Jeanette Fitzsimons, Thames, CNZM
For public services. Ms Fitzsimons was elected in 1996 as Green Party co-leader on the Alliance Party list and is believed to be the first Green candidate in the world to have won an electorate seat when she won the Coromandel seat three years later. She was co-leader of the Greens until 2009, and left Parliament in February 2010. In 2000 the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act, a bill that Ms Fitzsimons introduced, was the first Green legislation to be passed in New Zealand. She led the negotiations to implement the $323 million home insulation scheme. She was a leading voice in debates on climate change and the genetic modification of food in New Zealand. She worked to increase government funding for public transport, cycling and walking, and to electrify the Auckland rail system.