Just when you think Tony Abbott's decision in 2014 to restore imperial knighthoods couldn't become any more bizarre, the prime minister uses the Australia Day's honour list to award a knighthood to the Queen's consort Prince Philip. History editor and Queensland ARM convenor Dr Glenn Davies reports.

THE MONARCHISTS have been asking themselves, with theAustralia Day honours list announcement upon us and the Queen’s Birthday honours list in June, who should be nominated for an AK or AD award? 

The real question is: would Prime Minister Tony Abbott dare name any knights ‘n dames in 2015 after the level of satire it inspired last year.

The answer is: "Yes".

In the lead up to Australia Day 2015. there had been no media about the awarding again of any Australian imperial honours. The Australian of the Year awards had been well publicised but not the possible "Knights and Dames" appointments.

On 27 March 2014, I wroteabout how Prime Minister Tony Abbott, the former director of Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy, announced the return of imperial honours for Australians. On 19 March 2014, on the Prime Minister’s recommendation, Her Majesty The Queen approved amendments to the Letters Patent for the Order of Australia to reinstate appointment of Knights and Damesof the Order of Australia.

At the time, the PM said he believed this was:

"... an important grace note in our national life."

.@TonyAbbottMHR's original announcement that he was re-introducing the knights and dames titles from March last year https://t.co/5BaLeDdw4J

— smh.com.au (@smh) January 25, 2015

For the first time since 1986, “pre-eminent” Australians were to be honoured as Knights and Dames in the Order of Australia. 

David Morris, national director of the Australian Republican Movement described the return of knighthoods as

“... turning the clock back to a colonial frame of mind that we had outgrown as a nation.”

The three Australian "Knights and Dames" created last year were: The Honourable Dame Quentin Bryce AD CVO, former Governor-General of Australia; His Excellency General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC (Retd), Governor-General of Australia; and Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Dame Marie Bashir AD CVO, Governor of New South Wales.

Today it was announced the second and third AK’s to be awarded in the restored Knight of the Order of Australia division are His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston (retd).One is currently the Chair of the Council for the Order of Australia, and the other … well, the husband of the monarch.

As a palace spokeswoman said:

"Knights and dames in the Order of Australia are approved by the Queen on recommendation of the prime minister. We wouldn't comment further on the process."

What could be more Australian than a £10 pom awarding bigoted old British aristocrat an imperial bauble on Australia Day? I'm misting up.

— Dave Donovan (@davrosz) January 25, 2015

Still, it’s rather glaring as to which has the greater conflict of interest.

The monarchists have been excited about turning the clock back and beensuggesting names for knighthood such as tennis great Rod Laver MBE, the living Victoria Cross recipients, Australian Nobel Prize winners (even posthumous), previous GG’s, retired Generals and Chief Justices.

Interestingly, one of the only two pre-1985 AK’s living is Prince Charles and, with the provision that a knight can be a non-citizen, I’d suggested good money could be laid on Princes William or Harry receiving a knighthood in 2015 for having turned up in Australia a few times. On that logic, perhaps one should also be given to Prince George, who showed us exactly what he thinks of the ex-convicts with his instantly disdainful chuck of the toy bilby at Taronga Zoo. There’s even the depressing thought Rupert Murdoch (now a U.S. citizen) could be in line for a knighthood!

I was not far off though. Instead it was the Grandfather Royal, Prince Philip, who received an AK for his contribution to Australia throughout the Queen's 62-year reign and it was his his long life of service and dedication PM Abbott chose to be honoured by Australia. Special mention was also made of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards in Australia, which he said had positively influenced the lives of hundreds of thousands of young Australians.

Prince Philip was probably honoured by the PM for his deep love and respect for Indigenous Australians: http://t.co/ulFszIo0TZ

— Dave Donovan (@davrosz) January 25, 2015

It was Prime Minister Gough Whitlam who axed knighthoods in 1975, only to watch Malcolm Fraser reinstate "Knights and Dames" a year later.

