New Years Honours

The honours list is out.

Congratulations to all those honoured.

Without taking away anything from Jonathan Hunt’s record of service as an MP for 38 years, I am somewhat surprised that he was made a member of the Order of New Zealand, rather than a distinguished or principal companion of the NZ Order of Merit.

The ONZ is restricted to 20 living NZers, and is now full up until someone dies. The list of members is here and generally the only MPs in it are former PMs, with the exception of Mrs Tirikatene-Sullivan.