The Australia Day 2021 Honours List was distributed under embargo last week. Between then, and yesterday’s announcement, celebrated veteran journalist and former ABC current affairs host, Kerry O’Brien advised the Secretary of the Order of Australia that he would declined his appointment as an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO).
It was a kind of double shock. O’Brien’s stance was in protest at the ‘deeply insensitive and divisive decision’ to give the country’s highest award to former tennis player Margaret Court.
