Knights and dames dropped from honours system in Australia by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull

© Malcolm Turnbull, Wikipedia

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull

MALCOLM Turnbull, Prime Minister of Australia, announced on Monday that he will scrap knights and dames from the Order of Australia.

According to Turnbull, “Knights and dames are titles that are really anachronistic, out of date, not appropriate, in 2015.”

He said that the Queen had accepted his government’s recommendation to drop the titles in Australia.

Tony Abbott, the former Australian Prime Minister controversially reinstated knighthoods and damehoods in 2014 and he awarded Prince Philip a knighthood on Australia Day 2015.

The changes will not affect knights and dames who have already been awarded their titles.

Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen welcomed the Prime Minister´s decision and said the titles ‘never should have been brought back,’ and called them ‘a national disgrace.’

“With all due respect to Angus Houston and Quentin Bryce and the other fine Australians who have received them, it is not appropriate in modern day Australia, in 2015, that we are clinging on to imperial Britain through our honours system. 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,” he added.

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