Happy Australia Day, friends!
While Triple J’s Hottest 100 will take its rightful precedence over today from midday onwards, the admin of the day has been put out of the way early with Tony Abbott’s announcement of the newest Knights of The Order Of Australia (that is a real, legitimate, non-joke thing, remember?). Abbott has kicked off the day by knighting Lizzie’s squeeze Prince Philip and former defence force chief Angus Houston.
Prince Philip being awarded Australia’s top honour? Darling, let’s party like it’s 1863! It’s certainly one way to quell growing Australian Republic debate. Tony Abbott praised Prince Philip’s service, noting the significance of the Duke of Edinburgh award: “The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in Australia has supported the development of young Australians for more than 50 years.”
Angus Houston has been praised for his work investigating the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, and for his work during the MH17 disaster.
“It’s a great honour to be recognised in this way but I’d like people to still call me Angus,” said Houston, every bit of humble.
Film critic David Stratton has joined his partner in crime Margaret Pomeranz after today receiving the Member of The Order of Australia honour – Pomeranz received the same award in 2005. Layne Beachley, George Negus and over 800 other stellar Australians have also been recognised for the achievements with honours today.
Yesterday, the Australian of the year awards were won by four women, with anti-domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty taking out The Australian of the Year.
Awarding Prince Philip with Australia’s top honour today has not been received with unanimous respect; after all, the man is known for a tendency to make a gaffe out of practically any situation. Efficient, we’ll give him that.
Prince Philip: “Oh look, Lizzie. The colonies are giving me a knighthood! It’s like they think they’re people.” [sips tea & shrugs, baffled]
— Benjamin Law (@mrbenjaminlaw) January 25, 2015
I assume Prince Philip has been named an Australian Knight for his services to casual racism, right?
— Wil Anderson (@Wil_Anderson) January 25, 2015
via ABC.
Lead image by WPA Pool via getty.
