Poirot,

I find it necessary to admonish you a wee bit here, as unlike my good self you are treating the 'Australian Bunyip Aristocracy' with a degree of cynicism and a general lack of respect.
We in Oz are fortunate to have Lord Tone, with the political statesmanship of a Churchill, the sporting prowess of a Bradman and the economic wisdom of John Maynard Keynes we have in Lord Tone one unique individual. Forget Sir Pete and Lady Lynne, through many hours of exhaustive research on my part, I have been able to establish beyond reasonable doubt that Lord Tone is in fact very closely related to the Royal Family. I know that will come as a complete surprise to many, but it is now well established that through a rather casual encounter between Tone's Grand Uncle Remus and Lady Beryl behind the chook shed one Saturday afternoon in 1896, we are now fortunate to have our very own line of royalty here in Oz. Yes, Lord Tone is indeed Prince Lenard's and Lady Shirl's of the Principality of Hutt River Province, 32nd cousin, twice removed.
So all you republicans, suck on that!

It is interesting that Abbott will bring in Knights and Dames as the highest award, while Labor will continue awarding the second rate lucky packet COOA award.

SM,

What have Knights and Dames got to do with 21st century Australia?

This was an autonomous brain storm from dippy Mr Abbott - and has received due mockery from most quarters.

Here's Amanda Vanstone spinning it in the best light she can, but still critical.

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/why-tony-abbotts-royal-finger-on-knights-and-dames-is-wrong-20140329-zqog7.html

.......

Regarding Bronnie and the probability that her days as Speaker are numbered.

Here's what Dennis Atkins of the Courier Mail said on Insiders:

"I've seen some ordinary Speakers and I've seen some middling Speakers and a couple of very good ones. But in terms of bias, I've never seen anything like Bronwyn Bishop....she heckles from the Speaker's chair. Her dismissive attitude to anything that the Opposition says is breathtaking. I don't think that any objective observer can say anything but [that] she is there for the government, not the Parliament."

I also note van Onselen made this observation on twitter while watching a vote:

"I can see six Coalition MP's voting with the Speaker who told me she is hopeless...oh well, there you go."

I wonder how many Coalition MP's all up hold that view?

I'm also a little concerned that presiding over continuing furor "of her own making" may be detrimental to her health (seriously)

HE restored an oath of allegiance to the Queen when he was sworn in as Prime Minister, but Tony Abbott has ruled out bringing back Knights and Dames in Australia.
We sort of get mixed messages from this bloke.

Poirot,

Why then does France have knighthoods if they have no monarchy?

Why do we still award the victoria cross and the George cross?

Why did Labor make the award of the Companion of the order of Australia, which is also a dressed up award harking back to feudal days?

The reason is that the term is recognised world wide and recognised stature. The COOA is completely unknown outside of Australia, and I would bet that 90% of Aussies stopped in the street would not be able to differentiate between it and a pet dog.

If you ask the same Aussie what a knighthood is nearly everyone in the world knows.

Finally on the speaker, Whatever Bishop does, she can never be as rotten as Labor's Peter Slipper.

I never have been one for awards and am a bit surprized that Abbott has moved to reintroduce the Knighthoods. I would have thought he had too much on his plate to be side tracked by this award giving.

As far as I can see some of the current 'Australian Honours' go to undeserving persons and many to others that are simply doing a job and getting paid for that, without any extra commitment.

In my opinion this has lowered the value of the awards.

Honours should only be awarded to those that went 'above and beyond' in a selfless way.

I do hope that any new honours will go to those that truly deserve to be recognized, but that is likely to be wishful thinking.