George Brandis.
Attorney-General George Brandis. Photo: Andrew Meares







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Attorney-General George Brandis has been criticised for
personally involving himself in the impartial selection process for
awarding Australian honours, allegedly using an honorary position to
back nominees seen as Coalition-friendly.



But it is a charge the government has rejected as baseless.



The highly confidential 18-member Council for the Order of
Australia, which operates with a similar secrecy rule to cabinet, met
last week for two days to consider hundreds of recommendations for the
coveted range of Australian honours. The results of its discussions will
be named in this year's Queen's Birthday honours list.





According to a source close to the committee, and who spoke
on the condition of anonymity, committee members were surprised when the
Attorney-General took literally his ''ex-officio'' membership and chose
to attend in person and to engage in active discussion of individual
award recommendations. Mr Brandis attended on the first day of the
council's twice-yearly meeting and then had another representative
attend on the second day, parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister,
Josh Frydenberg.