The Australian honours and awards system refers to all orders, decorations, and medals, as instituted by letters patent from the Monarch of Australia and countersigned by the Australian prime minister at the time, that have been progressively introduced since 14 February 1975. The Australian honours and awards system excludes all state and local government, and private, issued awards and medals (although a few can be recognised in the order of wearing, including the Order of St John).
Honours and awards have been present in Australia since pre-federation, primarily from the Imperial honours and awards system. This Imperial system remained in place until its full phase out in 1994 (although the Monarch of Australia may still confer some of these honours to Australians in their personal capacity). Between 1975 and 1992, the Australian honours and awards system and the Imperial honours and awards system operated in parallel, although the last Imperial awards to be made were in June 1989.
The Australian honours and awards system consists of honours, which are appointments to orders of chivalry (namely the Order of Australia), and awards (which are decorations and medals – decorations are medals for valour, gallantry, bravery, and distinguished or conspicuous service). Medals include meritorious service medals, operational service medals, campaign medals, long service medals, commemorative medals, and the Champion Shots Medal.
Both the Order of Australia, which has a General Division and Military Division (distinguished by gold banding on the edges of the ribbon), and the Australian Operational Service Medal, which has a special civilian ribbon for Defence civilians awarded it, are unique in the Australian honour and awards system in distinguishing between military and civilian awardees (although some awards in the Australian honours and awards system can only be earned by military personnel).
The Australian honours and awards system recognises the contributions of individuals, and for the Group Bravery Citation, Unit Citation for Gallantry, and Meritorious Unit Citation, the efforts of individuals as a group (the unit citations for meritorious service and gallantry also recognise members currently posted to those units, so long as they remain posted there, but without the display of the Federation Star device on those decorations that signifies personal contribution to the granting of that award). Most honours and awards are announced on Australia Day (26 January) and the King's Birthday holiday (June), with the exception of the bravery awards (typically announced in March and August), and the Australian Antarctic Medal (announced on 21 June), although some military medals are awarded all year round (as most are not gazetted). A public database of Australian honour recipients is maintained by the federal government.
History The Australian states and the Commonwealth of Australia originally used the Imperial honours system, also known as the British honours system. The creation in 1975 of the Australian honours and awards system saw Australian recommendations for the Imperial awards decline, with the last awards being gazetted in 1989. The Commonwealth of Australia ceased making recommendations for Imperial awards in 1983, with the last Queen's Birthday Australian Honours list submitted by Queensland and Tasmania in 1989. The Queen continued to confer honours upon Australians that emanate from her personally such as the Royal Victorian Order. Only a handful of peerages and baronetcies were created for Australians. Some were in recognition of public services rendered in Britain rather than Australia. Hereditary peerages and baronetcies derive from Britain. There have never been Australian peerages or baronetcies created under the Australian Crown.Who's Who Australia 2008. Details are provided at Australian peers and baronets.
Individual Australian states, as well the Commonwealth government, were full participants in the Imperial honours system. Originally there was bipartisan support, but Australian Labor Party (ALP) governments, both national and state, ceased making recommendations for Imperial awards – in particular, appointments to the Order of the British Empire mainly after 1972. During the Second World War, the Governor-General, on the advice of wartime Labor governments, made recommendations for gallantry awards, including eleven for the Victoria Cross. Appointments to the Order of the British Empire were for officers and men engaged in operational areas.
In 1975, the ALP (which had been out of power federally from 1949 until 1972) created the Australian honours and awards system. Recommendations were processed centrally, but state governors still had the power, on the advice of their governments, to submit recommendations for Imperial awards. From 1975 until 1983, the Liberal Party was in power federally, under Malcolm Fraser and, although it retained the Australian Honours and Awards System, it reintroduced recommendations for meritorious Imperial awards, but not for Imperial awards for gallantry, bravery or distinguished service. Recommendations for Imperial awards by the federal government ceased with the election of the Hawke Labor government in 1983. In 1989, the last two states to make Imperial recommendations were Queensland and Tasmania.London Gazette, 17 June 1989, pp. B29 & B30 The defeat of both governments at the polls that year marked the end of Australian recommendations for Imperial awards.
Following the UK New Year Honours List in 1990, which contained no Australian nominations for British honours, the Queen's Private Secretary, Sir William Heseltine, wrote to the Governor-General, saying "this seems a good moment to consider whether the time has not arrived for Australia, like Canada, to honour its citizens exclusively within its own system". There followed more than two years of negotiations with state governments before the Prime Minister, Paul Keating, made the announcement on 5 October 1992 that Australia would make no further recommendations for British honours.A matter of honour: the report of the review of Australian honours and awards, December 1995, pp. 21–22 The Australian Order of Wear states that "all imperial British awards made to Australian citizens after 5 October 1992 are foreign awards and should be worn accordingly".
