AM for Mike Carlton prompts call for a review of Australia’s honours system
The Prime Minister is under increasing pressure to review Australia’s honours and awards system after former radio host and columnist Mike Carlton was recognised despite a history of abusive tweets and emails to women and Jews.
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison is under pressure from Cabinet colleagues and his backbench to review Australia’s honours and awards system after former radio host Mike Carlton was recognised despite a history of abusive tweets and emails to women and Jews.
Demands for an “urgent review” into the eligibility requirements and standards of recipients of Australia Day and Queen’s Birthday honours have been made in letters sent by Liberal MPs to the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, Ben Morton, who oversees the awards.
Liberal politicians Nicolle Flint, Claire Chandler, Amanda Stoker, Sarah Henderson and Alex Antic are among those writing to Mr Morton to request an urgent review, including how to revoke awards.
The movement has the backing of ministers and cabinet members who are furious Carlton was honoured with a Queen’s Birthday AM on Monday.
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The uproar over Carlton’s treatment of Jews, whom he called “Jewish bigot” and “pissant”, ultimately led to the end of his career at Fairfax in 2014. Management suspended him but he resigned instead.
Liberal women are also furious over a 2019 tweet about Ms Flint, where he questioned how QandA panellist Jimmy Barnes does “not leap from his seat and strangle the Liberal shill on his right?”
He has also used unprintable sexualised language in tweets about conservative commentator, Daisy Cousens.
Ms Flint’s letter to Mr Morton, sent yesterday, requests “the Australian government urgently review the system” and also refers to community concern over Bettina Arndt’s Australia Day AM earlier this year.
“Given the controversy surrounding a number of individuals who have been presented with our nation’s highest honours this year, both in the Australia Day awards and Queen’s Birthday awards, I believe it is necessary to conduct a comprehensive review of the entire Australian Honours and Awards system,” she wrote.
“Particular attention must be paid to eligibility requirements, the standards by which individuals should be deemed worthy of acknowledgment by our community, the judging process and the process for revocation of honours and awards.”
The last review of the system was conducted 25 years ago.
Senators Stoker and Chandler have already sent their letters while Senator Henderson said she would also write to Mr Morton demanding a full review.
“As well as eligibility requirements and the process for revocation, I am seeking a review of the management of the waiting list including how the consideration of nominees who are terminally ill can be expedited,” she said.
Carlton has described criticism over his AM for services to broadcast media and naval history as an “idiotic Murdoch campaign” which he says is “vicious and politically biased.”
“I am disgusted by the slurs and falsehoods,” he wrote on Twitter.
The Liberal Party senators previously accused left-leaning feminists of hypocrisy for their silence over Carlton’s honour.
“The refusal of women on the left to condemn Mike Carlton’s comments about women says all we need to know,” Ms Flint told The Daily Telegraph.
“They’re not really on the side of protecting women.”
Senator Claire Chandler said “in failing to condemn Mike Carlton’s incredibly distasteful comments, once again the left have exposed their own hypocrisy in how and when they’re willing to stand up for women.”
She continued: “It does make you wonder, if Carlton made such comments regarding one of their own women, whether Labor parliamentarians would be slightly more exercised than the radio silence we’ve heard so far.”
Senator Amanda Stoker said it was “one rule of rate left, another for everyone else.”
Senator Sarah Henderson said: “Given Mike Carlton’s unedifying history, I do not believe he should be awarded an Order of Australia.”
Victorian Liberal MP Tim Smith has written to the Governor of NSW and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, who is a member of the Council for the Order of Australia, and every other member asking for Mr Carlton’s honour to be cancelled.
He made similar demands when Arndt received Australia Day honours after claiming the husband of Hannah Clarke may have been “driven” to allegedly set the Queensland mum and her children on fire.
Earlier this year, Labor Senators Penny Wong and Kristina Keneally moved a motion saying Arndt’s comments had “potential to bring the Order of Australia, instituted by Her Majesty The Queen, into disrepute.”
“Order of Australia awards are a privilege and an honour and come with responsibilities,” their motion stated.
“Ms Arndt’s comments are reckless and abhorrent, and the values that underpin Ms Arndt’s views on this horrific family violence incident are not consistent with her retaining her Order of Australia.”
But Ms Keneally and Ms Wong have not moved any similar motion against Carlton.
Carlton received an AM for significant services to print and broadcast media and naval history.