After the knighthood for the New Zealand Governor-General, we are delighted to learn that a knighthood has been awarded for an important person at Government House Canberra.No we are not to address Her Excellency as Dame Quentin Bryce….yet. Her Excellency’s Official Secretary Stephen Brady has been made a Knight Commander of the Order of Orange-Nassau.
This has been made in recognition of his “outstanding services to the bilateral relationship” when he was Ambassador. During this time the armies of the two countries were in close co-operation in the Afghanistan province of Oruzgan.
…Calm down republicans – it's a foreign order…
Although this is the equivalent of the Order of the British Empire, republicans can calm down. This is a Dutch order, not a British or Australian order. You see under the curious thinking of Australian republicans, foreign orders are perfectly alright. it is the home grown version which is anathema.
The Order of Orange-Nassau has two divisions, civil and military. It was established in 1892 by The Queen Regent Emma of the Netherlands, Regent for her young daughter Queen Wilhelmina. This was to fill in a gap when a Luxembourg order, the Order of the Oak Crown, was no longer available. This occurred when the title of Grand Duke went to the nearest male on the death of King William III, who was also Grand Duke of Luxembourg. The Order of Orange –Nassau is named after the Dutch Royal House.
…no more politics, please….
Mr Brady is the only Australian to have been so awarded. The investiture will be in The Hague on 3 June, 2009.
We congratulate Mr. Brady on this award. We suspect that his colleagues will now address him as "Sir Stephen."
And as we have suggested here, we trust he is advising Her Excellency how the role and function of the office of Governor-General requires that the incumbent not enter the political arena.
We hope to hear no more predictions about Australia becoming a republic, and worse, how that is part of our democratic development.