Frequently Asked Questions - Sounding process

Firstly, congratulations! If you have received a letter from the Official Secretary to the Governor-General, you have been recommended for an award or appointment within the Australian honours system.

Decide whether you would be willing to accept the honour.

If you have received an email, follow the link to the online webform, review the details and click submit.

If you have received an offer of acceptance by post, please review the details, scan the form, and if you have access to email, return it by email to acceptances@gg.gov.au . Otherwise, return it via post to the Australian Honours and Awards Secretariat. Address details can be found here.

From here, your acceptance form will be processed and a recommendation will be forwarded to the Governor-General for his consideration and approval. 

If approved, it will be announced in the honours list for which the recommendation has been made. This announcement date is specified in the letter or email you received from the Official Secretary.

You have been recommended to receive one of the following awards or appointments within the Australian Honours System (the letter you have received will indicate which type and level of award or appointment):

The Order of Australia recognises Australians who have demonstrated outstanding service or exceptional achievement. A nomination was submitted and researched, assessed by the Council for the Order of Australia and is now being considered for recommendation to the Governor-General.

Meritorious Service Awards recognise outstanding and distinguished service by public servants, members of an Australian police force, fire, ambulance, corrections, intelligence or emergency service, or in support of outstanding work with an Australian Antarctic expedition. The Governor-General makes these awards on the recommendation of the responsible Ministers, who generally act on advice from the relevant agency.

Military decorations for Gallantry, Distinguished Service or Conspicuous Service Decorations are made on the recommendation of the relevant Defence Minister. The same process applies for appointments and awards within the Military Division of the Order of Australia.

If the Governor-General accepts the recommendation and an award is granted, recipients are usually announced in either the Australia Day or The Queen’s Birthday honours list, which is shared via the media and uploaded to the Governor-General’s website and the Australian Honours Database.

Recipients are entitled to use any post-nominals that may correspond with their award. For example, Mr Lam Nguyen OAM or Ms Jane Smith PSM.  Further information about post-nominals, including a list of recognised post-nominal entitlements, can be found here.

You may also be invited to attend an investiture ceremony at the Government House in your home state or territory where you will receive personalised insignia. Investitures usually occur a few months after each honours list is announced (generally April/May or September).

If you have indicated you are not an Australian citizen on your sounding form, the Secretariat will contact you to advise next steps.

Approval of any award or appointment to a foreign citizen (including permanent residents) requires permission from the person’s home country.

You do not need to be an Australian citizen or permanent resident to receive a meritorious, operational or bravery award.

To be recommended for an award or appointment by the Council for the Order of Australia, you must be either an Australian citizen or a permanent resident. Permanent residents are considered for an honorary award or appointment in the Order.

Foreign citizens without permanent residency in Australia will have their details forwarded to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet for consideration towards an honorary award or appointment. Honorary awards to foreign citizens without permanent residency are made by the Governor-General on the recommendation of the Prime Minister.

For the Order of Australia

In the event the person written to or about has passed away, a posthumous award will be offered to that person’s next-of-kin to accept on their behalf (if they passed away after the nomination was received by the Secretariat).

If the letter is addressed to the person who has passed away, please contact the Secretariat via acceptances@gg.gov.au to arrange for an alternative offer of acceptance form to be provided to the next-of-kin for completion.

If the letter is addressed to you, with an offer of acceptance for someone who has passed away and you are not their next-of-kin, please forward the request on to the next-of-kin and contact the Secretariat via acceptances@gg.gov.au or by calling 02 6283 3604.

If the letter is addressed to you, with an offer of acceptance for someone who has passed away and you are the person’s next-of-kin, please follow the steps in the sounding form. The form will ask you to fill in both their details and your own.

Should an award be approved by the Governor-General, the next-of-kin may be invited to attend an investiture to accept the insignia of the recipient’s award.

For any other awards

In the event the person written to or about has passed away, please contact the Secretariat via acceptances@gg.gov.au.

Recipients are expected to uphold the reputation and integrity of the honours system. Awards may be reviewed for a variety of reasons, such as criminal convictions.  Any review can be based on past or future events.

If you have any prior or pending criminal or punitive findings against you please make contact to discuss.  Any information you provide will be treated confidentially.

Declaring any concerns may not result in an offer, or an award, being revoked, however, this information may need to be referred back to the deliberative agency or body for consideration.

Yes.

