American-born Suzanne Snively, ONZM, has been appointed an honorary Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to governance.
Suzanne Snively was included in the 2021 New Year's Honours list. Photo: Supplied
An economic strategist who has strived to help create a culture of greater transparency in New Zealand, she said the New Year honour was a solid endorsement of largely abstract work done behind the scenes.
Snively has chaired the New Zealand chapter of the global organisation Transparency International since 2011, and has been a strong advocate for developing anti-corruption mechanisms.
She has played a pivotal role in advocacy and leadership on matters of public and private sector integrity, accountability and good governance.
Along with her voluntary involvement over several decades has included time as chair of the Women's Refuge Foundation, the Mary Potter Hospice, and Fulbright New Zealand, she has also held roles with organisations including New Zealand Opera and the Alexander Turnbull Library Endowment Trust.
"I'm delighted with it but equally surprised" - Suzanne Snively
Snively said she was still coming to terms with the appointment, which she greatly appreciated.
"It's such a tremendous feeling of acknowledgement ... I can't even start to absorb what it really means.
"The things I do are about people and not the usual things that get honoured in this way."
She said it was perhaps ironic that efforts to create greater transparency were not easily seen.
The advantages to New Zealand would be immense if it could address transparency in the same way it had addressed its response to Covid-19, she said.
"The advantages to our economy would be massive.
"I've been trying over the last 10 years, using the concept of integrity, to think about different ways of engaging all New Zealanders with the idea, but for many it's an abstraction.
"Hopefully I've come some way over that time and this acknowledgement leads me to think that maybe I have."
Snively said developing anti-corruption tools was never a fundamental focus of her career until she was asked to join Transparency International - a non-governmental organisation set up to combat global corruption.
"Fairness, equality and trust have been core to everything I've done but the concept of transparency and how anti-corruption would work didn't really occur to me at all."
She initially declined so she could focus on what she said was a more aspirational strategy for New Zealand, but then realised it was the tool she might need to get there.
"I had a closer look and then realised there were things about transparency that gave me levers I hadn't previously been able to find."
Snively said very few New Zealanders knew the country had one of the least corrupt public services in the world.
"I don't think people understand the advantages this gives us."
She said now the framework had been set up for building on this, and a strong team was in place to continue the work.
She now planned to move forward to guide development of an economic model that built on the foundation of transparency.
"Having now engaged many different audiences over why New Zealand needs to have the frameworks in place to prevent corruption, and protect itself against corruption from offshore, the next point now is to realise the benefits of being a country which has high integrity."
Snively said New Zealanders were well trained in how to look after limited resources, were hard working and accurate, but these qualities were not enough on their own to generate a standard of living that fostered ongoing resilience in the health and education systems, and more importantly, to address the immediate problems of poverty and housing.
"For that, we need to grow our businesses in a more resilient way.
"Most of all, it's a brand that I feel we don't do nearly enough to market. By building a brand, it means our businesses are going to be more successful."
New Zealand has often been at the top of Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index as one of the countries most devoid of corruption, she said.
But Snively said the long-term benefits of that to New Zealand's economy have not been realised.
"For example the reputation and brand that we've gotten both from that indicator, but also from a prime minister who has led us so well out of Covid, the combination of those factors have given us a really good brand internationally."
She said there should be more publicity internationally about how successful New Zealand had been in dealing with Covid and that had been down to transparency within the public service.
"That was because of the transparent announcements every day, open and transparent about the Covid crisis and at the same time about the context for it."
She said the supply chains necessary for dealing with Covid in the future for things, such as personal protective equipment, were open to corruption offshore.
Snively said to combat that New Zealand needed to have a better register of beneficial ownership, this made it clear where and who the offshore owners were.
"This will make a difference to us not only in terms of fighting corruption in the long-term in relation to Covid and so on, but it also will make a difference to say our housing markets because beneficial owners, when they're unknown, it's possible for overseas interests with far more money than New Zealanders have to buy houses and increase house prices."