Sir Ashley Bloomfield knighted, PM praises his calm, 'quiet reassurance' during COVID

He has changed pace from heading the nation’s world-leading Covid-19 response to teaching the next generation of health leaders, but Sir Ashley Bloomfield was happy to stand alongside Chris Hipkins again after being knighted for his services to public health.

Bloomfield kneeled in front of Governor General Dame Cindy Kiro on Wednesday morning where he was knighted in an investiture ceremony at Government House in Wellington, where 10 other leaders were awarded after being named in the New Year and Queen's Birthday honours lists.

The former director-general of health is one of a few public servants who have been awarded knighthoods – government fixer Dame Margaret Bazley and former governor-general Sir Anand Satyanand among them. He dedicated the award to his colleagues.

“It's a huge privilege obviously to be bestowed with this honour, and every time I think about it, I immediately think of all the people who I've worked with, their faces are vivid in my memory, who did fantastic work.”

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Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, who worked closely with Bloomfield as the minister in charge of the Covid-19 response, said Bloomfield's “calm, quiet reassurance” set the tone for the 1pm daily media conferences.

“He was always just such a voice of calm and reassurance and as a result, I think when we appeared in front of you at one o'clock every day, and we were able to project that as well, and I think that actually set the tone for this and so that's something that I will always appreciate,” Hipkins said.

“I don't think I would have been able to do the job that I did without that support.”

Bloomfield no longer spends days anxiously waiting for his phone to ring with the news of another case, and has been “stepping back the pace slightly” as a University of Auckland professor and through his work at the World Health Organisation, he said.

“I'm enjoying my new role at the University of Auckland, and I'm also really privileged to be helping still serve New Zealand on the global stage with this work with the World Health Organisation. It’s a challenging bit of work.”

Bloomfield was heading off to lunch with his family to celebrate, and hadn’t yet decided where the breast star badge would go. His new title wouldn’t change his life in any way, he said.

But he had a final message of hope for New Zealanders: “I think we should be very optimistic and hopeful about the future of this country, because we showed during the pandemic ... we did extremely well at looking after our people and we should take great hope and have pride in that and be optimistic about our future if we turn our minds to it collectively.”