[Another opposition politician, Sam Dastyari, dubbed his
administration the “Game of Tones” in a satirical speech to the Senate. “I’m
shocked and horrified that people are ridiculing the bold and inspirational
leadership of the people’s prime minister, Sir Anthony Abbott of Warringah,”
Dastyari said, a reference to Abbott’s home constituency in Sydney. “While some
may claim that returning to knighthoods is taking the country backwards, I can
think of no more important policy for our realm right now.”]
By A. Odysseus Patrick
 |
Ray Strange/AFP/Getty Images
Former military chief Peter Cosgrove became Australia's
governor-general last month,
vowing to uphold the values of equity and
compassion as British Queen Elizabeth
II's representative in the country.
Cosgrove is now Sir Peter after Prime Minister
Tony Abbott revived knighthoods.
|
SYDNEY — When Britain’s Prince William and his wife, Catherine, arrived
in Sydney this week for an official tour, they introduced Australia’s
prime minister, Tony Abbott, to their nine-month-old son, George. In return, the couple were
greeted by Abbott’s own creation: the Australian government’s first knight in
30 years, Sir Peter Cosgrove.
Last month, Abbott stunned the nation — and his own administration
— by revealing that he had asked Queen Elizabeth II to reintroduce Australian
knighthoods and damehoods, honors that have their origin in the Norman feudal
rule of Britain in the Middle Ages.
In a country that has been independent from Britain for 113 years,
and is worried about the long-term costs of public benefits and the end of a
mining and energy boom, the decision led many Australians to question Abbott’s
priorities. The first recipients were the head of state, lawyer Quentin Bryce,
and her recently appointed successor, Cosgrove, a former army general.
Australia first abolished imperial honors in 1975. The prime
minister at the time, leftist Gough Whitlam, believed that the class
connotations were inconsistent with Australia’s egalitarian ethos.
All imperial honors were replaced with an “Order of Australia”
awards system intended to symbolize the nation’s independence and confidence.
Knighthoods were reintroduced in 1976 but abandoned seven years later.
The prime minister’s decision to revive them yet again was derided
by politicians and some media.
When Abbott appeared in Parliament this week, his opposition
counterpart, Bill Shorten, hummed a few bars of “Rule Britannia,” annoying
Abbott, who complained to the speaker.
Another opposition politician, Sam Dastyari, dubbed his
administration the “Game of Tones” in a satirical speech to the Senate. “I’m
shocked and horrified that people are ridiculing the bold and inspirational
leadership of the people’s prime minister, Sir Anthony Abbott of Warringah,”
Dastyari said, a reference to Abbott’s home constituency in Sydney. “While some
may claim that returning to knighthoods is taking the country backwards, I can
think of no more important policy for our realm right now.”
The mockery extended to Abbott’s own party.
“There are many distinguished republics that have knights in their
honors system. Guatemala for example,” said Abbott’s main
rival in the Liberal Party, Malcolm Turnbull, drawing laughter from a group
of television industry executives he was addressing.
Recipients of the Order of Australia are entitled to wear small
circular pins on their lapels that are sometimes mistaken for Rotary Club
badges. The awards continue under the new system, although are ranked below
knighthoods and damehoods.
Les Murray, the poet who wrote Australia’s version of the pledge
of allegiance, feels his Order of Australia is now less valued. “I have gone
from a medal to a Scouts badge,” he said in an interview.
The prime minister, who studied at Oxford University, is a
longtime royalist. In his 1995 book, “The Minimal Monarchy and Why it Still
Works for Australia,” Abbott wrote: “In an age when little is built to last, a
Crown that can trace its lineage back 1,000 years and — next to the papacy — is
the oldest continuing institution of Western civilization, is indeed an
anachronism. But perhaps it’s the kind of anachronism Australia needs to
prevent the complete triumph of Kentucky Fried Culture.”
Announcing
the new honors last month, Abbott, a conservative, said they would be
for people of extraordinary achievement in public service who had not sought
the limelight. “I believe this is an important grace note in our national
life,” he told reporters.
It doesn’t appear that being named a knight has the power of old.
Sir Martin Sorrell, a British citizen who is chief executive of the global
advertising giant WPP Plc, said in an e-mail that his was good for “restaurant
bookings and airline seats.”
He was knighted by the queen in 2000. A few Americans have also
been awarded British knighthoods, including presidents Ronald Reagan and George
H.W. Bush, although they aren’t allowed to use the title, which is reserved for
citizens of the British Commonwealth.
Some Australians were excited about the new knighthoods.
University of Sydney law student Rachel Bailes, an activist for the Australian
Monarchist League, had written to Abbott urging him to reintroduce the honors.
Her parents like to rib their 21-year-old daughter about her
attachment to Queen Elizabeth II, to whom she refers as the “Queen of
Australia.” Bailes thinks her parents’ generation lacks the national
self-confidence to embrace the monarchy . “It was almost as though we had
growing pains as a nation,” she said in an interview.
A poll in the Australian Financial Review newspaper this week
suggests most Australians don’t want knighthoods to return, but don’t yearn for
a republic either. Fifty percent of Australians oppose knighthoods and 35
percent support them, the poll found, while backing for a republic is at 42 per
cent, the lowest level in 35 years.
Australians’ views on the monarchy are shaped by their close but
sometimes strained relationship with Britain. In what some Australians still
regard as a coup by a representative of the British monarchy, Whitlam was
removed in 1975 by the governor general, Sir John Kerr.
His replacement, Malcolm Fraser, reintroduced knighthoods,
although they were officially a category of the Order of Australia. Fraser lost
power in 1983.
The incoming Labor government abolished knighthoods once again.
Over the following 30 years, the titles faded into obscurity as most of the
knights and dames grew old and died.
Today, some 70 living Australians are allowed to call themselves
sir or dame, including those who got the titles under the old system or from
other countries. Up to four will be added every year. Unlike the Order of
Australia awards, which are decided by a committee, they will all be personally
chosen by Abbott.
