I missed out again on the Honours List...How did you go?

I’m going to nominate that Jeff guy from the 1971 floods.

I don’t like seeing sportspeople, business people, public servants and politicians getting these sort of awards. I think it devalues the awards. I think they should be reserved for people doing voluntary works for the community or for the types I mentioned above, only when they do things that are exceptional and well above and beyond the call of duty – which they have been already rewarded for (either paid to do their job, or an Olympic medal, Oscar etc).

My guess is they are probably nominated by the Australian Olympic Committee.

And you are right, it is not as simple as ticking a few boxes. The nomination I submitted for someone (a few years ago) took almost a whole thirty minutes to complete.

She got her OAM about 18 months later.

How about nondescripts that have run soup kitchens for 20 years? Or tireless volunteer charity workers? The reason these people do not recieve gongs for their service to the country is that they are not in the media and therefore no-one knows about them.

The vast majority of the recipients are these type of people. There were 405 OAM’s awarded on Australia Day. About 15 went to the Olympic Gold medalists. The rest went to a wide variety of people for all different types of service.

As far as I am aware there is no quota or cut-off for the amount of awards so the Olympians are not taking awards from anyone else.

Anyone can nominate someoone for an award, if you know someone who you feel deserves to be recognised, you can nominate them.

Wow, that’s so cool!

: )

I was Canberran of the Year and I didn’t even know!! I wonder if I can stick that in my resume!

I’m actually glad I didn’t miss this year’s one. The lady who was speaking at Bungendore was the voice of Blinky Bill. She was actually outstanding – really inspiring!

Granny the Canberran of the Year, etc, is held in conjunction with Canberra Day celebrations, so you haven’t missed out on it for this year. In 2003 everyone who lived here was Canberran of the Year for being jolly good sports about that bushfire thingy.

Ok, that’s great, caf! Thanks!!

I genuinely didn’t know this existed, though. I know it could just be me who didn’t know about it, because I really do live under a bit of a rock, but I really quite enjoyed the NSW ones and would probably turn up to the Canberra version in the future if I knew something was on.

Do you think maybe you could post it up as an event next year? I would like to go along and support it.

Granny, this here is the page at the Chief Minister’s Department web site about the “Canberra Citizen of the Year” award, including a link to past winners and a nomination form.

And I would actually nominate somebody like Jonathon Reynolds who has been working so hard for the community for so many years without any official recognition or reward.

Yes, well I’m seriously considering raising it actually. I thought it was a really nice thing to do. Are you listening Gungahlin Al?

; )

Granny said :

But they actually had an award for the ‘Bungendore citizen of the year and the ‘Braidwood citizen of the year’. Isn’t that a bit different? It seemed kind of local and community building.

Well the GCC is free to name its own citizens of the year, for what it’s worth.

belray said :

. I notced with dismay, that all gold medal olymipans and paralympians received an OAM. Congratulations to them, but I can’t help wondering if this has set a precedent. Will all future gold medallists receive an OAM regardless of previous acts or community standing? …….their reward is an Olympic gold medal if they are worthy. My opinion may be different if the recipients were multi-olympic multi-medallists.

The precedent was set on Australia Day 1985 when all Gold Medal winners from the 1984 games got an OAM. Since then it has happened on every Australia Day immediately after an Olympic games.

The reasoning is that an Olympic Medal is awarded by the IOC, not by Australia or it’s people. The OAM is a “thank-you” from Australia.

But they actually had an award for the ‘Bungendore citizen of the year and the ‘Braidwood citizen of the year’. Isn’t that a bit different? It seemed kind of local and community building.

Nope – no gongs for me! Swap you nomination forms year JB 🙂

Er…

ACT Nominees for Australian of the Year?

If you missed that you’ve been living under a rock.

At the ceremonies I went to at Bungendore and Braidwood they had local awards for the citizen of the year, the young citizen of the year and the event of the year. Do we have anything like that in Canberra?

If so, I’ve never heard of it.

So what criteria would you riotacters use? We’ve ruled out awards for awards (eg olymmpians) and awards for doing the job you were paid to do (eg politicians and public servants). By implication we rule out anyone paid to do what they did – eg musicians and writers who aren’t dirt poor – we are left with volunteers and unsung heroes, but then they wouldn’t be unsung any more.

I notced with dismay, that all gold medal olymipans and paralympians received an OAM. Congratulations to them, but I can’t help wondering if this has set a precedent. Will all future gold medallists receive an OAM regardless of previous acts or community standing?

Two medals for the price of one!

It’s been more or less standard practice for a while I believe, same for the Commonwealth Games gold medal winners.

I think if it was supposed to be Kimmy’s job, he would have got it in one of those many trys that he had.

The only issue I have with the Awards is when people like Kim Beasley get an award for doing their job.

Public Servants and Politicians shouldn’t be given an award for doing a job that they are financially rewarded for. They should only be awarded Public Service Medal etc.

In Kim’s case, his award, was Kevin’s way of saying, “sorry mate I took your job”.

So Stephanie Rice gets a gong for shagging some Yank?

Congratulations to all who received Australia day honours.

As to singling out athletes as underserving of more awards, does this put them into the same category of some other recipients, who were rewarded for just doing their jobs?

I agrees with Belray et al… Winning an award for winning an award just seems ridiculous. Atheletes that win gold medals already receive significant attention and kudos due to their winning performance and it shouod not be a trigger for automatically receiving another award. This has also occured in previous years though and is unlikley to change.

With this logic, you would have to think that our most recent Victoria Cross awardee should also receive an Australia Day honour.

That said, to all the unsung hero’s out there that were recognised – You Done Good, Well Done and Thanks! To all the unsung hero’s out there that weren’t recognised this time round – Nevermind, Well Done and Thanks!

Props to the magnificent Ian McLean, who seems to be the only artist on the list, but is certainly worthy of the honour.

Or dwarf tossers?

I have to say, belray, that when I saw the news yesterday I had the same thought.

I didn’t get a gong, which is not surprising because I really haven’t done anything special. This brings me to the list. I notced with dismay, that all gold medal olymipans and paralympians received an OAM. Congratulations to them, but I can’t help wondering if this has set a precedent. Will all future gold medallists receive an OAM regardless of previous acts or community standing? Many of the other recipients on the list received well overdue recognition for a lifetime of achievement or devotion, so how does an olympian fall into that category? Granted, they have to devote their life (maybe 10 of their 22 years)to a sport – their reward is an Olympic gold medal if they are worthy. My opinion may be different if the recipients were multi-olympic multi-medallists.

Like I said, congratulations to the recipients in any case. Since I know how some posters on this forum like to vigourously jump on an opinion that differs from theirs, I am not attempting to belittle their achievement, this is just an observation.