Mini vic.gov.au

This is a low bandwidth version of vic.gov.au. Contents may not be up to date. © Copyright State Government of Victoria

Recognition Matters

An initiative to improve the recognition of women’s contributions to Australia.

On this page

Latest news

The best result for Victoria in 48 years

Victoria saw 54 per cent of the awards (in the general division of the Order of Australia) given to women. 281 awards were given to Victorians, with 152 given to women.

More awards for women in first round of Australian Honours

This year, women nationally were recognised at higher levels in the Order of Australia than at any time in the history of the awards. The 354 awards given to women represented 48% of total awards.

The important place of post-nominals

Post-nominals are an important acknowledgement of a person’s accomplishments. Their use showcases a person’s significant contribution to the community or their industry.

Search previous recipients

Read about inspiring Australian Honours recipients or research recipients. You can search by name, industry, organisation or type of service (e.g. ‘nursing’).

Background

Australian Honours (the honours) were established in 1975 to recognise the highest levels of service and achievement in Australia. The honours recognise the contribution of people in our communities.

The honours system includes:

Anyone in Australia can nominate someone – even someone they don’t know personally – for an award in the Order of Australia. You don’t need to be famous or have a high profile. The focus is on the contribution that person has made to the community.

Women are less likely to be nominated and awarded, despite making outstanding contributions. Since the introduction of Australian Honours more than 40 years ago, two-thirds of nominations have been for men.

Recognition Matters is a Victorian initiative and since 2019 we have worked to see an increase in the number of women recognised with Australian Honours.

What we are doing

As a state, we are committed to raising the profile of women doing outstanding things. By highlighting the contributions of women through the Australian Honours system, we can ensure those achievements are on the public record and that they are visible to others. You can’t be what you can’t see.

What you can do

Nominate a woman(opens in a new window) you know or admire for an Australian Honour. Nominations never close.

What are the must-haves to nominate a woman? The woman must be living at the time of nomination, an Australian citizen or permanent resident and must have made an outstanding contribution to Australia.

Any individual, community organisation, business, or professional body can nominate someone for an honour. Individual nominations hold the same weight as those submitted by community organisations, businesses or professional bodies.

Tips to complete your nomination

We ask that you do not tell the person you are nominating that you are doing so. Nominations should remain confidential.

We have put the contents of the online form into a Word document(opens in a new window). You can use this document to prepare all your responses before you decide to submit the nomination. If you do choose to use the online form, you can save your progress and return to it if need be. You do only have 14 days to complete the online form once you have started this process. Check out our How to nominate page(opens in a new window) for more details.

Nominations are assessed by the Council of the Order of Australia(opens in a new window). The Council is an independent group comprising 19 people, including representatives of each Australian state and territory, public office holders and community representatives who are appointed by the Governor General on the recommendation of the Prime Minister.

Communities

Updated 28 August 2024

About the VIC Government

Grants and programs

Jobs and careers

Arts, culture and heritage

Business and the workplace

Communities

Education and training

Environment, water and energy

Finance and economy

Health and social support

Housing and property

Law and justice

Safety and emergencies

Science and technology

Sport and recreation

Traffic and transport

Working in the Victorian Government