For under the second time within the Australian Honours historical past, extra ladies than males have been recognised on this yr’s Australia Day listing.
Key factors:
- Greater than 1,000 Australians have been recognised within the Australia Day 2024 honours listing
- Well-known TV presenters, docs and incapacity advocates are featured
- It is the second time in historical past extra ladies than males have been recognised
Governor-Normal David Hurley stated all recipients, together with these from the fields of science, group service and the humanities had made a profound contribution.
“Recipients come from all components of the nation. They’ve served and had an influence in nearly each area you’ll be able to think about. Their tales and backgrounds are various,” he stated.
“In my expertise most are humble and sometimes attempt to deflect consideration or reward – please benefit from the second as a result of your nation has determined that you simply deserve recognition.”
This yr 1,042 Australians are recipients of the nation’s highest honours, which incorporates 20 within the army division of the Order of Australia, 224 meritorious awards and 59 awards for distinguished and conspicuous service.
There are additionally 49 individuals who have been recognised for his or her contribution in assist of Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Father (Bob) Robert John Maguire AM RFD
Late social justice campaigner Father Robert John Maguire has been recognised as an Officer of the Order of Australia for his distinguished service to the group.
Greatest often called Father Bob, the Catholic priest and media character died in April final yr after a life devoted to standing up for the poor and marginalised.
Frank O’Connor, the director of the Father Bob Maguire Basis, stated it was “exhausting to know” how the late maverick priest would have responded to being awarded an AO.
“I believe he would have been pretty satisfied,” Mr O’Connor stated.
“Actually the muse and Father Bob’s household are completely delighted that his dedication to this type of work is continuous to be recognised.”
Father Bob was ordained in 1960 and spent near 40 years as a parish priest in Melbourne, leaving after a conflict with the church hierarchy over the necessary retirement age of 75 for monks.
He was allowed to stay a priest till age 77, retiring in 2012 after 50 years of service to the church.
Lorraine Ann Mazerolle AC
For eminent service to training, in her work as a criminologist, and for the event of evidence-based policing reforms, Lorraine Mazerolle has been a frontrunner in her area.
She has labored extensively in analysis, policing, criminology and authorized cures each in Australia and america.
Professor Mazerolle stated she was “honoured” to be a recipient of the Companion of the Order of Australia.
“It is a recognition of a life working in criminology,” she stated.
“This can be a actually vital award to me.”
When requested about her best achievements, Professor Mazerolle stated she was “proud” of her work researching partnerships in policing and her PHD college students.
David James Koch AM
David James Koch, higher often called “Kochie” by the general public, has been made a Member of the Order of Australia.
He has been recognised for his vital service to the media as a tv presenter, and to financial journalism.
Koch educated as an accountant earlier than starting his profession in journalism with a cadetship at The Australian adopted by a stint with BRW journal.
He continued working extensively in financial journalism, enterprise and gave commentary for a number of publications in relation to enterprise and finance.
He’s finest recognized for internet hosting Channel Seven’s morning program Dawn, which he did for 21 years.
In that point, he stated he’d completed greater than 5,300 exhibits, including as much as about 16,000 hours of reside tv.
Sandra Lee Sully AM
Sandra Sully is a recipient of the Member of the Order of Australia for her vital service to the media, to charitable organisations, and to the group.
Her journalism profession started within the mid-Eighties on the Seven Community in Brisbane.
After a stint at Prime in Canberra, she joined Community Ten’s Parliament Home bureau in 1989.
She has labored for Channel 10 for greater than three a long time as a newsreader and reporter for Ten Information First and The Late Information.
She was the primary Australian journalist to cowl the September 11 assaults, one of many first on the scene of the Thredbo landslide, and has interviewed former US Vice President Al Gore and Douglas Wooden, who was held hostage in Iraq earlier than he was rescued.
Sully has additionally starred on quite a few actuality and recreation TV exhibits together with The Masked Singer, I am a Superstar…Get Me Out of Right here! and Australia’s Brainiest.
Sully is a contributor to a number of charities.
She’s an Ambassador for Nationwide Adoption Consciousness, Ambassador for the NSW Crime Stoppers, Nationwide Ambassador for Do One thing and Co-Patron of Spinal Remedy.
Lilian Margaret Ries OAM
At 100 years previous, Lilian Ries is the oldest recipient of this yr’s honours.
Whereas most unwind of their 80’s, Ms Ries devoted her twilight years volunteering with sick youngsters and their households by means of the Ronald McDonald Home Charity.
“I used to say to my husband, once they promote within the paper for volunteers, I’ll be the primary one there, and I used to be the primary one there,” she stated.
“I used to be there for over 20 years simply serving to the households. It was nice.”
The nice grandmother of 12 stated she by no means anticipated to win an award.
“By no means on the earth did I believe I would get something like that.”
Fiona Melanie Wooden AO
In Western Australia, distinguished plastic-surgeon and 2005 Australian of the yr Fiona Wooden is receiving her second honours, this time as an Officer of The Order.
“It’s extraordinary to be recognised by one’s friends and the group on this means. It actually type of takes your breath away,” she stated.
“That is an award that isn’t only for me individually, it is for the entire of the staff and the prolonged staff and what we have been in a position to do over a protracted time period, so that is very particular.”
Ms Wooden’s “spray on pores and skin” expertise has been hailed as an “answered prayer” for burn victims.
Utilizing the world-first method, she managed to deal with 28 sufferers within the aftermath of the Bali Bombings and tremendously diminished their scarring.
Her work nonetheless helps burn victims a long time after its inception, however she says some instances by no means depart her.
