Dame Coral Shaw, of Te Awamutu, DNZM for services to public service, the judiciary and the community
Dame Coral Shaw chaired the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions from 2019 to 2024. Over her career, Dame Coral has led a range of significant public sector reviews, including reviews of the Human Rights Commission and Fire and Emergency New Zealand. While chairing the Royal Commission, she demonstrated her advanced skills to marshal the extensive evidence and findings into five substantive reports, demonstrated empathy in personally engaging with survivors, and ensured that thousands of abuse survivors were able to be heard and that faith-based institutions and the State could be held to account. Earlier in her career, she was a District Court Judge in West Auckland from 1992 to 1999, where she introduced a fast-track system for family violence cases; established the WAVES Trust, which coordinates services for both victims and offenders; and pioneered a range of court-wide judicial education programmes. She integrated a pioneering kaupapa Māori-based restorative justice programme into the Court’s sentencing processes, informing a model for other courts nationally. She was the first woman appointed as a judge of the Employment Court, serving from 1999 to 2009, and was a Judge of the United Nations Dispute Tribunal from 2009 to 2016. Dame Coral’s involvement with voluntary initiatives includes prisoner rehabilitation, services to seniors, marae-based and local community services, and the Citizens Advice Bureau.