Sirs and Dames not legal?

Quentin Bryce in the SMH

Oh dear, perhaps conferring Imperial Honours on the outgoing and incoming Governor Generals in Australia was not legal?

The picture the Sydney Morning Herald used to illustrate this breaking news shows a laughing outgoing Governor General Quentin Bryce, which says it all really. There was talk that Prime Minister Abbott had shafted the popular and charming Bryce by nominating her as Dame (an honour she could not refuse without getting into a dog fight with Abbott)  because her son-in-law is current leader of the opposition and she herself is a republican. She accepted the honour but said she wouldn't use it. Now we find it may not be hers to use!


In the meantime, here is a little video that shows Australia's reaction to the Sirs and Dames issue.

Dames and Sirs in Australia

Living in Australia is becoming more and more surreal. One day the Attorney General says he is changing the racial vilification laws because it is okay to be a bigot in Australia and the next day Prime Minister Tony Abbott tells us he is bringing back Imperial Honours.

There's nothing like a Dame

I wonder if Abbott expected the mirth that has engulfed the twitter-sphere? He is being ridiculed as too clever by half. Some are saying our outgoing Governor General (was she too popular?) was made a Dame to put her in a bind because she came out as a republican and her son-in-law is Leader of the Opposition.

Current Government policy does all seem to be based on  pay back.  The racial vilification laws were changed because of the Andrew Bolt saga :

"Andrew Bolt was found to have committed an offence under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. ...  Bolt had not breached the Act because he had written critically about the question of racial identification. He had breached the Act because his articles were filled with “errors of fact, distortions of the truth and inflammatory and provocative language”. (From The Monthly)

Now the interweb is alight with suggestions of who might be a dame or a sir and many have already preempted the honours list and added the title to their twitter-verse names.