Frequently asked questions - the Order of Australia

Yes. Anyone can nominate someone for recognition in the Order of Australia - learn more about how to nominate someone. 

You do not need to know the person you wish to nominate or know every detail about them. It is helpful to share as much as you can about the person you are nominating to help with the research process.

To be eligible, a nominated person must be:

• alive at the time their nomination is received by the Secretariat; and
• an Australian citizen or permanent resident.

A person who has received recognition in the Order of Australia will generally not be considered for a further award until five years have passed since the announcement of their previous award or appointment. Generally, someone who has been nominated and unsuccessful will be subject to a five-year waiting period before another nomination can be considered.

A deceased person cannot be nominated for recognition through the Order of Australia. However, a deceased person can be recognised if they were nominated while they were alive. Any person with an active nomination who passes away is still considered for an award.

Where an award is recommended for someone who has died, the nominated person’s next-of-kin is contacted and asked whether they wish to accept an award on their behalf.

If an award is accepted and approved, it has effect from the date the nomination was made until the date the person died. The Order of Australia is a society of living persons, with membership ending when a person dies, so this arrangement keeps posthumous awards consistent with the Order’s governing documents.

Foreign citizens and permanent residents may be eligible for an honorary appointment or award.  Information contained in nominations for foreign citizens without permanent residency in Australia, received by the Australian Honours and Awards Secretariat, will be forwarded to the Honours and Symbols Section of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) for consideration towards an honorary award or appointment.   This information includes the name and contact details for the nominator, nominee and referees supplied, along with other details on the form.   For privacy reasons, no details of, or from, referees, apart from their name and contact details will be forwarded to PM&C.

Permanent residents are considered by the Council for the Order of Australia for an honorary award or appointment.  Approval of any appointment or award to a foreign citizen or permanent resident may require permission from the person’s home country.  If that is the case only the nominee’s name, service information provided by the nominator and contact details of the nominee is provided.

Order of Australia nominations can be submitted at any time.

Visit this page to learn more about nominating.

To nominate someone, you will need to provide:

• Your name and contact email/address
• The nominee’s name and contact email/address
• A brief description of the nominee’s roles and contributions
• Any dates of service you are aware of; and
• The names and contact details of up to four referees who can comment on the nomination.

It is not necessary to state what level of award you believe the nomination should result in.

Referees could range from peers and people that know the person you are nominating to representatives of organisations where the person has worked or volunteered and industry experts.

It is preferable that you do not approach the referees you’re providing or obtain comment from them before submitting the nomination.

All or some of them will be contacted to provide comment in relation to the nomination directly by a case officer.

The Order of Australia is merit based.

This means that ultimately each person nominated is considered on their merits rather than the quality of the information in the nomination form.

When completing the nomination form you should try and include as much information as you can. Facts and verifiable dates assist case officers when they are researching a nomination.

You can save the form and come back to it if you need to check something but if you don’t know you can also leave a field empty or indicate you are not sure of exact details. For example, you could write ‘I know <the person I’m nominating> volunteered with <organisation> but I’m not 100 per cent sure on when they started. I think it has been around <y> years.’

After you nominate someone you will receive an acknowledgement that the nomination has been received.

Nominations are then researched before being provided to the Council for the Order of Australia for consideration.

If the Council intends to recommend an award or appointment to the Governor-General, the individual is contacted to confirm that they would accept the award or appointment.

The Council’s recommendations are provided to the Governor-General who announces two Honours lists a year – on Australia Day and The King’s Birthday long weekend.

At the end of the process the nominator is advised that the process has been completed and if the nomination is successful it may appear in the next honours list.

Thousands of nominations are processed each year. Given the volume of nominations and the depth of research that goes into each one, nominations generally take up to 24 months to complete. Some nominations will take longer should the Council for the Order of Australia elect to defer making a decision to seek additional information.

Priority is given to some nominations in exceptional circumstances, such as grave illness. If you think exceptional circumstances apply to a nomination, please contact us so that timely action can be taken.

At the end of the process the nominator is advised that the process has been completed and if the nomination is successful it may appear in the next honours list.

