Australia’s Covid honours farce

Whatever one thinks of all that happened in the Covid years, and how the experience scarified so many and even compelled us to question the solidity of democratic institutions and values throughout the West, most of us simply want to forget. The Covid time is like a relationship gone bad: it’s easier to cope by burying it it and moving on. In Australia this week, however, unpleasant reminders of the dark Covid time resurfaced in an unexpected place: the national King’s Birthday honours list.

Since dispensing with imperial honours several decades ago, the highest civilian honour here is to be appointed by the King as a Companion of the Order of Australia. It’s an award that is given, according to its official criteria, for ‘eminent achievement and merit of the highest degree in service to Australia or humanity at large.’ Typical recipients are top medical researchers, judges, philanthropists and the greatest of Australia’s great and good.