Wellington: A campaigner for prostitutes and a former conservative prime minister. They're among the latest figures picked by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to receive New Zealand's highest honours.

Named in the country's twice-year allotment of knighthoods on Monday is life-long advocate and founding member of the nation's prostitutes' collective, Catherine Healy, who has been made a dame companion for her services to the rights of sex workers.

"I really am quite emotional about it," she said. "People like us don't normally get these sort of things."

While working as a school teacher in the '80s, Dame Catherine signed up for a receptionist job at a brothel to earn extra money for travel. She was the collective's national coordinator by the end of the decade.

She built the group into an internationally-recognised organisation, becoming the country's leading voice for sex worker rights, health and education and eventually organised the charge towards decriminalisation of prostitution in 2003.