Farewell Dame Marie

During the seven years when Knights and Dames of the Order of Australia were previously appointed, fourteen people received this honour. Despite the popular view that serving politicians monopolise the honours system, the biggest category of recipient can be termed "vice-regal" (three Governors-General plus former NSW Governor Sir Roden Cutler).

Three former politicians are represented in the list, but each was already a knight or dame before their appointment in the Order of Australia – Sir Robert Menzies in 1976 (ten years after he retired as PM), Dame Enid Lyons in 1980 (some 30 years after she had left parliament), and Sir Charles Court in 1982 (six months after his retirement as WA Premier).

Other appointees include two medicos (Nobel Laureate Sir Macfarlane Burnett and Sir Roy Wright), two industrialists (Sir Colin Syme and Sir Gordon Jackson) and an author (Dame Alexandra Hasluck).

As regards eligibility for appointment as Knight or Dame, the PM has borrowed the language from the 1976 Letters Patent– i.e. "extraordinaryand pre-eminent achievement and merit in service to Australia or to humanity at large..."

Dame Marie, the second longest serving Governor of NSW, is more than worthy of this special honour. She will enjoy a well-earned retirement when her successor General David Hurley takes office at the beginning of October.