KEY POINTS:
National is again questioning why World War II heroine Nancy Wake has been ignored in the Queen's Birthday honours.
"Helen Clark's Government has been proud to take credit for passing the law allowing New Zealand service women to serve in the frontline," said National's Veteran Affairs spokes-woman Judith Collins.
"Nancy Wake 'just did it' 65 years before. Not only is Nancy Wake an outstanding New Zealander, she is an example to today's women."
During the war, Ms Wake fought first with the French resistance and then the British SOE (Special Operations Executive).
She helped co-ordinate resistance groups and armed uprisings against the German military ahead of D-Day. She also helped Allied pilots shot down over occupied France escape back to England, including several New Zealanders.
Her status as a resistance fighter was legendary, and her ability to escape the clutches of the feared Gestapo led to them dubbing her the "White Mouse".
She now lives in a London rest home.
Ms Collins said she wrote to Helen Clark this year again asking for Ms Wake to be included in the honours list "for the inspiration and example she has set other women everywhere".
Late last year, a wheelchair-bound Ms Wake, was presented with the Royal New Zealand Returned Services (RNZRSA) gold badge by the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, at Buckingham Palace.
At the time Helen Clark, who had supported the RNZRSA awards to Ms Wake, said the heroine was not eligible for an official New Zealand award.
A cross-party select committee "unanimously agreed not to recommend to the Government that she be considered for an award", Helen Clark said.
"The reason is that the connection with New Zealand is extremely tenuous," she said. "Apart from being here for a tiny time as a baby she has never lived here. That's the thing."
Ms Wake was born at Wellington in 1912, but moved with her parents to Australia in 1914.
- NZPA
