Knights and dames honors dumped under new Australian PM: report

What did Prince Phillip get an award for in the first place? For services to racist, sexist and generally insulting one-liners?

a decision to hold a plebiscite

In 2015 a plebiscite makes more sense than dames, knights, kings and their putative royal ilk. Seeing royals in comic books and costume movies is fine, but do people really take them seriously at a time when the income gap continues to widen and classes continue to be further separated as a result? Good on PM Turnbull!

services to racist, sexist and generally insulting one-liners?

It seems he has a natural talent for Australian humor.

Watch the flashing lights and glove puppets people. While Turnbull's gonna continue running Australia for the rich.

I'm sure the knighthood system is the only thing that keeps Australia and New Zealand tied to the outmoded British monarchy. The system is simply too valuable to most politicians. Knighthoods can be used to reward big donors to political parties (parties on both left and right do that), or as inducements to persuade senior politicians who've passed their use-by date to retire. For those who receive them, they represent a lifetime of free upgrades to first class and numerous offers to sit on corporate boards to add a touch of respectability with their magic "Sir" or "Dame" names.

I 'm also concerned by the number of judges and senior civil servants who receive knighthoods. These honors are nominally given by Elizabeth Windsor, but they are actually decided by the cabinet of the day, so there's potential for politicians to exercise undue influence.

Abbott's decision to give a knighthood to Philip Windsor will always be a mystery. It's hard to find anything to admire in a man who's never achieved anything apart from marrying very well.

Turnbull, 60, entered public life by spearheading a push for Australia to turn itself into a republic, chairing the Australian Republican Movement during a 1999 referendum on the monarchy. The movement was comfortably defeated.

I don't recall it being a 'comfortable' defeat at all.