If any of you were wondering just how long a so-called “Captain’s Call” takes to go from idea to implementation – the answer is about two and a half months.
That’s how long it took to clear the numerous hurdles that were in the way of Prime Minister Tony Abbott bestowing a Knighthood unto Prince Philip on Australia Day – a decision famously met with much guffawing.
The whole process apparently began back in November, when the Prime Minister’s Office first formally sought advice on awarding the title to the Duke of Edinburgh. Among the issues that stood between Prime Minister Abbott and making the decision come to fruition, were that the Letters Patent for the Order of Australia had to be amended, allowing for Prince Philip to receive the title despite not being an Australian citizen.
In addition – because apparently there’s some sort of ranking to this – it was required that Philip be placed ahead of his son, Prince Charles, in the Knighthood order of preference. Charles himself had the AK title bestowed upon him in 1981, after a special amendment was made to the Australian constitution.
The amended Letters Patent and a cover letter from Tony Abbott was sent to the Queen in mid-December. Queen Elizabeth subsequently signed off on the gong for her husband on January 7th, 2015 – meaning that Prince Philip was, legally, a Knight of Australia for over two weeks before he was publicly unveiled.
And yet, despite this process taking a solid amount of time, Prime Minister Abbott did not manage to tell his Liberal Party colleagues, with the universal dialogue being that they found out when Abbott announced it to the media on January 26th.
Internal emails literally take 5 minutes, Tone. You probably could’ve given your boys the heads up.
via The New Daily.
