LETTER TO THE EDITOR IN RESPONSE TO ARTICLE IN THE SUNDAY MAIL (BRISBANE)

22 May 2007

Letters Editor
Sunday Mail

Terry Sweetman (Sunday Extra, 20 May) has delivered the ultimate insult to the more than 21,000 people who have received honours and awards in the Order of Australia since 1975, when he describes our Honours system as "the machinery of patronage, backslapping and paybacks".

There are more than 21,000 amazing stories to be told of ordinary people who have done extraordinary things for their country and their fellow Australians.

And the independent Council for the Order of Australia is well and truly able to discern merit and worth as it has done for more than thirty years.

Let’s congratulate those who have been honoured, tell them how much their service, their achievements and their efforts are appreciated, and not insult them.

Malcolm Hazell

Official Secretary to the Governor-General and
 Secretary of the Order of Australia