The Australian honours and awards system has faced various criticisms over the years. Most criticisms however are to do with who receives honours and awards, reflecting comments such as those made by Nicholas Gruen, where he said the honours and awards system had "far too much to do with how much status you've already got ... [It's about] seniority, power, privilege and patronage... [with] systematic selection in favour of people who just do their job, rather than go out of their way to do something selfless". Controversy attended these awards in 2021 when former tennis player Margaret Court received the Companion of the Order of Australia. Court is known for her homophobic and transphobic views, and GP Clara Tuck Meng Soo, journalist Kerry O'Brien, and artist Peter Kingston have rejected or returned their awards in protest.
Nominating or applying for awards Australians become recipients of each of the 55 different types of Australian awards and honours through one of two separate processes; by nomination or by application. Nomination: Individual nominations may be made by members of the public or a community group for the Order of Australia and Australian Bravery Decorations. Nominations for Meritorious Service Awards are based on nominations from each specific organisation. The Department of Defence also nominates individuals for a range of service decorations. Non-Australians can be given honorary awards for "extraordinary service to Australia or humanity at large". Nomination forms for the Order of Australia are available through the Australian Honours Secretariat website, or upon application to the Honours Secretariat at Government House, Canberra or from any state Government House. Application: Many of the honours or awards are based on an application by the recipient or a recommendation on their behalf. Awards that fall under this category include service awards for defence force and police personnel for operational service or to other individuals for special civilian services recognised by the Australian Government. Unlike Imperial bravery or gallantry awards, any person can nominate themselves for an Australian Bravery Award under the current design of the nomination form.
Categories of honours and awards
The Australian honours and awards system consists of the following: Honours: An honour is an appointment to an order of chivalry, and the Order of Australia is the only chivalric order currently able to be awarded in the Australian honours and awards system. Awards: An award is a decoration or medal awarded to a person or organisation. Decorations are awards, normally in the form of a cross or a star, made for valour, gallantry, bravery, distinguished service or conspicuous service. Medals are everything else.
There are two broad categories of honours and awards.
Individual honours and awards The honours and the awards in the Australian system are, and have been: those within the Australian honours and awards system; those conferred by the sovereign in exercise of the royal prerogative; those within the Order of St John; Imperial/British awards conferred before 6 October 1992; and foreign awards, the acceptance and wearing of which have been authorised by the Governor-General.
Awards of the British Empire/United Kingdom conferred after 5 October 1992 are foreign awards."- all Imperial awards made to Australian citizens after 5 October 1992 are foreign awards and should be worn accordingly." Order of Wearing , updated 25 September 2007. page 1. (Generally, foreign awards are worn after Australian awards, and postnominals of foreign awards are not recognised.)
Military theatre and battle honours, honour titles and distinctions
The Australian Defence Force has a system of battle honours, theatre honours, honour titles and honour distinctions to recognise exemplary service by units (not individuals) in combat and combat-related roles. Normally, Defence Honours are not awarded below sub-unit level (an organisation normally commanded by a Major or equivalent). The recommendation for the award of battle honours, theatre honours, honour titles and honour distinctions is made by a Battle Honours Committee.
There are four categories of honours in the Defence system as follows:
Theatre Honour: A theatre of operations is defined as a geographic area in which a campaign or series of operations is conducted and for which an operational level joint or combined commander is appointed. A Theatre Honour can be made where a unit or sub-unit of any Corps is deployed under warlike conditions. Any unit that qualifies for a Battle Honour will automatically also qualify for a Theatre Honour. Examples of Theatre Honours awarded to Australian units include Gallipoli 1915, France and Flanders 1914–1918, Middle East 1941–1944, South West Pacific 1942–1945, Korea 1950–1953 and Vietnam 1965–1972. Battle Honour: A battle is an operational action conducted under warlike conditions. A Battle Honour is defined as the title of a battle or a series of battles fought as a campaign, an action or an engagement and is awarded to close combat elements of a Combat Corps of the Royal Australian Navy, Australian Army or Royal Australian Air Force as a public commemoration of outstanding achievement in battle(s), action or engagement. Examples of Battle Honours awarded to Australian units include the Landing at Anzac Cove, Hamel, Tobruk, Kokoda Track, Kapyong and Coral-Balmoral.