Queen's birthday honours: Honour for the man who honoured many others

After running New Zealand's honours system for 30 years, Phillip O'Shea has himself received a Queen's Birthday honour.

But the man who has helped to hand out over 13,000 awards and presided over shaping the nation's honours system says his companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit was not an inside job.

"I had no part in it whatsoever ... and I have no idea who nominated me - nobody knows these things do they?" said Mr O'Shea, who retired as director of the honours secretariat in the Prime Minister's department last year.

He retains his royal ceremonial post as New Zealand Herald of Arms Extraordinary.

Mr O'Shea was pleased to get the recognition.

"I've designed ... most of our official medals so it's quite a nice thing to get something in this way."

He said the present honours system - an amalgam of modern awards in a traditional British royal honours structure - worked well for New Zealand.

"We've got one of the best systems in the world."

- NZPA