Fairfax editorials differ on honours

Today both The Press and the Dom Post did editorials on the New Years Honours, with significant disagreement between them.

The Press says:

The unlikely figure of Don McKinnon, the former senior National politician and Commonwealth Secretary-General, was the sole new member of the ONZ, which is limited to no more than 20 living New Zealanders.

McKinnon is an amiable and consensual character, qualities that made him a successful chief whip and deputy prime minister for his National Party, but these same qualities might also help explain why the Commonwealth did not make significant progress under his executive leadership. Had he successfully restored the organisation’s relevance, there would have been an argument for his ONZ.

The Dom Post however takes the opposite view:

There can be few who would quibble with the inclusion of Don McKinnon in ranks of those with the Order of New Zealand, the pinnacle of a system that became fully domesticated in 1996. The secretary-general of the Commonwealth for the past eight years, Mr McKinnon was, before that, the affable deputy prime minister and foreign minister during the Bolger administration and played an important part in brokering the Bougainville ceasefire. His quiet achievement ranks well against the likes of fellow Order members Whetu Tirikatane Sullivan and Jonathan Hunt.

The rest of the editorial is the normal Saturday tongue in cheek:

However, it is those that should have been there but who are not that is of concern. Where, we wonder, was the announcement that Trevor Mallard was being made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to boxing? And surely Tau Henare deserved an award of similar stature for his work in raising the art of provocation to new heights?

Even leaving aside the shock omission of Mr Mallard, the Government was far too modest when it came to considering honours for its own members. Michael Cullen has worked long and hard to stop New Zealanders from unwise spending, admittedly using the rather blunt tool of taking a good chunk of their cash off them in taxes and hoarding it on their behalf rather than convincing them to save, but received no recognition. Helen Clark herself has performed similarly sterling work in keeping New Zealanders safe from exposure to dangerous opinions in shepherding through the Electoral Finance Act. Again, she was passed over.

Heh.