Thursday, 11 March 2010

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Federal Member for Hume, Alby Schultz, says that the awarding of Australia’s highest civil honour to Indonesia’s President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono makes a mockery of Australia’s honours system.
“Within hours of arriving in Australia, the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudoyono, was at Yarralumla to receive the highest Australian civilian honour, the Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), from Governor General, Quentin Bryce, ‘for strengthening Australia-Indonesia relations, and promoting democracy and development in Indonesia’” Mr Schultz said.
“The awarding of this honour to the President really does trivialise Australia’s civilian honours system. It is outrageous that an award, Australia’s highest civilian award, can be given to a foreign leader whose contribution to Australia has been nothing more than diplomatic, and some may say that Indonesia’s main contribution to Australia, recently, has been a staging port for people smuggling.”
“I find this honour totally inappropriate and it sends the wrong message to the hundreds of ordinary Australians whose generous contributions to their chosen fields quite often get overlooked and receive little or no recognition, to see our highest award just handed out to a foreign dignitary purely for diplomatic reasons” Mr Schultz added.
“For four years, I have personally made no less than two separate representations in an effort to get the contributions of one of Australia’s most eminent breast cancer researchers recognised. This man has spent his lifetime searching for a cure for breast cancer yet these representations continually fall on deaf ears.”
“This is not an isolated case, there are countless numbers of Australians nominated by grateful fellow Australians for an Australian honour in recognition of the decades of personal commitment to their country and its citizens, yet there achievements remain at the back of the queue waiting for acknowledgement.”
“Some may call me cynical, but I sincerely believe that our honours system should be just that, ours, and its awards should not be trivialised at the political whim of the Government of the day or its representatives simply to please a foreign dignitary.”
“Who next? US President Barack Obama!” Mr Schultz concluded.