Investiture Ceremony, Wednesday 10 September, 2pm

Representing the Leader of the Opposition, Member for Lytton, Ms Joan Pease MP; Archbishop of Brisbane, His Grace the Most Reverend Jeremy Greaves KCSJ; Chancellor of the University of Queensland, Mr Peter Varghese AO; Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Queensland, Professor Deborah Terry AC; representing the Chair of The Order of Australia Association, Queensland Branch, Ms Kate Copeland AM; Honours recipients, your family and friends; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen; boys and girls.

I begin by acknowledging the Original Custodians of the lands around Brisbane, the Turrbul and Jagera people, and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and to all First Nations people here today.

One of the great privileges and pleasures of my position as Governor of Queensland is to formally present medals of the Order of Australia to the Queenslanders acknowledged in the lists announced each year on Australia Day and the King’s Birthday, and I once again congratulate each of you on the honours you have received.

Investiture Ceremonies this year have been particularly special because 2025 marks the 50^th anniversary of the introduction of Australia’s unique system of honours and awards.

It had been possible for many years for Australians to be acknowledged by awards under the British imperial system, but our Prime Minister in the early 1970s was Gough Whitlam, and in addition to changing our national anthem and introducing other far-reaching changes, he felt strongly that Australia should have its own honours system.

By 1975, he had actually been advocating for Australia to have its own honours system for eight years, culminating in the presentation of a formal proposal to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second during a visit to Buckingham Palace in 1974. With the approval of Her Majesty secured, our very own ‘Society of Honour’ was formally announced on Australia Day 1975 and came into effect just three weeks later, with the announcement of the first recipients on the 14^th of February 1975.

There was no particular reason for the choice of Valentine’s Day for the launch, but the system, ever since, has enabled anyone to send what is effectively a ‘Secret Valentine’ to any other person by nominating them for an award, and I take this opportunity to encourage all of you, as recipients, to consider submitting a nomination for someone you know who deserves recognition for their contribution to Australia, to their field of endeavour, or to their community.

And you can be confident that your anonymity as a ‘Valentine’ is assured! When nominations are received by the Honours and Awards Secretariat in the Office of the Governor-General in Canberra, they are carefully and confidentially scrutinised before being considered by the Council for the Order of Australia.

That body is fully independent and has no fewer than 19 members including representatives of each state and territory. Equity and independence are central to its operation and help ensure that decisions are free of external influence, and that both the integrity of the system and international respect for the honours themselves is preserved.

There are now many other avenues through which exceptional Australians can be recognised, but the Order of Australia remains our pre-eminent means of recognising outstanding individuals of any age, cultural background or field of endeavour.

The former Governor-General, the Honourable David Hurley, summed up the importance and value of the honours when he said: "Collectively, they speak to who we are as a nation. There are countless examples of selflessness, commitment and dedication. There is diversity and there are examples of exceptional achievement in almost every field imaginable.”

The recipients here today are among almost 50,000 men and women who have now received honours under our system since 1975. Each of them has made a unique and important contribution to Australian society.

One of the most respected features of Australia’s unique system is that the honours of the Order of Australia can be awarded posthumously, and I thank the family of the late Dr Geoffrey Monteith for being here today, to accept this honour in his memory.

Today, we applaud the enormous collective effort of each recipient and the careers you followed with such passion and dedication, whether it be in the arts, medical research, or entomology; in engineering, education, literature or the law; in social justice, music education, or recreational fishing––every one of you has enriched Australian life, and today, I am honoured to thank you on behalf of a grateful state and nation.