It is hard to fathom what the Prime Minister was thinking when he decided to award Prince Philip an Australian knighthood. If this ever was a good idea, Australia Day wasn't the time. A Queen's Birthday honour maybe, but not Australia Day. I don't like the reintroduction of Dames and Knights in any event. but giving Prince Philip this award on Australia Day just refreshed our memories of our colonial past on a day in which we are meant to be celebrating the nation we are today and want to be in the future.

There are plenty of ardent republicans like me who have great admiration, respect and affection for our monarch. I can't think of a woman in my lifetime who would serve as a better example of putting honour, duty and responsibility ahead of self. But the overwhelmingly negative reaction to Prince Philip's knighthood shows that the admiration, respect and affection of Australians is very much focused on the Queen's life of service and does not go beyond that. John Howard's call after the 1999 republican referendum for "intergenerational tolerance" alludes to the view that no change will be made until the death or abdication of our current monarch.

Illustration: Jim Pavlidis Credit:Jim Pavlidis

The brouhaha over the Prince Philip appointment shows how far the Australian psyche has moved in the past 15 years. That so many people are annoyed indicates a growing gap between who we see ourselves as being today and our past.

I suspect the appointment was intended as a thoughtful gesture of goodwill. Sadly, it has shown that the nation doesn't have much, other than for the Queen. What our Queen and her consort have been treated to, compliments of the Prime Minister, is days and days of media coverage both here and Britain highlighting just that point. The media coverage has made a joke not just of the appointment but of the appointee. The PM has caused embarrassment to his own Queen. No one, especially a monarchist such as Tony Abbott, would ever have intended that.