page_title: Michael Cullen (politician)
section_title: Honours and awards
hierarchical_section_title: Michael Cullen (politician) / Honours and awards
caption_attribution_description: English: Michael Cullen receives knighthood
context_page_description: Sir Michael John Cullen KNZM is a former New Zealand politician. He served as Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand, also Minister of Finance, Minister of Tertiary Education, and Attorney-General. He was the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1996 until November 2008, when he resigned following a defeat in the general election. He resigned from Parliament in April 2009, to become the deputy chairman of New Zealand Post from 1 November 2009 and chairman from 1 November 2010. On 6 March 2020 he announced that he had resigned from the Lakes and Bay of Plenty district health boards respectively. At the same time he also announced that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 small-cell lung cancer, which had also spread to his liver.
context_section_description: In 1990, Cullen was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal. On 16 December 2009, Cullen received an honorary LLD from the University of Otago in recognition of "his contributions as an Otago academic and as a respected and highly influential politician".
  In the 2012 Queen's Birthday and Diamond Jubilee Honours, Cullen was appointed Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
caption: Michael Cullen receives knighthood
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