Well I must admit, even I was surprised that our devout Monarchist PM put forward a non-Australian for an incredibly ancient award like the Knight of the Order of Australia no less, let alone old Prince Phillip!

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/prince-philip-awarded-knight-of-the-order-of-australia-by-prime-minister-tony-abbott-20150125-12xzk8.html

Really?
He couldn't find anyone at all in Australia to use instead of the husband of a Queen of another country?
Australia must be a land full of very undeserving people indeed if Abbott had to choose this bloke to be 'honoured' with this incredibly backward award.

Happy Australia Day to all on OLO, but I wonder what everyone else thinks of this dubious award, and of this royal recipient?

Has the PM lost the plot?
Should we still have such old-fashioned English 'awards' anyway?
Or is he so glued to the Motherland that he had to choose Prince Phillip over other much more deserving Australians?

Suse,

"Has the PM lost the plot?"

Indeed, he has - and that came across loud and clear today when he was roundly condemned by left and right for his "kooky" captains call in knighting Prince Philip.

I've spent most of the day on twitter laughing about it. You should know that journos from the right have been lampooning him as well as from the left - ministers from his own party are now groaning louder than ever.

I've been smelling cooked goose all day...and I believe with this crowning action, Mr Abbott's days are numbered as leader - loathe as they are to change leaders - this guy doesn't appear to have the full deck.

Agreed Poirot.
Even I feel a little sorry for Abbott.......what with the whole country either laughing at or being annoyed with him.

The British press will have a field day with this announcement.
Not even his own country would bestow such an ' honour' on the old Prince, when all they seem to do is laugh at his constant embarrassing comments.

Bring on the Republic I say.

<<He couldn't find anyone at all in Australia to use instead of the husband of a Queen of another country?>>
Firstly he did find someone else: Angus Houston. Tony Abbott awarded the knighthood to Prince Philip because he wanted to, not because of a lack of alternatives.
Secondly Prince Philip is the husband of the Queen of Australia.

But the decision probably means people are less likely to take Australian knighthoods seriously now.

I've been reading headlines on the net
along the lines of -
"Is it April Fool's Day?"

Even The Herald-Sun has turned against the
Prime Minister as has the award-winning political commentator -
Laurie Oakes.

Feelings are running strong and all are running
along the same lines. Has our PM lost the plot?

The Herald Sun makes the points that - ok, even
if we can accept these antiquated titles to be granted
to previous and current Governor-Generals.
We can at least rationalise that - after all,
each Governor General is the monarch's representative
in this country.

We can try to understand that the
knighthood awarded former Defence Chief Angus Houston,
"a brave Australian who's served this country
magnificently also fits."

And we can try to find some logic in making an
allowance for the Fraser government's
1981 awarding of a knighthood to Prince Charles
"because eventually he will be King of Australia."

But Prince Philip, the faithful consort of our current
monarch? Who on his visit to Australia in 1992
when asked if he wanted to stroke a koala bear
stated, "Oh no, I might catch some ghastly disease!"

The message to Prince Philip's appointment appears to be
that "of 23 million Australians who rose to celebrate
Australia Day - none but Air Chief Marshall Houston
had contributed as much to Australia as Prince Philip."

Our PM appears to be seriously out of touch with
Modern Australia.

Still I dare say that this award will get lost amongst
the many other awards that Prince Philip has received.
Some of which are:

Knighhood of the Order of the Elephant (Denmark)

A Collar of the Order of the Aztec Eagle (Mexico).

Grand Commander of the Order of Maritime Merit
(the San Francisco Port Authority).

And now a Knighthood from Australia.

I'm sure Prince Philip will make an appropriate comment
for this occasion.

Lol Foxy!
Thanks for those interesting points about Prince Phillips other awards.

I too have been listening to the fallout from this decision that was obviously made by Abbott alone.
How he thought this was a bright idea is beyond me.

Aiden, do you really think the PM couldn't think of anyone else, other than the soldier, that he could put forward for this silly award than Prince Phillip?

If he really couldn't think of any Aussie more deserving than the Prince, then that is a disgrace......