Order of Australia


The Order of Australia is an Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of then prime minister Gough Whitlam. Before the establishment of the order, Australians could receive British honours, which continued to be issued in parallel until 1992.
Appointments to the order are made by the governor-general, "with the approval of The Sovereign", according to recommendations made by the Council for the Order of Australia. Members of the government are not involved in the recommendation of appointments, other than for military and honorary awards.
The King of Australia is the sovereign head of the order, and the governor-general is the principal companion and chancellor of the order. The governor-general's official secretary, Gerard Martin, is secretary of the order.

Levels of membership

The order is divided into a general and a military division. The five levels of appointment to the order in descending order of seniority are:
  1. Knight and Dame of the Order of Australia ;
  2. Companion of the Order of Australia ;
  3. Officer of the Order of Australia ;
  4. Member of the Order of Australia ;
  5. Medal of the Order of Australia.
Honorary awards at all levels may be made to non-citizens. These awards are made additional to the quotas.

Insignia

The order's insignia was designed by Stuart Devlin.
The badge of the Order of Australia is a convex disc representing a single flower of mimosa. At the centre is a ring, representing the sea, with the word Australia below two branches of mimosa. The whole disc is topped by the Crown of St Edward. The AC badge is decorated with citrines, blue enamelled ring, and enamelled crown. The AO badge is similar, without the citrines. For the AM badge, only the crown is enamelled, and the OAM badge is plain. The AK/AD badge is similar to that of the AC badge, but with the difference that it contains at the centre an enamelled disc bearing an image of the coat of arms of Australia. The colours of royal blue and gold are taken from the livery colours of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms, the then national colours.
The star for knights and dames is a convex golden disc decorated with citrines, with a blue royally crowned inner disc bearing an image of the coat of arms of Australia.
The ribbon of the order is royal blue with a central stripe of mimosa blossoms. Awards in the military division are edged with 1.5 mm golden bands. AKs, male ACs and AOs wear their badges on a necklet and male AMs and OAMs wear them on a ribbon on the left chest. Women usually wear their badges on a bow on the left shoulder, although they may wear the same insignia as males if so desired.
A gold lapel pin for daily wear is issued with each badge of the order at the time of investiture; AK/AD and AC lapel pins feature a citrine central jewel, AO and AM lapel pins have a blue enamelled centre and OAM lapel pins are plain.

Award criteria in detail

The different levels of the order are awarded according to the recipients' levels of achievement:

Nomination and appointment

Since 1976 any Australian citizen may nominate any person for an Order of Australia award. People who are not Australian citizens may be awarded honorary membership of the order at all levels. Nomination forms are submitted to the Director, Honours Secretariat, a position within the Office of the Official Secretary to the Governor-General of Australia, at Government House, Canberra, which are then forwarded to the Council for the Order of Australia. The council consists of 19 members: seven selected by the prime minister, eight appointed by the governments of each respective state and territory, and three ex officio members. The Council chair as of August 2024 is Shelley Reys.
The Council makes recommendations to the governor-general. Awards are announced on Australia Day and on the King's Birthday public holiday in June, on the occasion of a special announcement by the governor-general, and on the appointment of a new governor-general. The governor-general presents the order's insignia to new appointees.
Appointments to the order may be made posthumously as long as a person was nominated for an award whilst they were still alive. Awardees may subsequently resign from the order, and the Council may advise the governor-general to remove an individual from the order, who may cancel an award.
Announcements of all awards, cancellations and resignations appear in the Commonwealth Gazette. Nomination forms are confidential and not covered by the Freedom of Information Act 1982. The reasoning behind a nomination being successful or unsuccessful—and even the attendees of the meetings where such nominations are discussed—remains confidential.

History

Background

As a member of the British Empire, members of the colonies and later federated nation of Australia were able to have achievement awarded under the British Imperial Honours system. However, existing criticism of the aristocratic nature of the awards grew following a cash-for-honours corruption scandal in the UK in 1922. Moves to abolish the awards federally and the states were unsuccessful; however the Australian Labor Party remained opposed and generally refused to recommend awards whilst in office, with this a part of the party's platform since 1918. This was confirmed in a resolution adopted unanimously by the party conference in 1921. In 1949, a Cabinet subcommittee of the Labor Chifley government recommended the creation of single level honour called the Order of the Southern Cross or the Order of the Golden Wattle to be established at Australia's jubilee of federation in 1951. However, the Labor government lost office in the 1949 elections, replaced by the long running Menzies government who supported the continued use of the imperial system.

