Australians named in King’s Birthday Honour List
Australians have reacted to the names of celebrities and politicians who are on the King’s Birthday Honours List. Have your say and see the full list.
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Barry Humphries has had the last laugh on his haters, leading the list of great Australians recognised on the King’s Birthday Honours List.
The comic genius behind Dame Edna Everage was one of just six Australians to be made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in the mid-year list.
His death in April aged 89 prompted tributes from around the world, but also questions as to why such a revered performer was cancelled by the Melbourne Comedy Festival during his lifetime. In 2019, festival organisers dropped “Barry” as the name for their top award, following transphobic comments from the late entertainer.
Ahead of a state memorial in December, Humphries’ King’s Birthday Honour tops a career that took him around the world and saw him showered with accolades.
In total 919 Australians were honoured, with female recipients outnumbering men for the first time since the modern system commenced in 1975. A total of 50.6 per cent of the honours went to women.
The list has left Australians divided with many saying Humphries’ award was well-deserved while others questions why celebrities and former MPs were on the list just for doing their everyday job.
Readers like Paul wrote: “Hmmm, still a lot of people getting awards for doing their job, for which they got paid pretty well.” Others chimed in saying the awards had become an “absolute joke”.
Have your say below in our readers comments.
CURTIS STONE: FROM BACKPACKER TO ‘AMBASSADOR’
Restaurateur and television cooking titan Curtis Stone could not have imagined he would become a world renowned chef when his teenage self switched from business studies to take a TAFE cooking course, having fallen in love with cooking via his mother Lorraine and grandmother Maude.
As a broke backpacker, his ambitious goal of achieving excellence in the culinary world was set in motion when he scored a job with British master chef Marco Pierre White.
He quickly rose through the kitchen ranks at White’s famed London restaurants and was appointed head chef of the esteemed Quo Vadis, where he would cook for Madonna, Paul McCartney and Elton John.
Stone then set his sights on America and has not only become a household name in the US as a popular television cooking personality but won a coveted Michelin star for his restaurants Gwen and Maude, named after his grandmothers.
The beloved MasterChef regular, who has been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM), joked the last medal he won was for the 100 metres dash at school, said the King’s Birthday honour reflected his pride in being an ambassador for Australia.
And would mean the world to his mum and Yorkshire-born grannyMaude, who he said was a staunch Monarchist.
“I think it’s a humble job being a cook; you’re literally cooking someone else dinner for a living, that’s what we do,” he said.
“My career has taken me to many places and shown me many things. It’s given me the opportunity to speak about where I’m from and what we do in the hospitality business.
“I think Australia is the best place in the world and I like to share that story with everyone.”
HELEN WELLINGS: FIGHTING FOR YOUR CONSUMER RIGHTS
Consumer advocate Helen Wellings, who was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), said she felt “privileged to have a career where I can really make a difference”, and when she started almost 50 years ago, laws were “very fledgling”.
“People were being done over in the marketplace,” she said.
Australia now had “enormous protections” in the area of product safety – “almost to the point now where we’re nannying, but it’s better than the opposite.”
But after nearly 50 years of informing Australian viewers about their rights, shonky operators were more dangerous than ever, Ms Wellings warned – particularly in the financial services sector.
“These days they can take your identity, and everything you own. The potential for complete disaster has never been so great,” she said.
LIBERAL, NATIONAL AND LABOR MPS
Eyebrows are sure to be raised once again by the number of politicians listed.
The former Western Australian Liberal Premier Colin Barnett and Jenny Macklin, who as Labor’s Minister for Disability Reform helped introduce the National Disability Insurance Scheme, joined Humphries in the select list of Australians made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC).
Other politicians honoured include Maxine McKew, who served one term in federal parliament as the MP for Bennelong, and Sandy Mackenzie, a National Country Party MP during the Fraser Government. Fellow National David Brownhill, a Senator for NSW between 1984 and 2000, was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM), while various state and local politicians were also recognised.
Ms Macklin said she “deeply appreciated” the honour, but was also “a little mortified by the attention”.
“I’m proud to have been witness to and a participant in some the big and lasting social reforms of this generation, while always understanding that the work of political and social progress is never complete,” she said.
Ms McKew said she had had “the great good fortune” to work for some of Australia’s “big important ambitious institutions” – chiefly the parliament and the ABC, but more recently Melbourne University.
Asked about honours for ex-MPs, Ms McKew said “political figures shouldn’t be excluded … but I don’t think they should be preferred in any particular way”.
The gender balance struck in the King’s Birthday list was most welcome, and “part and parcel of a change” in Australian society, she said.
HUNGRY JACK’S BOSS JACK COWIN
Hungry Jack’s boss Jack Cowin was made a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to business, and to philanthropic support.
“I love being an Australian. We are fortunate to have the best quality of life on this planet,” Cowin says. “Where would you rather live?”
MARINA PRIOR: STAR OF THE SHOW
Beloved theatre and concert star Marina Prior remembers the fight against the gatekeepers who attempted to stop her auditioning for dramatic or comedic roles because they had decided she would be “the ingenue playing the pretty young girl”.
She would not take no for an answer and 40 years later, Prior’s talent and grit have been recognised with an AM in the 2023 King Birthday’s Honours.
