Honours even

While many will welcome reversion to an honours system recognising society's special contributors with the familiar titles of "Sir" and "Dame", it is less obvious the move has been thoroughly thought-out, let alone discussed in any meaningful fashion with either the country or the Parliament.

It has become clear since the system was changed and the titles abolished in 2000 by Helen Clark and the Labour-led government that the replacements have failed to excite the imagination and thus, arguably, have contributed to a de facto demotion in their social and cultural significance.

If people are going to be recognised for their good and public-spirited works, then it should be with a title or honour that has resonance.

Otherwise, such a system will inevitably drift into irrelevance and, some might say, this is precisely what is happening.

However, in the precitipitous announcement of the change, there is a danger of continuing another tradition - making mish-mash out of the complex business of public recognition and a titular awards system.

It also presupposes that a majority of citizens agree with the notion of such awards - which is, perhaps, non-controversial - but also that they wish to revert to a system that, symbolically at least, could be interpreted as looking backwards towards an era of empire and cultural genuflexion rather than forward to more independent and self-confident reflections of identity.

The latter is not so clear-cut.

In some respects, Prime Minister John Key is simply reversing a policy made unilaterally and unwisely by Miss Clark - equally without wide consultation.

But the issue is more complicated than this and a glance at the recent history is instructive.

In 1995, National Party leader and Prime Minister Jim Bolger ordered a review of the honours system.

Abolishing knighthoods was the main recommendation of Mr Bolger's Honours Advisory Committee.

And while he eventually fudged the issue, the finding was not seen as overwhelmingly controversial at the time.

In 1999, an opinion poll showed that about 54% of New Zealanders favoured abolition while 37% wanted retention.

In this respect, public opinion had begun to lean towards the status quo in Canada - which abolished knighthoods 60 or so years ago - and Australia which saw an end to them in 1983.

This was perhaps assisted by the perception that the honours system had become politicised over the previous two or three decades and thus compromised by fealty.