Australia dumps titles knights and dames from honors awards

The Cabinet agreed that “knights and dames are not appropriate in our modern honors system,” Turnbull said in a statement.

Good on Turnbull! Dames, knights, kings, queens, and all titled toffs (bought or not) are fine in fairy tales, cartoons and historical costume dramas, but there's no need for any of them in the 21st century, especially if public monies are needed to support them.

Australia dumps titles knights and dames from honors awards

rightly so... the fact that Abbott brought it back in indicated how far out of touch he was (and is)....

Without knights and dames, how can predidjice carry on?

I would have no objection at all to their being dubbed "blokes" and "sheilas".

In honour of the usual Australian form of address they could be referred to as "mates". Maybe First Mate, or Best Mate or with a pointer to history, "Cell Mate".

"knights and dames are not appropriate in our modern honors system"

In any modern honours system.

Except for most of the people who are awarded one.

Most love it, especially Americans like Bill Gates, Bob Hope, Steven Spielberg, Angelina Jolie, etc. There is huge history behind such ancient courtesy, and the world is sometimes the richer for it. Some people may choose to reject the quaint/quirky hono(u)r, but not many, I would guess. Tea with the Queen, anyone? :)

Strewth. I think these titles should be replaced with "Cobbers" and "Sheilas"