“I got quite a bit of push back when I went to audition for straight acting or comedic roles a few decades ago; they said ‘You’re not that!’
“I made a conscious decision to evolve and refused to allow other people define me, and that has served me in good stead with longevity.”
Prior’s tenacity is shared by her entertainment and media peers on the 2023 King’s Birthday Honours roll storytellers who have moved and challenged Australia with their talents.
NARELDA JACOBS
Television journalist and Indigenous and LGBTQI+ advocate Narelda Jacobs has been awarded an OAM for her enduring career on Ten, NITV and, in recent years, on the ABC as the co-host of the Sydney Mardi Gras broadcast.
“It’s with deep thought and humility I accept this OAM in recognition of 23 years of service to the community through journalism,” Jacob said.
“My career at Network 10 has opened many doors to sharing opinions and news on Studio 10, 10 News First, NITV and in the community. While I’d prefer to receive such an honour from a different head of state, the Commonwealth is the system within which we operate. Before choosing to be named on the King’s Birthday Honour’s List, I considered all the First Nations people who’ve courageously taken up spaces created by the colony.
“I thought about my Dad receiving his MBE from the Queen in 1981, while fighting to have his Noongar Sovereignty recognised, fully aware of the Monarch’s role in dispossessing his people. I decided to take my lead from those who recognise the importance of stepping into the room in order to change it.
“In this referendum year, I’m grateful to be among those advocating for change.”
DENISE SCOTT AND JUDITH LUCY
Dynamic comedic duo Denise Scott and Judith Lucy, whose recent co-production was aptly titled Still Here, are also celebrated in this year’s Honours for decades of making Australia laugh and think.
BART WILLOUGHBY
First Nations musician Bart Willoughby was recognised with an OAM as a pioneer of Indigenous rock music since the late 1970s with seminal bands including No Fixed Address, Goanna, Coloured Stone, Yothu Yindi, Mixed Relations and Black Arm Band.
Northern Territory singing legend Shellie Morris now has AO after her name for not only her stunning voice and songs but tireless Indigenous advocacy.
EMMA MATTHEWS AND PAMELA RABE
Opera star Emma Matthews and acting titan Pamela Rabe, who will be forever revered for her turn as The Freak in Wentworth, were both recognised with an AM for being consistently brilliant at their gigs for decades.
TIM WINTON
Novelist Tim Winton was made an AO not only for his esteemed contribution to Australian culture with his writing but work as a protector of our oceans.
BEN ELTON
A slightly surprising honoree on this year’s list is writer, actor and comedian Ben Elton. The British writer behind British television classics The Young Ones and Blackadder has lived in Western Australia for more than a decade and became an Australian citizen in 2004.
A BETTER AUSTRALIA
It’s not all celebrities and sporting stars. Aussies working towards a better Australia have also been recognised on the King’s Birthday Honours.
KATE JENKINS
Kate Jenkins, who has been made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), said she had seen many welcome changes during her seven years as Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner, but was looking forward to more.
“As of right now my main priority is to make sure employers shift from this idea where you don’t have to do anything until a complaint comes up, to the idea that your job is to create a safe and respectful workplace for all,” she said.
“From December companies will be monitored to make sure they’re meeting what’s called the positive duty to prevent sexual harassment. That should be taking our attention right now.”
Whistleblower advocate Prof AJ Brown said he was “obviously flattered” to be made an AM
for his work with Transparency International, but it was also “a little embarrassing” given those who speak out frequently “don’t get the thanks and recognition they deserve”.
Australians by tradition “don’t like the idea of people who complain or dob other people in unnecessarily, but when necessary, we’re very supportive of whistleblowers,” he said.
The introduction of the National Integrity Commission would hopefully lead more people to speak up when it was needed, Prof Brown said.
CASSANDRA GOLDIE
ACOSS CEO Cassandra Goldie was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (OA), recognising her outstanding service to the non-government sector.
She has helmed ACOSS since 2010 - and in that time has seen some of Australia’s problems get worse.
“In 2010, 12.8 per cent of people in Australia were in poverty. In 2020 this figure was 13.4 per cent. There are more than three million people in poverty, including 761,000 children. This is not acceptable in the wealthiest country on Earth,” she said.
“The immediate solutions are clear. Fixing our social security payments so they protect people from acute financial distress is not complicated,” Ms Goldie said.
PROF MICHAEL KIDD
Equity issues are also paramount for Deputy Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd, who was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (OA).
“The biggest health challenge that we have in Australia is the challenge of ensuring equity,” he said. “(We have) the challenge of people living in rural and regional Australia... and the , continuing disparities of health status between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non indigenous people.”
“Covid shone a strong spotlight; it revealed the inequities,” he said.
The prospect of another pandemic in our lifetimes couldn’t be discounted, Prof Kidd said, and it was imperative Australia remember the lessons from Covid-19 “so we are even better prepared the next time a serious threat like this emerges”.
And as someone who was overseas at the time Covid-19 appeared (he was promptly summoned back) Prof Kidd said there was an “important lesson for all of us: it if it looks like there is a pandemic starting to appear, get home if you can,” he said.
Anyone can nominate any Australian for an award in the Order of Australia. If you know someone worthy, nominate them now at www.gg.gov.au.
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Originally published as Australians named in King’s Birthday Honour List
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