Nomination research traditionally begins with identifying key areas where the nominee has held roles or made contributions. A case officer will use a number of online tools, from basic searches to media and other databases, to add details to the nomination.

The case officer will then identify possible independent referees that have not been provided with the nomination. These independent referees might include leaders of organisations where the nominee has worked or volunteered, industry experts, community figures and existing award recipients with similar backgrounds. Once a substantial list of referees (both those supplied with the nomination and identified through research), has been established, they are approached for their views.

These views are compiled into a final nomination document containing the original nominator’s statement and any additional information sourced by the Secretariat, and then presented to the Council for the Order of Australia for consideration.

The Council for the Order of Australia makes recommendations to the Governor-General on awards and appointments within the General Division of the Order of Australia.

In all matters relating to the General Division of the Order of Australia, the Governor-General acts on the recommendations of the Council.

The basic structure of the Council is determined by the Constitution of the Order of Australia, found here. The current members of the Council can be found here.

The nineteen members of the Council usually meet twice per year, approximately five months ahead of the two honours list announcements.

The Council only has authority to make recommendations about the Order of Australia. The Australian of the Year is a different awards program, run by the National Australia Day Council.

The Council, individually and collectively, considers each nomination – including the research that has been undertaken, the original nomination form information and the comments of referees.

The Council meets (usually) twice a year, to discuss each nomination.

The Council must reach a consensus on every nomination it considers. This means the members must decide to either recommend an award, recommend no award, or defer consideration to a later date.

If a nomination is deferred the additional information the Council requires is sought and the updated nomination is submitted at a future meeting.

The Council refers to the following to help determine what level of award or appointment to recommend:

Companions (AC) - appointed for eminent achievement and merit of the highest degree in service to Australia or to humanity at large.

Officers (AO) - appointed for distinguished service of a high degree to Australia or to humanity at large.

Members (AM) - appointed for service in a particular locality or field of activity or to a particular group.

Medals (OAM) are awarded for service worthy of particular recognition.

The number appointments each calendar year is also limited. The current limits are:

• 35 Companions
• 140 Officers
• 605 Members

There is no limit on the number of Medals which may be awarded each year.

Prior to the Council recommending an award to the Governor-General, a letter is sent asking whether the nominee would accept an award if one were to be approved. This is called the sounding process.

Once the Governor-General has considered and approved those recommended for an award, congratulatory letters are sent to successful recipients. At the end of the process the nominator is advised that the process has been completed and if the nomination is successful it may appear in the next honours list.

Recipients may then be invited to attend an investiture ceremony at their state or territory’s Government House to receive the insignia of their award.

Not every nomination will result in an award. Importantly, this doesn’t mean an individual hasn’t made a positive contribution to their community.

Some unsuccessful nominations may not be considered to have met the benchmarks the Council uses to assess the merits of a nomination. Other factors that may influence a nomination’s success include:

• The level of support or endorsement provided by referees, who may have been supplied with the nominations or approached independently by the Secretariat during nomination research
• The length of time someone has been making their contributions
• If the research has been unable to validate the service; or
• Possible findings against the person nominated identified at the time the nomination is researched.

Individual feedback is not provided as the deliberations are confidential.

As a rule, the Council for the Order of Australia does not review unsuccessful nominations.

A person whose nomination has been unsuccessful may be considered by Council again after a period of five years has elapsed since the Council considered them last. This allows the person’s service to develop further and additional information to be presented as part of a further nomination.

Information contained in your nomination form are accessible to members of the Australian Honours and Awards Secretariat and the Council for the Order of Australia.

The nomination statement and other information provided by you assists the Council to help decide whether a nomination should result in an award and, if so, at what level.

If the person you are nominating is not an Australian citizen or permanent resident, the information contained in the nomination will be forwarded to the Honours and Symbols Section of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) for consideration as an honorary appointment or award in the Order of Australia.  For privacy reasons, no details of, or from, referees, apart from their name and contact details, will be forwarded to PM&C.

If you have any concerns about confidentiality or privacy of the information you wish to provide, please contact us. Please also refer to our privacy statement, which can be found here.