You may find some of the information in the acceptance form needs amendment. For example, some dates and/or roles in the service may be missing or inaccurate. If this is the case, please amend them before submitting the acceptance form. 

It should be noted that the summary of service forms the basis on which the award has been proposed. It is not intended to be a full history of service. All changes will be considered, but not all may be accepted, and any changes that do not comply with standard formatting will be edited for compliance.

Yes. If, after you have submitted this form, you have further proposed corrections, including to the citation or media notes, you can email these to the Australian Honours and Awards Secretariat at acceptances@gg.gov.au.  However, it is important to note that not all changes may be possible and if the request is received late in the process, any corrections may not be made on the Governor-General's website until after publication of the proposed award. 

(Please note that not all awards carry a citation – this section is only relevant if your sounding letter included a draft citation).

A citation is the written reason that a person has received an honour or award and is published when awards are announced. 

Citations usually briefly describe the main area or sector in which a person has given service or made their achievement in the following form: “For service to the performing arts”. If the service has been in a particular place, that place might also be mentioned.

Award citations are composed according to specific guidelines to ensure consistency within an honours list. If you wish to propose any changes to the citation, please make a suggestion through your form or by writing to acceptances@gg.gov.au.

It is important to note that not all citation changes may be approved. This is normally because proposed changes are too detailed or lengthy. The purpose of the citation is to briefly highlight where a recipient’s key contributions have been made. The information contained in the ‘Service Includes’ section is used to complement the citation and provide insight into a recipient’s specific service and achievements.

Should the Governor-General approve the proposed award, the details you provide in this section are shared with the media (under embargo) days prior to the announcement of the award. Generally, police, corrections, military and intelligence personnel will not be asked to provide their personal contact details, nor will it be shared with the media.

The media receives the recipient’s name, home state, citation, and service details as provided in the acceptance form. You can also choose to share more information, including a suburb, postcode and telephone number.

If you have consented to the release of the information to the media, they may contact you prior to the announcement of the award in order to interview you. You can speak to the media at that time as any announcement of the award or appointment is under embargo until the day of announcement, either on Australia Day or The Queen’s Birthday. 

If you do not wish to be contacted, please advise the Secretariat when you return your form and your contact details will be withheld from the honours list distributed to media outlets.

The media receives the recipient’s name, home state, citation, and service details as provided in the acceptance form. You can also choose to share more information, including a suburb, postcode and telephone number.  Police, corrections, military and intelligence personnel will not be asked to provide their personal contact information to the media.

The Government House in your home state or territory will receive your name, postal address, phone number, email address and citation of the award for the purpose of inviting you to a formal investiture ceremony.

The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, your Premier/Chief Minister and, if requested, elected members of federal, state and territory parliaments will receive your name, postal address and citation for congratulatory purposes.

For Order of Australia recipients, the Order of Australia Association will receive your name, postal address and citation.  They are separate organisations to this Office and may contact you for congratulatory purposes or to provide information about their association.

If you do not wish your details to be provided to any one (or all) of these, please contact us.

Personal information is collected and stored for the purpose of maintaining a register of honours recipients, which includes the Australian Honours Database.

The information you’ve provided may also be used to approach you as a potential referee for Order of Australia nominations being researched. For further information about the referee process, please visit our Referee Frequently Asked Questions (hyperlink). Please refer to the privacy statement here.

Unless you indicate otherwise to us, you may also be contacted by other areas of Government House, Canberra, in relation to the Governor-General’s program of events or functions, unrelated to your appointment or award.

If you have received a letter from the Official Secretary to the Governor-General, you have been recommended for an Australian Bravery decoration.

The Australian Bravery Decorations are the pre-eminent awards for the recognition of acts of bravery by people whose actions put themselves in jeopardy to protect the lives or property of others.

A nomination for was submitted, assessed by the Australian Bravery Decorations Council, and is now being considered for recommendation to the Governor-General to receive recognition.

Decide whether you would be willing to accept the award.

If you have received an email, follow the link to the online webform, review the details and click submit.

If you have received an offer of acceptance by post, please review the details, scan the form, and if you have access to email, return it by email to acceptances@gg.gov.au . Otherwise, return it via post to the Australian Honours and Awards Secretariat. Address details can be found here.

From here, your acceptance form will be processed and a recommendation will be forwarded to the Governor-General for his consideration and approval. 

