As a young lawyer starting his career, the desire to give back to his community led Wānaka resident Anthony (Tony) Shaw to begin more than 40 years of community service, primarily with New Zealand's leading provider of services for people with intellectual disabilities.

Tony has been appointed to be an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in the New Year Honours List for services to people with intellectual disabilities and the community.

Tony was born and raised in Christchurch, with a mother who was involved in the church and “always doing things to help other people”.

“I’d like to think my upbringing taught me what was right and wrong,” he told the Wānaka App.

After studying law and taking a job in Timaru (with the expectation of staying a few years), he found he had “landed on [his] feet”, and stayed more than 40 years in South Canterbury.

“I always felt I should give something back to the community,” Tony said.

“The IHC role has been the most significant community work I’ve done. I’ve enjoyed it, it’s a phenomenal organisation in terms of what it’s achieved.”

The organisation started in 1949 with a group of parents who wanted a better life for their children than living in institutions - they wanted them in the community, Tony said.

IHC provides some services to children and young people, and some assistance to families, but most of its services are provided to adults. IHC has $1.8B in property assets, and is the second largest provider of public housing (behind Kāinga Ora) with 2,700 houses.

The organisation provides services for some of the most vulnerable people in NZ, Tony said.

“Many can’t communicate for themselves, many need assistance with all their physical needs, and overlaying all that many of them have significant intellectual disabilities.

“Despite all the challenges I really love the organisation, love the work I do, see real value in it.”

He was a single man in his 20s at the beginning of his career when he was approached to join the IHC branch committee. He had had nothing to do with IHC, and was something of an outsider as most other volunteers were parents of a child with an intellectual disability, he said.

Tony has held a range of leadership roles within IHC since accepting that invitation to join the Committee of the IHC South Canterbury Branch in 1982.

He joined the IHC New Zealand Inc Board in 1998, and served as New Zealand president from 2003 to 2005. He rejoined the national board of IHC in 2019 and has been chair since 2020, helping guide the organisation’s 4,000 people with intellectual disabilities and 4,000 support staff through the Covid-19 pandemic.

He has held leadership roles on related boards, including the IHC Foundation Charitable Trust, Accessible Properties New Zealand, IDEA Services and the Donald Beasley Institute Trust. In 2005, he was made a Life Member of the IHC, one of only 11 people to receive this distinction.

The almost 43 years he has been involved in the organisation included some “arm twisting” into roles, but he admits he was always up for the challenges.

IHC is currently suing the Crown for failures to provide proper education services for children with intellectual disabilities. The organisation had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars pursuing the claim which they hope will be settled in their favour in 2025.

“That level of advocacy is something that IHC can do because we are by far the largest provider in the sector,” Tony said.

“We’re big enough and tough enough to be able to take on those sorts of challenges. We see ourselves as a very strong advocate for people with intellectual disability and long may that continue.”

Tony has also undertaken other volunteer work throughout his career, including being on kindergarten committees, involved in the South Island Masters Games, training and mentoring young legal and business professionals through the Law Society and South Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, and acting as MC for the Timaru Rotary Club’s Celebrity Auction from 2001 to 2013 - raising between $20,000 and $65,000 each year.

“If I didn’t have the support of [my wife] Raewyn and my family, and the significant support of my law firm, I wouldn’t have had the time and inclination to do what I did,” he said.

After retiring from his legal practice in 2022 and moving to Wānaka, he has continued to be involved in IHC and is involved as a volunteer with Wānaka Community Patrol and Wheels to Dunstan.

Tony calls Wānaka his “playground”, and he and Raewyn are active in golf, biking, skiing, walking, boating, and water skiing. “We are living in paradise,” he said.

PHOTO: Wānaka App