To be a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
CARTER, The Right Honourable David Cunningham
For services as a Member of Parliament and as Speaker of the House of Representatives
The Right Honourable David Carter was Speaker of the House of Representatives from 2013 to 2017 and held ministerial portfolios in the fourth and fifth National governments.
Mr Carter was first elected to Parliament as the Member for Selwyn in 1994, and was MP for Banks Peninsula from 1996 to 1999. He was Minister for Revenue and held Associate Ministerial portfolios from 1998 to 1999. He was Minister for Agriculture, Biosecurity and Forestry from 2008 to 2011, before becoming Minister of the newly established Ministry for Primary Industries from 2011 to 2013. Outside of chairing the Business, Standing Orders and Office of Parliament select committees in his role as Speaker, he has been a member of the Finance and Expenditure and Government Administration select committees, and chaired the Primary Production select committee between 2002 and 2008. He retired from politics in 2020, after 26 years as a Member of Parliament. From 2018, Mr Carter was one of New Zealand’s permanent representatives at the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and an active member of the IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians.
To be a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
DOBBYN, Mr David Joseph (Dave), ONZM
For services to music
Mr Dave Dobbyn is one of New Zealand’s most celebrated singer/songwriters who, across a 40-year career, has received a record number of music awards and Silver Scrolls for his work across nine studio albums.
Mr Dobbyn came to prominence in 1979 with Th’Dudes, who undertook a reunion tour in 2006, and in the 1980s with DD Smash, before going solo. Since his appointment as an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2003, he has produced four studio albums. He has performed locally, nationally and internationally, for a wide variety of causes including in support of a range of charities, at a fan’s hospice bedside, for the funeral of former Prime Minister David Lange, in a prison wing, and with schoolchildren. He performed free concerts for residents of Matata after the floods, spent time at community centres following the Christchurch earthquakes, and has an ongoing connection to the families of the Pike River Mine after writing ‘This Love’ in honour of the 29 men who lost their lives. In 2017 he recorded his anthem 'Welcome Home – Nau Mai Ra’ in te reo Māori. Mr Dobbyn was inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame in 2013 and again in 2019 as a member of Th’Dudes.
HONOURS
Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, New Year 2003
To be a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
TAYLOR, Mr Ian Lemuel, CNZM
For services to broadcasting, business and the community
Mr Ian Taylor was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2012 for his services to television and business.
Mr Taylor’s business Animation Research Ltd is in its 30th year and continues to be a global leader in technology development, having pioneered and been a world leader in real-time 3D visualisation for major sports broadcasts. Animation Research received the award for ‘outstanding new approaches in sports broadcasting’ at the 2015 Sports Emmy Awards for their development of the America’s Cup mobile application. He was named the 2019 New Zealand Innovator of the Year. He is currently focused on an initiative called ‘Tech for Good’, which is developing technology tools for use in education and healthcare. He has played a key role in a collaboration between Dunedin Methodist Church and Animation Research to create virtual learning environments for prison inmates. For the Tuia 250 commemorations, he developed digital simulations of the re-created ancestral voyages undertaken for the commemoration, made freely available online. He has been involved with the Dunedin Waterfront Vision project since 2018, providing a visualisation through Animation Research and promoting sustainability and environmental research. He has been a Board member of Māori Television, New Zealand On-Air, the New Zealand Film Commission, IT Professionals New Zealand, Dodd-Walls Centre, and Callaghan Innovation. Mr Taylor is a member of Ngā Kuitūhono, the Māori Advisory Group to NZQA.
HONOURS
Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, New Year 2012
To be a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
TEMARA, Professor William Te Rangiua (Pou), CNZM
For services to Māori and education
Professor Pou Temara is a recognised authority of the Māori language, Māori customary practices, and Māori performing arts.
Professor Temara was one of three founding directors of Te Panekiretanga o Te Reo Māori, the Institute of Excellence in the Māori Language under the umbrella of Te Wananga o Aotearoa, where he taught whaikorero, karanga and tikanga Māori. He contributed to Te Wananga o Aotearoa's strategy to improve the quality of Te Reo and Tikanga Māori throughout the country. He lectures at the Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Waikato where he continues to teach and research whaikorero, karanga and tikanga. He is a respected tohunga throughout the country and has mentored and shaped many pae korero speakers in Māori customs and protocols. He is a current member of the Waitangi Tribunal, having been appointed in 2008, and is recognised for guiding proceedings in tikanga. He has been involved with numerous inquiries, including the Te Rohe Potae Inquiry from 2012 to 2020. He is a cultural advisor for the Judges of the Māori Land Court and advised the New Zealand Defence Force on matters of tikanga. Professor Temara chairs the Repatriation Advisory Panel to the Ministry of Culture and Heritage administered through Te Papa Tongarewa.
HONOURS
Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, Queen's Birthday 2016