The Front Page: King’s Birthday and Coronation Honours 2023 explained - Who decides which New Zealanders become Sirs and Dames

King Charles. Photo / Getty Images

One of three people who help organise the twice-yearly Honours Lists is encouraging everyone to nominate Kiwis they believe deserve an honour.

182 people from across a range of industries are being recognised in today’s King’s Birthday Honours, with former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Black Ferns coach Wayne Smith amongst those being conferred with honours for their contributions.

While the public sees the final lists published on the King’s Birthday and New Year’s Day, what they don’t see is the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes as officials go through all the nominees to find the few deemed deserving of the honours on offer.

In fact, it is a team of three in the Cabinet Office tasked with going through around 800 to 1,000 public nominations a year. Amongst them is Secretary of Cabinet Rachel Hayward, who told The Front Page, the Herald’s daily podcast, that the nominations rely entirely on public nominations.

“If you are sitting around and looking at an honours list and thinking, ‘I don’t know why ‘X’ isn’t on it, nominate X,” Hayward said.

“It relies on public nominations. The forms are on the website for the Department of the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. What we ask is you fill out a nomination form, and have at least two letters of support.”

The most high-profile names on the honours lists are always those who become dames or knights, but they aren’t they only honours being awarded today.

So what do all the honours mean, what goes into determining who should be given these honours, and what happens if someone rejects an honour?

Listen to today’s episode of The Front Page to hear an in-depth explanation of the honours system and how it works in New Zealand - and why you should get involved.

The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available every weekday from 5am.

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