Honouring Scott Morrison makes a mockery of awards system

We learnt a lot about Scott Morrison after he was dismissed by Australian voters in May 2022. We continue to learn more, none of it good.

And now, the worst insult to all Australians, Morrison is a King’s Birthday recipient of a Companion of the Order of Australia, the highest honour in the land. Unlike most honours lists, this one hasn’t been a secret. Crikey broke the embargo as soon as they received the list. It’s a thing they do.

Scott Morrison has been given the nation’s highest honour.Credit: Marija Ercegovac

Want a list of the many transgressions Morrison committed against Australians? Let’s begin with the most recent – his secret appointment to key ministries during COVID-19. Legal but fundamentally undermining of the principles of responsible government. At least that’s what our Solicitor-General found.

As immigration minister under PM Tony Abbott, Morrison overrode medical advice and in turn made it harder for an asylum seeker in offshore detention to access an abortion. This was part of a policy that hampered asylum seekers in offshore detention from accessing medical treatment in Australia.

The breathtaking breadth and depth of the cruelty of robo-debt. The cold-bloodedness of his comments about the COVID-19 vaccine rollout – apparently it wasn’t a race until it was.

And that was on top of what we already knew about him. Apparently, he had to talk to his wife and daughters to clarify the need for further action against sexual harassment and sexual assault. He told women of Australia they were lucky to be able to demonstrate in peace and safety. He embarrassed everyone, even his own colleagues, when he said: “I don’t hold a hose, mate” during the Black Summer bushfires. Careless? Or callous?

News of Morrison’s honour devastated me. I’ve been writing about honours since Gaia was a girl (in those early days of my career, this was a suitable topic for a girl reporter). I’ve written about the good ones and the bad ones, I’ve endlessly written about the disproportionate number of men, the disproportionate number of people from wealthy postcodes, the fact that some of our most brilliant First Nations citizens are left off the list. I’ve berated the number of people who get these awards – which should be our most valuable accolades – just for doing their jobs. Mostly, it’s been about how terrible the choices are, and how they bear nearly no connection with the real life of courageous Australians. Time after time, someone gets a gong who really, really shouldn’t. It takes a criminal conviction for an honour to be removed. Even people who are paedophile sympathisers get a gong and get to keep a gong.

But the award to Scott Morrison absolutely takes the cake for poor judgment and bad timing.

Let me first say that each and every former prime minister has one of these to pin to their lapel. And each and every one of those people has made bad decisions that harmed Australians.

Well, almost each and every one. In 1997, Paul Keating refused to accept the award of Companion of the Order of Australia. The Sun-Herald published this on January 26, 1997: “Mr Keating said there could be no greater honour for him than being prime minister of Australia, which he believed was sufficient recognition”.

Always a statesman, that bloke.

Earlier this year, NSW Governor Margaret Beazley threw a garden party to celebrate 50 years since the Labor government, under prime minister Gough Whitlam, introduced a distinctly Australian honours system to this country. Keating, another brownie point on his scorecard, ditched imperial honours in 1992.

Now I thought half a century might mean it’s time for a bit of a review, so I called Patrick Gorman’s office. Gorman is assistant minister to the prime minister, and he’d be the one responsible for initiating a review. What did his office say when I asked? “The government has not identified the need for a review of the Australian honours and awards system at this time.”

You know, sometimes you speak to a staffer, and you know they are just doing what they are told. Sometimes you can tell they are screaming on the inside. This one was way too professional for me to tell. But seriously, we just gave an award to a person who did his job badly. That should be cause enough to have a giant rethink. Bad enough we give them to people who get them because they competently did a job they were well paid to do. Tragic that we give awards to people who were not competent, kind or generous. Morrison was downright deceitful.

Now it takes somewhere between three or four years for a nomination to roll through. And in that three or four years we learnt a good deal about Scott Morrison. None of it was good. I’m glad Morrison claims getting the award was “particularly humbling”. My god, that’s bollocks.

I reckon being rebuffed by Australian voters might have been particularly humbling. The best thing Morrison could have done would have been to follow in Paul Keating’s footsteps. Just say no.

Anyhow, Patrick Gorman could not be more wrong. The system needs an urgent review. Let’s stop giving them on the King’s Birthday for one. We need nothing to tie us further to the monarchy.

The process itself needs to be given a right royal flushing. Make the awards representative of who we are. Maybe we need to start collecting data on race, religion and region. That’ll send the conservatives around the bend.

Let’s make it simple. More people with girly bits. More people with funny names. More people who are neither male, pale nor stale whales. Not those who by virtue of their jobs get to be “The Honorable” for eternity. That should be enough.

A review. A revamp. A refresh. And a recognition that honours should only go to the people who truly honour our country.

Jenna Price is a regular columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

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