The Australian
states and the
Commonwealth of Australia originally used the Imperial honours system, also known as the
British honours system. The creation in 1975 of the Australian honours and awards system saw Australian recommendations for the Imperial awards decline, with the last awards being gazetted in 1989. The Commonwealth of Australia ceased making recommendations for Imperial awards in 1983, with the last Queen's Birthday
Australian Honours list submitted by
Queensland and
Tasmania in 1989. The Queen continued to confer honours upon Australians
that emanate from her personally such as the
Royal Victorian Order. Only a handful of peerages and baronetcies were created for Australians. Some were in recognition of public services rendered in Britain rather than Australia. Hereditary peerages and baronetcies derive from Britain. There have never been Australian peerages or baronetcies created under the Australian Crown. Individual Australian states, as well the Commonwealth government, were full participants in the Imperial honours system. Originally there was bipartisan support, but
Australian Labor Party (ALP) governments, both national and state, ceased making recommendations for Imperial awards – in particular, appointments to the
Order of the British Empire mainly after 1972. During the Second World War, the Governor-General, on the advice of wartime Labor governments, made recommendations for gallantry awards, including eleven for the
Victoria Cross. Appointments to the Order of the British Empire were for officers and men engaged in operational areas. In 1975, the
ALP (which had been out of power federally from 1949 until 1972) created the Australian honours and awards system. Recommendations were processed centrally, but state governors still had the power, on the advice of their governments, to submit recommendations for Imperial awards. From 1975 until 1983, the
Liberal Party was in power federally, under
Malcolm Fraser and, although it retained the Australian Honours and Awards System, it reintroduced recommendations for meritorious Imperial awards, but not for Imperial awards for gallantry, bravery or distinguished service. Recommendations for Imperial awards by the federal government ceased with the election of the
Hawke Labor government in 1983. In 1989, the last two states to make Imperial recommendations were Queensland and Tasmania. The defeat of both governments at the polls that year marked the end of Australian recommendations for Imperial awards. Following the UK New Year Honours List in 1990, which contained no Australian nominations for British honours, the Queen's Private Secretary, Sir
William Heseltine, wrote to the Governor-General, saying "this seems a good moment to consider whether the time has not arrived for Australia, like Canada, to honour its citizens exclusively within its own system". There followed more than two years of negotiations with state governments before the Prime Minister,
Paul Keating, made the announcement on 5 October 1992 that Australia would make no further recommendations for British honours. The Australian Order of Wear states that "all imperial British awards made to Australian citizens after 5 October 1992 are foreign awards and should be worn accordingly". The Australian honours and awards system has faced various criticisms over the years. Most criticisms however are to do with who receives honours and awards, reflecting comments such as those made by Nicholas Gruen, where he said the honours and awards system had "far too much to do with how much status you've already got ... [It's about] seniority, power, privilege and patronage... [with] systematic selection in favour of people who just do their job, rather than go out of their way to do something selfless". Controversy attended these awards in 2021 when former tennis player
Margaret Court received the Companion of the Order of Australia. Court is known for her homophobic and transphobic views, and GP Clara Tuck Meng Soo, journalist
Kerry O'Brien, and artist Peter Kingston have rejected or returned their awards in protest. ==Nominating or applying for awards==