“Recipients come from right across the country and from all walks of life. While some well-known people receive awards, many more are known only to those they help and serve day-in-day-out. All recipients are worthy of recognition and celebration.” – from the Governor-General’s home page, Australian Honours and Awards section.

Our Awards system allows anyone to nominate a person for an Award.  During the past couple of years, there will have been many people who are worthy of nomination.  For example, health workers, firefighters, state emergency members, all of whom have been stretched to the limit.  Evident so in the past few months, with serious flooding across most of the eastern states.  I believe many of these people are worthy of an award and it is in your hands to nominate those who are deserving of recognition in your community. 

I am worried about one feature of the Awards and it is that the higher Awards – AC, AO and AM – are sometimes given to senior business leaders for running companies for which they are well paid. Of course, some of them are philanthropic by nature and give generously to deserving causes.

During the period of the Imperial Honours and Awards (wound up by 1994), in the early 1970s, a well-known Chairman’s company donated $50,000 to the Premier Sir Robert Askin’s Liberal Party (NSW) and in the following Awards, this Chairman was honoured with a Knighthood. 

Unlike common practices now and then, I declined to have my company* donate to any political party, as I did not feel justified in handing over shareholders’ money – and not knowing how the shareholders would vote anyway.

* Paul Simons is former Woolworths Executive Chairman.