Yahoo – AFP,
2 Nov 2015
Sydney
(AFP) - Australia has removed knights and dames from the national honours
system, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Monday, dismissing the ancient
titles as "not appropriate" in the modern age.
Knights and
dames were unexpectedly revived last year by then prime minister and ardent
monarchist Tony Abbott -- prompting accusations he was in a "time
warp" and out of touch with voters.
Turnbull,
an outspoken republican, had been widely expected to dump the titles ever since
he replaced Abbott in a conservative Liberal Party room coup in September.
"The
cabinet recently considered the Order of Australia... and agreed that knights
and dames are not appropriate in our modern honours system," Turnbull said
in a statement.
The prime
minister said Britain's Queen Elizabeth had agreed to the government's
recommendation to remove knights and dames from the Order of Australia, which
recognises achievement and service.
"This
change will not affect existing knights and dames," he added.
Speaking
later to reporters in Sydney, Turnbull said the matter was "a long way
from being the most important issue in Australia today".
But he
added: "This reflects modern Australia; knights and dames are titles that
are really anachronistic, they're out of date, they're not appropriate in 2015
in Australia."
Abbott's
reintroduction of knights and dames in 2014 was questioned, but it was his
subsequent decision to knight Queen Elizabeth II's husband Prince Philip which
was met with ridicule and disbelief.
Republicans,
who favour cutting Australia's ties to the British monarchy, had already
accused Abbott of turning the clock back to a colonial mindset, while the Labor
opposition said the titles should never have been brought back.
"It
was a farce, a joke, a national disgrace," Labor MP Chris Bowen told
reporters in Sydney.
"It is
not appropriate in modern day Australia ... that we are clinging onto imperial
Britain through our honours system, and we shouldn't be celebrating the fact
that knights and dames are gone, we should be lamenting the fact that they came
back under this government."
Republic
by stealth
Australia
has long wrestled with the idea of cutting ties to the British monarchy, but a
1999 referendum on the issue kept the traditional model under which Britain's
Elizabeth II is head of state.
Support for
a republic has ebbed in the years since, with a Fairfax-Nielsen poll in 2014
finding that 51 percent of the 1,400 people surveyed favoured the status quo
while only 42 percent supported a republic.
The
Australian Monarchist League said it was disappointed and concerned by Monday's
development, accusing Turnbull of "republicanism by stealth".
"Mr.
Turnbull is trying to bring on a republic and this is a way of starting it all
off," the league's national chair Philip Benwell told AFP.
"We
don't forget that Mr. Turnbull led republicans into the last referendum."
But Australian
Republican Movement chair Peter FitzSimons welcomed the demise of knights and
dames, saying their reintroduction reflected "Australia of the past, not
the diverse and multicultural nation that exists today".
The
mis-step over Prince Philip's knighthood was seen as one of the catalysts for a
leadership challenge against Abbott in February, adding to flagging opinion
polls and an unpopular budget.
He survived
the first challenge after awarding the honour to the non-resident duke, dubbed
a "knightmare" by the media, but was removed by Turnbull's challenge
seven months later.
He has
since admitted the decision was a mistake, describing it as "an
injudicious appointment, obviously".
Knights and
dames were introduced into Australia's system of honours in 1976 by then-prime
minister Malcolm Fraser, but abolished a decade later by Bob Hawke.
Previously,
Australians had been honoured through British imperial awards.
Australia ditches 'out of date' knights and dames https://t.co/CNrevJxsKM pic.twitter.com/gL8mNBtTXb
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) November 2, 2015
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