If approved, it will be announced in the bravery list for which the recommendation has been made.  

If the Governor-General accepts the recommendation and an award is granted, recipients are usually announced in the next available bravery list. These lists are generally announced twice a year and shared via the media and uploaded to the Governor-General’s website and the Australian Honours Database.

Recipients of a Cross of Valour, Star of Courage or Bravery Medal are entitled to use the post-nominals that correspond with their award. For example, Mr Lam Nguyen BM or Ms Jane Smith SC. 

You may also be invited to attend an investiture ceremony at the Government House in your home state or territory where you will receive personalised insignia. Investiture dates vary in each state and territory.

You do not need to be an Australian citizen to receive a bravery award, however approval of any award to a foreign citizen (including permanent residents) requires permission from the person’s home country.

If you have indicated you are not an Australian citizen on your sounding form, the Secretariat will contact you to advise next steps.

Whether or not a person is alive at the time an offer is made does not affect their eligibility to receive an award. In the event the person written to or about has passed away, a posthumous award will be offered to that person’s next-of-kin to accept on their behalf.

If the letter is addressed to the person who has passed away, please contact the Secretariat via acceptances@gg.gov.au to arrange for an alternative offer of acceptance form to be provided to the next-of-kin.

If the letter is addressed to you, with an offer of acceptance for someone who has passed away and you are not their next-of-kin, you can forward the request on to the next-of-kin and contact the Secretariat via acceptances@gg.gov.au or by calling 02 6283 3604.

If the letter is addressed to you, with an offer of acceptance for someone who has passed away and you are the person’s next-of-kin, please follow the steps in the sounding form. The form will ask you to fill in both their details and your own.

Should an award be approved by the Governor-General, the next-of-kin may be invited to attend an investiture to accept the insignia of the recipient’s award.

Yes.

You may find some of the information in the acceptance form may require amendment. For example, some dates or details may be missing or inaccurate.   If this is the case, please amend them before submitting the acceptance form.

All changes will be considered, but not all changes may be accepted, and any changes that do not comply with standard formatting will be edited for compliance.

Yes. If, after you have submitted this form, you have further proposed corrections, including to the citation or media notes, you can email these to the Australian Honours and Awards Secretariat at acceptances@gg.gov.au.  However, it is important to note that not all changes may be possible and if the request is received late in the process, any corrections may not be made on the Governor-General's website until after publication of the proposed award. 

A citation is a brief description of the reason that a person has received an award and is published when awards are announced.

Australian Bravery Decoration citations usually describe in one sentence the circumstances in which a brave act occurred.

If you wish to propose changes to the citation, please make a suggestion in your acceptance form or through writing to acceptances@gg.gov.au .

Should the Governor-General approve the proposed award, the details you provide in this section are shared with the media (under embargo) days prior to the announcement of the award.  Police and military personnel are generally not asked to provide their personal contact information to the media.

The media receives the recipient’s name, home state, citation, and service details as provided in the acceptance form. You can also choose to share more information, including a suburb, postcode and telephone number.

If you have consented to the release of your information to the media, they may contact you prior to the announcement of the award in order to interview you.  You can speak to the media at that time as any announcement of the award is under embargo until the day of announcement. 

If you do not wish to be contacted, please advise the Secretariat when you return your form and your contact details will be withheld from the honours list distributed to media outlets.

The media receives the recipient’s name, home state, citation, and incident details as provided in the acceptance form. You can also choose to share more information, including a suburb, postcode and telephone number. Police and military personnel will not be asked to provide their personal contact information to the media.

The Government House in your home state or territory will receive your name, postal address, phone number, email address and citation of the award for the purpose of inviting you to a formal investiture ceremony.

The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, your Premier/Chief Minister and, if requested,  elected members of federal, state and territory parliaments will receive your name, postal address and citation for congratulatory purposes.

The Australian Bravery Association will receive your name, postal address and citation of the award.  They are a separate organisation to this Office and may contact you for congratulatory purposes or to provide information about the association.

If you do not wish your details to be provided to any one (or all) of these, please contact us via acceptances@gg.gov.au

Personal information is collected and stored for the purpose of maintaining a register of honours recipients, which includes the Australian Honours Database.  Please refer to the privacy statement here.

Unless you indicate otherwise to us, you may also be contacted by other areas of Government House, Canberra, in relation to the Governor-General’s program of events or functions, unrelated to your award.