“It is a part of what we do is having the empathy to truly step alongside that journey with the sufferers and their households and carers as nicely.”
David Arley Squirrell OAM
In 2008, when David Squirrell misplaced his medical registration as a result of his incapacity, he turned his focus to advocacy. Since then, he has labored in the direction of making varied public areas extra accessible.
He’s now the Vice-President of Deaf-Blind Australia and a passionate incapacity advocate.
Dr Squirrel is a recipient of the Medal of The Order Australia as a result of his work.
He stated there’s nonetheless plenty of work to be completed within the house, with forms creating barrier for many individuals with a incapacity.
“Bureaucrats sit in chairs, ticking bins, they do not have a look at the particular person. And each particular person is a person,” he stated.
“I consider we have to depart this world a greater place. To depart it a greater place, it’s important to perceive what’s unsuitable, and therefore the place you may make a distinction in order that different individuals’s lives could be enriched.”
Majida Abboud-Saab OAM
Majida Abboud-Saab was a founding employees member of the Particular Broadcasting Station earlier than it turned recognized throughout the nation as SBS.
She was one of many preliminary volunteers collaborating in a three-month experiment in 1975 to broadcast settlement data in minority languages.
“Not everybody had a telephone, however everybody had radio. Herein Australia, they’d be…hearken to data, settlement data in their very own language,” she stated.
Ms Saab went on to turn into the director of the SBS Arabic program, probably the most notable language program the general public broadcaster ran for a few years.
Her work introduced Australian information to the Arabic group within the nation which might have in any other case been inaccessible, in a time earlier than the web.
She stated being the recipient of the Medal of The Order of Australia makes her proud to be Australian.
“It means to me that Australia has come of age and maturity to recognise the significance of multiculturalism and multilingual contribution to the nation,” she stated.
Larissa Tahireh Giddings AO
Former Tasmanian premier Larissa Tahireh Giddings has been made an Officer of the Order of Australia for her distinguished to the individuals and Parliament of Tasmania and the group.
In 1996, when Ms Giddings was simply 23, she turned the youngest ladies elected to an Australian parliament earlier than finally changing into the state’s first feminine premier in 2010.
She stated she’s extremely humbled and excited to obtain the celebrated title.
“To be trustworthy, I”m extra thrilled for my Dad,” Ms Giddings stated.
“[He’s] not with is, however he was a person who beloved his medals, and had an Order of Australia medal himself. I understand how a lot that meant to him, and simply how proud he can be right this moment to know that his daughter has [also] been supplied with receiving this nice honour.”
Invoice Henson AO
Australian artist Invoice Henson has been recognised for his distinguished service to visible arts and the promotion of Australian tradition.
Henson, whose profession started within the Nineteen Seventies, is without doubt one of the nation’s most distinguished photographers and his works are held in galleries round Australia and the world.
Through the years his work has sparked controversy. In 2008, one in all his exhibitions was closed and his photos depicting nude little one fashions had been seized by police.
Reflecting on a profession that has seen highs and lows, Henson stated it had been fascinating to see how completely different individuals reply to his work relying on the time in historical past and their location.
Humbled by being made an Officer of the Order of Australia, Henson stated he was happy to see the visible arts recognised and that it raises the profile of artists who typically work quietly on their very own.
“It displays the significance with which arts are regarded by different components of our group,” he stated.
“It unites individuals in a really profound means, artwork. And it is not all the time a loud bang and it is not all the time hit and run … it hits you within the face after which it is over however there is a a lot deeper and longer lasting impact that the humanities have.”
Sophie Jessica Trevitt AM
Social justice advocate and solicitor Sophie Trevitt spent years preventing to maintain First Nations youngsters out of the prison justice system, work she continued regardless of a mind tumour analysis.
The Canberran former govt director of Change the Document and ACT co-chair of Australian Legal professionals for Human Rights died on 27 July 2023 on the age of 32, however not earlier than forsaking an unbelievable legacy.
A few of her notable achievements embrace spearheading the marketing campaign to lift the age of prison duty, creating exclusion zones round abortion clinics within the ACT, and the banning of spit hoods within the ACT.
“She simply had this tenacity and stubbornness, pigheadedness you would possibly say, when she noticed one thing unsuitable – after which she fought to vary it,” Ms Trevitt’s accomplice on the time of her dying, Tom Swann, stated.
“Even when she was sick, she stored preventing for what she believed in.
He stated Ms Trevitt can be “honoured” to be recognised as a Member of the Order of Australia however “would solely actually need the eye to be on the work she was doing to maintain children out of jail and combat for justice, particularly for Aboriginal Australians.”
Bettina Danganbarr AM
Yolgnu lady Bettina Danganbarr, from Galiwin’ku in east Arnhem Land, is being recognised for her work as an Aboriginal group police officer.
She has been pivotal in bridging Yolgnu and balanda (non-indigenous) methods of life, and dealing with NT Police to create culturally acceptable assist and responses to battle.
“I get to share our tradition, our information, our language, with different fellow officers, and get to show them how one can method our individuals,” she stated.
“It is helped restore among the fractured relationships between Aboriginal communities within the Territory, and the Police.
She’s additionally a fierce advocate for girls’s rights, and was instrumental within the creation of a ladies’s shelter in Galiwin’ku for victims of Home and Household violence. It is one thing she stated is her proudest achievement.
Being made a Member of the Order of Australia serves as motivation for Ms Danganbarr.
“To be recognised, it’s extremely empowering. Particularly coming from a small group, generally we wrestle. However these type of issues, they empower and encourage us to maintain going.”
