The award to Philip is appropriate for a country that elected Tony Abbott as prime minister. From a pig's ear you get filet mignon?

Repealing the carbon price
Winding back, freezing or abolishing the renewable energy target
Abolishing the Climate Commission
Attempting to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Renewable Energy Agency
Keeping fossil fuel subsidies
Wrecking the Great Barrier Reef
Tearing up the Tasmanian forest deal and attempting to de-list the Tasmanian World Heritage forests
Reviewing the marine national reserves
Attempting to handover environmental powers to the states
Defunding the environmental defenders office
Creating an unsafe and underpaid "green army"
373. Disbands the Australia Awards Board – 15 December 2014
Knighting Prince Phillip
When you look at the impressive list, you may come to the conclusion that our PM has a bias.
We did elect Abbott as PM didn’t we.

Pericles,

"It is quite puzzling to me that nobody felt it appropriate to take the lad aside and whisper in his shell-like, "Tony, is this a good idea? Think about it..."

Maybe that Credlin lady is actually a Trojan horse for the Labour Party...?"

This article goes a long way to analysing that.

http://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/topic/2015/01/24/why-the-liberals-cant-kill-tony-abbott/14220180001407#.VMbEcCxP-Sr

Autocratic PMO - here's a sample:

“...Everyone has to talk in whispers,” says one Liberal staffer. “Criticism is forbidden. It’s like being in East Germany and worrying the Stasi is listening....”

Abbott is so out of touch its dumbfounding. What is even more concerning is the Coalition doesn't have the balls to throw him overboard.

“...Everyone has to talk in whispers,” says one Liberal staffer. “Criticism is forbidden. It’s like being in East Germany and worrying the Stasi is listening....”

If this statement is true, or at least the whispers and forbidding criticism parts, then the rest of the 'Team' are a bunch of wimps.

Baring in mind, a staffer's comments may not be that trustworthy given they wouldn't have any say in important matters and most likely think they are more important than they really are.

In answer to the question, "Prince Phillip wins an Aussie Award?"

The answer is "No", it was given to him.

Had he rejected the idea, and it leaked out, then the same people that are up in arms now would have been at Phillip's throat for the rejection.
Even the fact that he didn't want to touch one of those utterly useless Koalas is held against him, maybe, like a lot of other people he didn't want to run the risk of being pissed on with a substitute for eucalyptus oil.

That said, the Knighthood was a bad idea, conceived by a troubled mind that is out of touch with reality.
I'm tipping that Tony will get "The Order of the Sword" ere long and I imagine that the sharpening stones are being taken out of their protective old socks as I write this.

ConservativeHippie,

"Baring in mind, a staffer's comments may not be that trustworthy given they wouldn't have any say in important matters and most likely think they are more important than they really are."

I don't believe there's any question as to the problem. These mutterings have been going on for yonks. The Abbott/Credlin leadership team which was so successful in Opposition has proved itself a dud in actual government.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/control-freak-peta-credlin--accused-of-pulling-coalition-strings-20131204-2yqte.html

"But Senator Ian Macdonald's public accusation that Mr Abbott's office, led by senior aide Peta Credlin, has instilled a culture of "obsessive centralised control" in the government has struck a chord among sections of the Coalition."

"Rumblings of discontent have been growing since the election win in September.

The strict media control of ministers by the Prime Minister's office has been reported but a bigger irritant for Coalition members and staffers has been a tight grip on appointments by Ms Credlin and the so-called "star chamber" staff appointments panel she heads.

A Coalition member told Fairfax Media: "The level of control is far in excess of the Howard government at its peak. It's Peta Credlin who is the problem, she's a control freak and this is feeding into all sorts of things."

The selection of government members for committees is now being done from "on high", whereas in the past, MPs and senators had been given a level of freedom to sort out appointments among themselves."

...and that article was written in 2013!

This article was written today.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/angry-liberal-backbenchers-consider-meeting-after-tony-abbotts-decision-to-make-prince-philip-a-knight-20150126-12yr5d.html

"Angry Liberal backbenchers consider meeting after Tony Abbott's decision to make Prince Philip a knight"

Now centralised control might be okay if you've got people at the top who are savvy - but to have people at the top who "repeatedly" unleash debacles is not so useful.