Nearly 40 years in public life has resulted in former State Member for South Coast, Shelley Hancock, being awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the General Division.
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However her reaction to being recognised for service to the people and Parliament of New South Wales was somewhat muted.
"I'm honoured and privileged, but not overly excited because there are so many other people out there who deserve it far more than I do," Mrs Hancock said.
"I don't go on being rewarded for things that I've been paid to do."
Mrs Hancock was a teacher at Ulladulla High School when she hade her first foray into public life, elected to Shoalhaven Council in 1987.
She held the position as ward three representative until 2004, including being deputy mayor 2000-2001.
While still a councillor she was elected State Member for South Coast in 2003, and held the position for 20 years before retiring in 2023.
Along the way Mrs Hancock became the first female speaker in the NSW Legislative Assembly from 2011 to 2019, and Minister for Local Government from 2019 to 2021.
As speaker she instigated many changes to State Parliament, many focused on improving facilities for female MPs.
Mrs Hancock said as Local Government Minister she once met with the heads of one council, asking for State Government help because they could not pay the staff's wages at the end of the week.
That council was bailed out and later sacked because of the trajectory it was on.
"It was interesting, travelling around the local govts across the state seeing how they managed their finances, but also their beautiful buildings and some of the facilities that they had invested wisely in for the benefit of their communities," Mrs Hancock said.
There were many highlights in her work for the local community, including seeing things such as construction of the Ulladulla Leisure Centre, which hinged on one vote in council.
"It makes me happy to be able to drive past something that I've been a part of," Mrs Hancock said.
There was also an upgrade to the Milton Theatre and building the Sanctuary Point Police Station - "That was a huge fight, I just went to war on that one".
Moving into State Parliament started with concerns about the Princes Highway.
"People get bored when you're talking about the highway, but that's how I started in State Government, because at that time we had so many fatalities on the highway, and I was getting sick of it," Mrs Hancock said.
"So Gareth (Ward) and I started with Barry O'Farrell when we came to government, and we started Toolijooa to Mount Pleasant, the Berry Bypass, which Labor had talked about for so long it wasn't funny, now Berry to Bomaderry.
"Then coming from the South because I said Gareth can't have it all his own way, so we got the Burrill Lake Bridge probably five years ahead of schedule which has made a huge difference in Burrill Lake, Termeil Creek Bridge and the Jervis Bay turnoff, which was a lot of hard work behind the scenes, and that's going to happen as well."
While there was plenty achieved for the community, Mrs said the real highlight was the people she had met and worked with.
"I've been humbled by some of the people I've met along the way over the last almost 40 years," she said.
The included the Korean War veterans, Vietnam veterans. prisoners of war, and the many volunteers that form the backbone of local communities.
"People like SES and RFS during our dreadful times with bushfires and floods," she said.
"They're out there in the middle of the night cutting down trees and putting tarps on roofs, let alone the RFS in the middle of the bushfires.
"They are what made this job worthwhile"
