MUM'S THE WORD
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So, knight and dames have made a comeback. Hands up if you saw that one coming. Yeah, neither did I.
There had been very little speculation about it in the media – indeed not a sniff – so the announcement on Tuesday by Prime Minister Tony Abbott that he is restoring the conferring of the titles of “sir” and “dame” to the Australian honours system has surprised many.
“Knights and Dames in the Order of Australia will be approved by Her Majesty on the recommendation of the Prime Minister,” Mr Abbott said in a statement.
“My intention is that this new award will go to those who have accepted public office rather than sought it; and who can never, by virtue of the office they have held, entirely return to private life.”
Mr Abbott said the first recipients of the revived titles would be outgoing Governor-General Quentin Bryce and her replacement, Peter Cosgrove, and up to four will be conferred annually.
Clearly there was support for the move within Cabinet, but in the wider community? I honestly haven’t heard a word.
Certainly, recent polls suggest that support for a republic has waned somewhat in recent years, but I haven’t heard anyone clamouring for the return of these old titles.
Even more curious, of course, is that despite being openly republican, Ms Bryce not only accepted the role of Governor-General, but is also now going to be Dame Quentin Bryce.
Does anyone smell a whiff of hypocrisy there?
Mr Abbott is right; people like Ms Bryce and General Cosgrove will never be able to return to “private life”, but couldn’t it be argued that even before accepting the role as the Queen’s representative in Australia they had already had long years of service in the public eye and would never really be able to return to anonymity regardless?
And surely the financial remuneration paid to people in these high-profile positions in part recognises there can be drawbacks to being in the public eye.
While Australia seems to have lost its appetite for a republic for now, there has also been no real indication Australians want to bring back extinguished links to the Crown either.
Given we are being told that the Budget is in crisis, a Senate brawl is looming over the carbon tax and a Royal Commission is about to look at unions, it seems odd, to say the least, that the Government even bothered spending time reviving a titles system most Australians probably didn’t even care was gone.
It just seems about as important as styling your hair before strapping on a parachute to go skydiving.