Australia drops knights and dames from honours system

Australia will no longer include knights and dames titles in its honours system, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has announced.

The move comes less than a year after his predecessor, Tony Abbott, a staunch monarchist, caused a stir by awarding a knighthood to the Queen's husband, Prince Philip.

Australia introduced knighthoods and damehoods in 1976, but dropped them a decade later. Abbott then brought them back in 2014 to a great deal of criticism.

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Now, Turnbull – a known republican who led the unsuccessful 1999 national referendum to abandon the monarchy – has decided to put an end to the knights and dames titles, which he says are "not appropriate in our modern honours system".

He told ABC News: "This reflects modern Australia. Knights and dames are titles that are really anachronistic, they're out of date, not appropriate in 2015 in Australia."

The change has been welcomed by the opposition, with Australia's Labour Party shadow treasurer Chris Bowen saying that the country should not be "clinging onto imperial Britain through our honours system".

Even so, he added, "we shouldn't be celebrating the fact that knights and dames are gone, we should be lamenting the fact that they came back under this government". Since its 2014 reinstatement, five people have been awarded the honour: Prince Philip, former New South Wales governor Marie Bashir, former governor-general Peter Cosgrove, former governor-general Quentin Bryce and former Defence Force chief Angus Houston.

A poll taken by the Australian National University shows that 58 per cent of Australians disapprove of the titles. At the same time, the poll also found a steady increase in approval ratings for the monarchy and the royal family. That should still be good news for the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall, who will visit to Australia and New Zealand next week.