Queen’s Birthday Honours List: Role model Ros Packer rewarded with highest honour

PHILANTHROPIST Ros Packer has received the highest award in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours List, along with an emotional tribute from her daughter.

Gretel Packer has described her mother Roz, and late father Kerry, as ‘exceptional role models’.

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PHILANTHROPIST Ros Packer has received the highest award in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours List, along with an emotional tribute from her daughter.

Normally reluctant to speak publicly about her family, Gretel Packer yesterday said her mother, along with late father Kerry, were “exceptional role models”.

Mrs Packer has been awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for her decades of work raising funds and awareness in health care, medical research, social welfare and the performing arts.

She was one of 13 people, including Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens, to be awarded an AC this year for “achievement and merit of the highest degree in eminent service­ to Australia or to humanity­ at large”.

Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens. Picture: Renee Nowytarger

Gretel Packer yesterday told The Daily Telegraph: “My parents have always been exceptional role models, with philanthropy — sometimes private, sometimes public — a part of our family’s life. I am so thrilled for my mother, this is such a wonderful honour in recognition of her tireless commitment and dedication.”

Today, hundreds of Australians from all walks of life — farmers, cyclists, animal carers­, Girl Guides leaders — are recognised for their efforts­, either behind the scenes or in the spotlight.

The honours­ list this year includes 565 new additions to the ranks of the General Division of the Order of Australia “for contributions­ and service to fellow citizens in Australia and internationally”.

Some recipients have harnessed their public profile for the greater good.

John Bertrand is best-known as 1983 America’s Cup-winning yacht Australia II skipper but today’s AO is for his service to sports administration and child welfare­, and for his years of mentoring promising young athletes.

John Bertrand is being honoured for his contribution in a range of areas. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Veteran NSW singer and actor Frankie J Holden receives a medal (OAM) in the General Division both for his work as an entertainer and his service to the south coast community where he lives.

Fresh from directing the powerful Songlines projection on the Sydney Opera House for Vivid, the venue’s head of indigenous programming Rhoda Roberts was awarded an AO for “service to the performing­ arts through a range of leadership and advocacy roles in the development, promotion and presentation of contemporary indigenous ­culture”.

“I think in my position I have such an obligation to create those platforms,” Roberts said

Bridget Whelan, the daughter of former NSW police minister Paul Whelan, received a posthumous OAM (Order of Australia) for her work as an advocate for people with cancer.

Ms Whelan, 42, died of ovarian cancer in May.

Hundreds more of today’s recipients simply toil behind the scenes in their chosen fields, never asking for praise and rarely getting it.

Governor-general Sir Peter John Cosgrove. Picture: AFP

Governor-general Peter Cosgrove said the awards helped define, encourage and reinforce Australian goals and values.

“We are fortunate as a community to have so many outstanding people willing to dedicate themselves to the betterment of our nation and it is only fitting that they have today been recognised through the Australian honours system,” he said.

Males outnumbered females by two to one on this year’s list, but not through any gender bias from the Council of the Order of Australia — more than 80 per cent of women nominated were successful, above the 70 per cent overall.

And separately, 118 members of Australia’s emergency and public services will today receive meritorious awards for outstanding service.

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A total of 65 military awards will also be handed out on the recommendation of Defence Minister Marise Payne, including two unit citations.

The RAAF’s 35 and 37 squadrons, based at Richmond in Sydney, were recognised for providing air mobility “under challenging circumstances” in the Middle East from 2002 to 2014, while No. 5 Flight was recognised for its operation of unmanned aerial vehicles over Afghanistan during Operation Slipper.

Honours and Awards Secretariat director Sharon Prendergast said the honours were “a very public way of saying thank you for what these people do in our society”.