Helen Winkelmann to replace Sian Elias as NZ Chief Justice

The Labour-led government has appointed Justice Helen Winkelmann to replace Dame Sian Elias as Chief Justice of New Zealand.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Winkelmann’s appointment at her last post-Cabinet press conference for year.

Elias became NZ’s head jurist in 1999, ahead of the 2004 move to make a New Zealand Supreme Court the country's highest court of appeal instead of the Privy Council, in London.

That makes Winkelmann the first New Zealand judge formally appointed to the chief justice role, which she will take up on March 13 next year.

She was appointed to the New Zealand bar in 1985, was made a judge of the High Court in 2004 and chief judge of the High Court in 2015.

Ardern said there was a "high degree of consensus" from the wide range of interested parties consulted by the Solicitor-General, Una Jagose, who recommended Winkelmann's appointment to Ardern, who will in turn recommend the appointment to the Governor-General, Dame Patsy Reddy.

(BusinessDesk)

Comments from our readers

No comments yet

Add your comment:

Your name:
Your email:	Not displayed to the public
Comment:
Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved.

Anti-spam verification:

Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process.

Related News:

TGG - Response to media speculation
ARB - Annual Meeting Date and Director Nominations
CNU - Q4 FY25 Connections Update
MOVE FY25 Results and Investor Briefing 29 August 2025
RYM - First quarter trading update
July 11th Morning Report
IKE Announces equity raising of A$20 million
Chorus full year results date
FPH 2025 Notice of Annual Meeting and Voting Form
July 10th Morning Report