Amanda Vanstone, former Howard government Minister and its best-known republican, writes in the SMH that Howard was right to label the Prime Minister’s new knights and dames awards as “anachronistic”. She says she can “find none among her Liberal mates who think it is other than really weird” and goes on to write that Abbott indulged himself by flying solo and now is stuck with it. She concludes that “awards with fancy titles just don’t sit well with todays Australia”. Click on the link below to read all that she had to say. [“Why Tony Abbott’s royal finger on knights and dames is wrong” by Amanda Vanstone, Sydney Morning Herald, 31 March 2014]
Woman for an Australian Republic, Adelaide Ironside, republican poet and artist 1831-1867
Self portrait 1855, Newcastle Art Gallery NSW
