Australia Day honours: Artist Peter Kingston returns award amidst Margaret Court controversy

Peter Kingston has sent back his Member of the Order of Australia award to protest Margaret Court’s own honour.

Artist Peter Kingston. Picture: Toby Zerna

Celebrated Australian artist Peter Kingston has returned his Member of the Order of Australia (AM) award to protest the decision to give tennis great Margaret Court the country’s highest honour.

“I am compelled to return this medal because I object so strongly to the honour bestowed upon Margaret Court this year,” Mr Kingston told The Australian.

“It makes me sick, the whole thing,” he said. “To inflict this on us, when everyone is having such a hard time, I can’t be a part of it anymore.”

Ms Court, who has worked as a Pentecostal minister since retiring from tennis, received an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2007 and was this week made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AO). The award has sparked controversy because of her comments on homosexuality, same-sex marriage and LGBTQI rights.

Veteran journalist Kerry O’Brien this week rejected his Order of Australia in protest at the decision, and last week Canberra doctor Clara Tuck Meng Soo handed back her award.

Kingston, who lives at Lavender Bay, on Sydney Harbour, is renowned for his evocative paintings of the harbour and its boats and ferries.

The artist was awarded the AM in 2012 at Government House. He says the meaning of the award does not align with the comments Ms Court has made about the LGBTQI community.

“Governor-General David Hurley said that an Australia Day honour is given to people ‘whose efforts make our communities and our nation a better place’.

“I am returning this award because I believe this year the elevation of Margaret Court is contrary to the integrity and meaning of the award.”

Kingston described Ms Court’s attitudes as “hurtful, damaging and divisive”.

“I call on Margaret Court to recognise the exclusion and division she is causing and to reconsider her words and actions,” he said.

Court has described homosexuality as an “abominable sexual practice”. She also wrote an open letter in 2017 saying she would boycott Qantas over its support of same-sex marriage.

When returning her award, Dr Soo told the Governor-General that by promoting Court the council was telling LGBTQI youth that prejudice against them was permitted in the Australian community.

Court said she would be praying for those who did not support her and blessing them.