Geographical spread of Honours

Brian Rudman calculates that Wellingtonians have a two to three times better chance than Aucklanders at receiving Honours from the Queen.

I’ll resist suggesting that is to be expected on grounds of ability to say that Rudman is right that there is a problem here. Not as bad as he makes out, but a problem.

Firstly a capital will always get more honours. It is often where the senior most people in an industry are. Many charities have head offices in Wellington. The judges of the top two courts are in Wellington. The top of the police and the military are here. Almost all Govt Depts have head offices here. I doubt there is a capital in the world which does not receive more honours due to the nature of the jobs in a capital.

But there is one industry where most head offices are not in Wellington. And that is that of business. Most of our business leaders are in Auckland, and in my opinion these wealth creators are woefully under represented in the Honours.