This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The restoration of knights and dames in Australia was one of Tony Abbott’s “captain’s calls”. Now one of his mates has found a way to take some of the stuffiness out of the system – by suggesting the introduction of “matehoods”.

The Liberal MP for Bennelong, John Alexander, made something of a “backbencher’s call” when he expressed a preference for addressing recipients of the nation’s top honour with “g’day, mate”.

“It came about when the new honours were announced last year and I said to a couple of my colleagues ‘our highest honour should be a matehood and you should honour people by officially calling them ‘mate’ and the official greeting should be ‘g’day mate’,” he said.

Alexander, a former tennis great, lobbed the idea during an on-air chat with the 3AW radio host Neil Mitchell on Tuesday. Alexander explained that he wanted to honour some elderly locals whose attendance at community events in his Sydney electorate was faultless.

“So we decided to award them ‘Mates of Bennelong’,” he said.

“When Tony came by yesterday the official little certificate was given to them, so they’re officially ‘Mates of Bennelong’ and the official greeting is ‘g’day mate’. That’s what we’ve done.”

Alexander thought the idea was ace, but will it take hold across the nation? It seems the ball is now in the prime minister’s court.

“I’m not sure whether we couldn’t modify our knighthoods and while that might be the official title that people are knighted and made dames but commonly they should be referred to as ‘mates’,” Alexander mused.

“I think Prince Philip would get a big kick out of that if, when he came to Australia, the official greeting was ‘g’day mate’; and that was part and parcel of receiving our highest honour. I think he would be tickled because he’s got this great and irreverent sense of humour.”

Bowman MP Andrew Laming, who gave the antiquated honours system a serve in the lead-up to the leadership vote last week, has been consulted. “I raised it with Andrew Laming,” Alexander said. “He’s been critical of the honours and I said would this placate you?”

Laming was equivocal, saying it depended on the precise knighthood to matehood ratio. “Few things are certain in life,” the Queensland MP told Guardian Australia.

“One is that Queensland will always prefer a mate to a sir. The second is that the team winning back the State of Origin from NSW can have any title they want except ‘living legend’, which is reserved for Wally Lewis.”

Alexander responded: “I thought Wally Lewis was known as ‘The King’, which is a bit royal.”

Alexander thinks he has support from another long-time mate, Angus Houston, the former defence chief whose knighthood on Australia Day was overshadowed by Abbott’s decision to bestow the same honour on the Duke of Edinburgh.

“I’ve known Angus, strangely enough, for over 40 years and I think he would be sort of embarrassed to be called Sir Angus and I think he’d love the idea of being referred to by all and sundry as g’day mate,” Alexander told 3AW listeners.

“I dated his sister when I was 16 … He moved to Perth and we used to go surfing after the tennis matches in Perth and he was like my big brother, mate – we’ve stayed in touch from time to time.”

A talkback caller saw Alexander’s intervention as an unforced error. “I reckon it’s a load of codswallop,” the listener, Jed, told Mitchell. “Everyone in this country is ‘mate’.”

When the host replied that he thought this Australian greeting was reserved for “when you forget their names, mate”, Jed persisted: “No, everybody is mate anyway, mate.”

The conversation ended honourably enough. “OK, mate, thank you,” Mitchell said.