Then, in 1986, Prime Minister Bob Hawke abolished the category all over again.John Howard is understood to have rejected the idea of reinstating "Knights and Dames" on the grounds that the endless chopping and changing was undermining the dignity of the honour. Many of his advisers also believed the Liberal Party would be mocked and seen as out of touch with modern Australia. (Howard is reported today as saying he did not agree with the restoration of these titles and would be unlikely to accept one.)

In the Australian honours system, appointments to the Order of Australia confer recognition for outstanding achievement and service. The Knight/Dame of the Order of Australia is awarded for extraordinary and pre-eminent achievement and merit in service to Australia or humanity at large. It is now the nation’s highest award. Governors-General become a Knight or Dame of the Order of Australia by virtue of their appointment as Governor-General. In addition to Governors-General, there will be a maximum of four appointments a year, excluding honorary awards to non-Australian citizens.

However, when Prime Minister Abbott named outgoing Governor-GeneralQuentin Bryce a dame and her successor General Peter Cosgrove a knight the satirists had a field day.

The question now is does @couriermail attempt to top this genius P1 from last year? #knightsanddames pic.twitter.com/kUsE4OQV4R

— Paul Syvret (@PSyvret) January 26, 2015

Australian historian James Curran wrote in the Canberra Times, 31 March 2014 that

'In the symbolic landscape of Australian civic culture, Tony Abbott’s restoration last week of Australian knights and dames perhaps stands as one of the most pompous, pretentious, nostalgic and self-indulgent prime ministerial decisions in a generation.'

 

read more: https://independentaustralia.net/australia/australia-display/pm-abbott-awards-imperial-bauble-to-prince-philip-time-to-end-the-farce,7298

 

Yes Gus.

The farce grows grander & more hysterical by the day.

Our PM & the good Duke would seem to have a bit in common, with Tony abandoning promises & policies as readily as the Prince has abandoned titles when they no longer served his royal ambitions.

A true parody of yesterday’s man by tomorrow’s nobody.

Cheers,

 

John.

 

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has dumped knights and dames from the honours system, labelling the titles "anachronistic and out of date".

The old-style honours were reintroduced by former prime minister Tony Abbott in 2014 for "pre-eminent Australians", but became the subject of ongoing ridicule and controversy.

Mr Turnbull, who is a well-known republican, said Cabinet has agreed the titles are no longer appropriate in the modern awards system and revealed the Queen has approved his request to scrap them.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-02/knights-and-dames-to-be-scrapped/6904474

 

There is a mierda report on the ABC about cartoonists. Apparently, It was a year where personalities dominated more than policies in the minds of Australia's political cartoonists. Crap.

 

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/mediareport/political-cartoons/6950812

The first cartoon to illustrate this is one by Reg... Not a bad one but quite annoying. It seems as if Tony Abbott was doing things off the cuff, driven by booze and visiting pubs or going to the toilet. 

Not so. Tony Abbott actions were always DELIBERATELY targeted to the possible limits of his ludicrous SECRET desires. Nothing was ever left to chance or a whim. With the Knights and Dames, he knew the concept would not be well received by his friends nor his opponents. BUT IT ALWAYS WAS IN THE BACK OF HIS POMMY MIND to bring these antediluvian honours back into the system. Doing "Captain's calls" was his way of bypassing dissent and getting away what he ALWAYS WANTED TO DO:  Annoy the shit out of every one, but be in charge of it. Very very very sinister...

 

 

In Senate Estimates on Monday, it was revealed four waist badges worth $20,000 each and a $15,000 neck badge were among the items that had been written off.

"There no longer being knights and dames within the Order of Australia, those insignia hold no value," the Governor-General's secretary Paul Singer said.

"So what's the value of that write down?" senator Tim Ayres asked.

"It's in the vicinity of $135,000," Mr Singer replied.

Senator Ayres went on to ask if the insignia included items such as swords.

"No, there's no sword and there's no armour, Senator, you'll be pleased to know. But there are multiple 'accoutrements' as part of that set for knights and dames … a number of insignia a knight might receive," Mr Singer said.

The acting chief financial officer of the secretary's office, Jason Chow, said the medals had not been destroyed, and instead were being kept in the portable and attractive items register.

 

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-19/tony-abbott-knights-dames-medals-worthless-order-of-australia/12783760

 

Idiot Abbott!... Read from top.