extractives sectors. Her leadership has inspired collaborative partnerships with industry associations, corporate entities, employer networks and government agencies to support workforce development strategies. Central to this are education and training initiatives that enhance workplace productivity, innovation and industry sustainability through the creation of nationally recognised qualifications leading to advanced technical and business management career pathways. A champion of enriching lives and inspiring futures through successful learner outcomes, she has implemented scholarship programmes, secondary school micro-credentials, diversity projects for under-represented groups, technical mentorships, literacy and numeracy coaching and dedicated bespoke pastoral care. She served as a Council Member of the Industry Training Federation for more than 20 years and was a Trustee of WorldSkills New Zealand from 2007 until 2011 and I-CAR New Zealand from 2012 to 2017. Mrs Lane represented New Zealand at the APEC Electromobility Symposium in Chile in February 2018, presenting on ‘Human Capital and Gender – the New Zealand Experience’.
Melissa Potocka Moon, for services to athletics and charitable causes
Melissa Moon is a long distance runner who has won 21 New Zealand athletics titles over her career and in 2001 and 2003 was World Mountain Running Champion. In 2001 she was named New Zealand Sportswoman of the Year, in 2010 she won the World Tower Running Championship and World Vertical Running Championship, and in 2020 was recognised by the World Mountain Running Association as the second-ranked female mountain runner of all time. In 2007 she was one of 20 selected international athletes who participated in the Blue Planet Run around the world, a 95 day non-stop relay race which began at the United Nations in New York with the aim of providing safe drinking water to 200 million people by 2027. In 2015 she guided blind runner Maria Williams in the London Marathon where Ms Williams’ time earned her the number two spot in the International Paralympic rankings for the fully blind. Ms Moon volunteered at Wellington’s Compassion Centre for more than 10 years; is an Ambassador for the Malaghan Institute; and serves as a Patron of Project K, a mentoring programme for youth that uses adventure-based learning. In 2008 Ms Moon was recognised as one of the JCI Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World.