Wellington.Scoop
Marie Shroff of Wellington has become a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in today’s New Years Honours list.

She was New Zealand’s Privacy Commissioner from 2003 until 2014, during a period of great technological and social change. Her responsibilities included providing independent public commentary on information privacy issues, responding to major government and private sector privacy breaches, and promoting good personal information handling. She played a key role in bringing international privacy regulators to the table to address developing challenges. She led negotiations for New Zealand privacy law to gain equivalence with European law. She was instrumental in launching Privacy Foundation New Zealand and was inaugural Chair in 2017.

She has been on the Media Council and a Board member of Consumer New Zealand since 2014. She was a Board member of the Equal Opportunities Trust and has represented New Zealand on the Board of the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management. She has been the Chair of the New Zealand Electoral Commission Board since 2019, helping guide the organisation through the 2020 election during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Marie Shroff was the Secretary of the Cabinet and Clerk of the Executive Council from 1987 to 2003, where she was highly regarded for guiding the constitutional transition to mixed member proportional representation and coalition government.

Other Wellingtonians honoured today include Dr Rodger Fox, a lecturer at the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington, who has been named as a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. For more than four decades he has led the Rodger Fox Big Band which has released more than 30 albums and has toured many times through New Zealand and overseas.

AudioCulture reviews his unique career, which has included being made an ONZM for services to music in 2003 and an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Massey University in 2005.

Dr Arapera Royal Tangaere has also been made a Companion of the Order. She has been championing Māori education and early childhood education for more than 40 years. Dr Arapera Royal Tangaere has been the voice of Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust since 1982. As a National Advisor and Manager with Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust for 26 years, she has enhanced learning for children, providing quality oversight of both the curriculum and teaching qualifications. With the Trust she has been instrumental in the growth of the Te Kōhanga Reo movement, the total immersion in Māori language and values for preschool children, from fewer than ten early childhood centres in 1982 to more than 463 across New Zealand and Australia today. She has helped the Trust work with the Ministry of Education, without compromising the kaupapa of Te Kōhanga Reo.

She has been a key contributor to the Te Kōhanga Reo curriculum, with some South Pacific nations adopting the curriculum model and other international representatives visiting to learn more. As a Representative of the Trust, Dr Royal Tangaere has been appointed to various government early childhood education working groups to encourage all families to utilise Te Kōhanga Reo.

Wellington has four new Officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit:

Dr Linda Julia Morcombe Bryant, for services to pharmacy and health; Alison Pauline Cadman, for services to housing and the community; Bronwyn Elizabeth Hayward, for services to people with disabilities and the arts; and Rosemary McLeod, for services to journalism and television.

The full Honours list is here.