Changes to QSO and QSM Honours affect Gov Gen

Prime Minister Helen Clark today announced that the Queen has approved a new Royal Warrant for The Queen’s Service Order and its associated Queen’s Service Medal.

"When the QSO and QSM were instituted in 1975, both had two sub-divisions; “for Community Service” to recognise voluntary service to the community, and “for Public Services” to recognise service through elected and appointed office," Helen Clark said.

"In 1995 the Prime Minister’s Honours Advisory Committee recommended that the QSO and QSM be retained, but reconstituted without the sub-divisions should a New Zealand Order of Merit be instituted.

"The New Zealand Order of Merit was subsequently instituted in 1996. Now that the two systems have been operating side by side for over 10 years, it has been decided that it is timely to adopt the Committee’s original recommendation to remove the sub-divisions.

"The designs of the badge of the QSO and QSM have been slightly amended to reflect the changes. The effigy of the Queen will be the same as that used on other New Zealand medals, and the inscriptions on both the badge of the Order and on the Medal will read “FOR SERVICE” and “MÔ NGA MAHI NUI”.

"The new Royal Warrant will be published shortly and the first appointments to the QSO and awards of the QSM under the new Warrant will be made in the forthcoming Queen’s Birthday Honours List, to be announced on Monday 4 June.

"Under the old Royal Warrant, the Governor-General was ex-officio Principal Companion of the Order, but was not a member of the Order. The new Royal Warrant now provides for the appointment of a Governor-General to be a Companion of the Order in his or her own right.

"As a consequence of this change, The Queen has approved the appointment of the Governor-General, The Honourable Anand Satyanand, PCNZM to be an Additional Companion of The Queen’s Service Order," Helen Clark said.