Rita Panahi: Hopelessly politicised honours system must be overhauled
Dan Andrews receiving a King’s Birthday award may be absurd but he’s far from the only undeserving winner, with the entire honours system in desperate need of review.
Rita Panahi
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The deep loathing many Victorian feel for Daniel Andrews is evident but the absurdity of the former premier receiving the nation’s highest honour – in part for services to public health, regulatory reform, and to infrastructure development – should not overshadow the bigger picture.
It’s not just Andrews’ award that should be immediately withdrawn but the entire honours system, both for Australia Day and the King’s Birthday, is in desperate need of review.
It has become hopelessly politicised with undeserving politicians, public servants, celebrities and activists being awarded, often for just doing their job.
And, this malady is nothing new. Back in 2017 I wrote about politicians and bureaucrats dominating the most prestigious award, the Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), with six of the 11 gongs going to pollies and public officials, all of whom were richly rewarded by the taxpayer for the various roles they performed.
That said the selection committee have really outdone itself in 2024 with not just Andrews receiving the top honour, but also former WA premier Mark McGowan, another recently retired politician whose legacy will be tainted by the scaremongering hysteria he indulged in during the Covid-era and then there is the AC awarded to Leftist activist and soon to be governor-general, Sam Mostyn.
The incoming governor-general is a republican who has referred to Australia Day as “invasion day” and posted the hashtag “always was always will be” Aboriginal land; a deeply divisive and race-obsessed view of Australia.
Shortly before her appointment, Mostyn wiped clean her social media history, deleting her relentlessly Leftist commentary on a range of topics from climate change to the Voice to gender issues but some tweets were recovered.
Mostyn demanded her fellow Australians not “waste a moment in accepting the Uluru Statement from the Heart”.
Thankfully 61 per cent of us did just that despite the ‘yes’ campaign outspending the ‘no’ side by a considerable margin.
Given her hard Left worldview we should not be surprised that Mostyn was appointed governor-general by a Labor prime minister from the party’s socialist left faction.
Along with Andrews and McGowan, Mostyn is a highly divisive figure who is unworthy of such an honour.
Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist
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