Guidance for award recipients

This guidance outlines the steps that recipients need to complete to accept an award.

Accepting an Honour - what you need to know

Award recipients receive an email or letter from the Official Secretary to the Governor-General and Secretary of the Order of Australia to inform them that they are being recommended for an award within the Australian honours system. 

Next steps for a recipient:

  1. Complete both the Acceptance and Privacy/Release of Information Forms and return to honours@gg.gov.au by the date indicated.
  2. Carefully check the information is correct. If changes are required, ensure that they can be clearly identified. It is important that all changes made can be clearly identified. Note that 'the service includes' section is a summary only and is not intended to be a full history of your service.  There is no guarantee that any additional information you provide, other than corrections, will be included. 
  3. Complete the 'Release of Information Form'. If you do not wish for information to be released, advise the Honours and Awards Secretariat in writing. Should the Governor-General approve your proposed award, the information you have agreed to provide will be released.
  4. Keep the award confidential. Recipients should not tell anyone that they are being recognised until the proposed award is announced publicly.
  5. Approximately ten days prior to the announcement of the honours list information about award recipients and their service is released to the media. This material is under embargo and cannot be published until the date of the honours list announcement. Upon receipt of the honours material, the media may contact recipients who have provided telephone details about their impending award announcement. 

Please note:

The information you provide is not intended for use for anything other than the stated purpose.  Government House cannot guarantee how the information may be used once released to media organisations.  We do request that the media not publish recipient’s phone details or use them for any other purpose.  You should be aware, however, that Government House cannot guarantee the restricted use once released to the media