New Year Honours: Deirdre Milne

By THERESA GARNER

Long before the women's movement swept up Auckland barrister Deirdre Milne, her mother had drummed into her that "girls can do anything".

Ms Milne, honoured for her services to women and the community, said her mother, Lorna Boyes, who died this year, would have been thrilled to see her daughter made a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

"She really was a terrific parent, and a real example.

"It just proves that the children of solo parents can be okay," Ms Milne, who is 64, said yesterday.

"My father died during the war and she never remarried and she brought up two children on her own."

"She was the person who encouraged me to look to education. She was the first person I ever heard say, 'Girls can do anything', and when the women's movement arrived I was just ripe for it, because that was what I had always believed."

Ms Milne, who was made a Companion of the Queen's Service Order in 1990, was a founding member of the Women's Electoral Lobby and the National Organisation of Women, and is a former trustee of the Women's Refuge Foundation.

She is a former chairwoman of the Auckland Health regional ethics committee, former director of the Yellow Bus Company, current chair of the Unitec research ethics committee, and also chaired the Aids Foundation.

She served on the Auckland University Council and as pro-chancellor was counsel to the Human Rights Commission. She was also a council member of the Auckland District Law Society.

Yet Ms Milne says of her honour: "I don't know why I got it. There must be an awful lot of people who've done more than I have."

Ms Milne has been retired for five years from the law firm Milne Ireland Walker and now works as a duty solicitor at the Auckland District Court.

"If you want to change the world, it's very difficult to do. In a place like this [the courthouse], you can change it for one or two people."

Her love of "working as part of a group" has helped her in her life, she says, as has having a supportive husband and family life.

Ms Milne is concerned about the stress of modern working life on families, and says people should not turn away from helping others.

She says of her own three decades of service to the community: "I don't think I've given up anything except the chance to do nothing."