Establishment

The Order of Australia was established on 14 February 1975 by letters patent of Queen Elizabeth II, acting as Queen of Australia, and on the advice of the Labor prime minister, Gough Whitlam. The original order had three levels: Companion, Officer and Member as well as two divisions: Civil Division and Military Division. Whitlam had previously announced in 1972 that his government would no longer nominate persons for British Imperial honours ; however this did not affect the constitutional right of state governments to recommend imperial awards.
According to the governor general's then-secretary Sir David Smith, Whitlam was furious when he first saw Devlin's design for the insignia of the order, due to the inclusion of a representation of the states through the state badges within the Commonwealth Coat of Arms.
The original three-level structure of the Order of Australia was modelled closely upon the Order of Canada, though the Order of Australia has been awarded rather more liberally, especially in regard to honorary awards to non-citizens. only 30 non-Canadians have been appointed to the Order of Canada, while 537 non-Australians have been appointed to the Order of Australia, with 46 to the Companion level.
Public reaction to the new awards was mixed. Only the state Labor governments of Tasmania and South Australia agreed to submit recommendations for the new awards, with the remaining governments affirming their committent to the existing imperial honours system. Newspaper editorials similarly praised the awards as an example of Australia's greater independence, whilst also noting that the awards would likely appear second-rate. The Australian stated that
Satire and mockery also greeted the awards, being dubbed "Gough's Gongs" and "the Order of the Wombat".

Fraser and Hawke governments

Ten months after the Order of Australia was created, the Whitlam government lost office to the newly-elected Liberal Fraser government. The new government decided to once again make recommendations for imperial awards, whilst maintaining and expanding the Order of Australia. This was done by the addition of two additional award levels: Knight or Dame above the level of Companion, and the Medal of the Order of Australia below Members. The Civil Division was also renamed the General Division, so that awards could be given to those in the Defence Force for non-military achievement. These changes were made on 24 May 1976. The reaction to the changes to the awards were similarly split along party lines.
Following the 1983 federal election, Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke recommitted to the end of recommendations for imperial awards. No knighthoods were awarded during his first term in office and he advised the abolition of the knight/dame level after being re-elected in 1986. During the time the division was active from 1976 to 1983, twelve knights and two dames were created.

Re-establishment and abolition of Knights and Dames

On 19 March 2014, monarchist prime minister Tony Abbott advised the Queen to reinstate the level of knight or dame and the Queen co-signed letters patent to bring this into effect. The change was publicly announced on 25 March, and gazetted on 17 April 2014. Up to four knights or dames could be appointed each year, by the Monarch of Australia on the advice of the prime minister after consultation with the chairman of the Order of Australia Council.
Five awards of knight and dame were then made, to the outgoing governor-general, Quentin Bryce; her successor, Peter Cosgrove; a recent chief of the Defence Force, Angus Houston; a recent governor of New South Wales, Marie Bashir; and Prince Philip. This last award was widely met with ridicule and dismay by many in the Australian media. The award was also heavily criticised in the community, with 72% disapproving and 12% in favour of the award to Prince Philip in a ReachTEL poll.
The Australian Labor Party continued to oppose knighthoods and damehoods. Leader of the opposition Bill Shorten stated in March 2014 that the party would again discontinue the level if it were to win the next Australian federal election.
The knighthood decision was a significant factor that caused Liberal party members to question Abbott's leadership, with Malcolm Turnbull succeeding in a challenge to take the prime ministership in September 2015. Two months after coming into office, the new republican prime minister announced that the Queen had approved his request to amend the Order's letters patent and cease awards at this level. Existing titles would not be affected. The move was attacked by monarchists and praised by republicans. The amendments to the constitution of the Order were gazetted on 22 December 2015.