{"id":436682,"date":"2026-01-25T14:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T14:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/436682\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T14:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T14:41:08","slug":"cathy-freeman-leads-australia-day-honours-alongside-enforcer-of-world-first-social-media-ban-australia-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/436682\/","title":{"rendered":"Cathy Freeman leads Australia Day honours alongside enforcer of world-first social media ban | Australia Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia\u2019s beloved Olympic sprinter Cathy Freeman<\/a> has been recognised in this year\u2019s Australia Day Honours list alongside a driving force of one of the Games\u2019 youngest sports, skateboarding, a world-leading quantum scientist, a children\u2019s book illustrator, rock royalty and the enforcer of Australia\u2019s world-first social media ban.<\/p>\n

Freeman was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia, the country\u2019s highest civilian honour. Her sensational athletic achievements were applauded by the honours committee, which also acknowledged her social impact across the community, her work on the reconciliation movement in the spirit of unity and inclusion, and as a role model to young people.<\/p>\n

Julie Inman Grant, the eSafety commissioner, received a Public Service Medal in recognition of her work shepherding Australia\u2019s social media ban, with her \u201cexceptional leadership, courage and resolve in protecting Australians online\u201d praised by the committee.<\/p>\n

The eSafety commissioner Julie Inman has been praised for \u2018protecting Australians online\u2019. Photograph: Lukas Coch\/AAP<\/p>\n

Midnight Oil\u2019s Rob Hirst, whose death was announced on Tuesday<\/a>, posthumously becomes a Member of the Order of Australia for his service to the performing arts.<\/p>\n

Having formed the band in 1976, Hirst was best known for his incandescent drumming abilities, but he was also the cowriter of the lyrics and melodies for many of the band\u2019s best-known songs including Beds Are Burning and The Dead Heart.<\/p>\n

All awardees must be alive when nominated and are notified of their honour before it is made public.<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n

The world-leading quantum physicist and former Australian of the Year, Prof Michelle Simmons, whose pioneering work on atomic electronics has seen Australia become the only country in the world with the capacity to manufacture at the atomic scale, was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m delighted and surprised and very grateful to whoever nominated me,\u201d she told Guardian Australia. \u201cIt\u2019s a wonderful honour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prof Michelle Simmons is at the forefront of the global race to build a full-scale quantum computer with the power to \u2018transform the world\u2019. Photograph: AAP<\/p>\n

Simmons came to Australia from Cambridge in 1999 and, having spearheaded the University of NSW\u2019s quantum research and in 2017 founded Silicon Quantum Computing, \u201cnever looked back\u201d. She is now at the forefront of the global race to build a full-scale quantum computer with the power to \u201ctransform the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve pursued all the way through [my career] the thing that\u2019s interested me the most and has given me the biggest sense of, \u2018Wow, that was worthwhile doing,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got this great Australian company that\u2019s leading the quantum computing world globally, and it\u2019s just the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

The list this year celebrated the efforts of 949 Australians across industries and backgrounds. Of the 680 civilian awardees, 496 were men and 184 were women.<\/p>\n

Two of those were the former premiers of Queensland and NSW, Annastacia Palaszczuk<\/a> and Kristina Keneally. Palaszczuk, who was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia, told Guardian Australia the recognition had come as a \u201ccomplete surprise\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m deeply honoured to be receiving this award, but also, I\u2019m extremely humbled. From the outset, I want to thank Queenslanders who stood by me through thick and thin, whether it was through cyclones, floods, bushfires, and of course, the pandemic. My hat goes off to Queenslanders who did everything that was asked of them during those times.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she hoped to inspire a new generation of politically engaged Australians.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think in this uncertain world that we live in, it\u2019s absolutely critical that young people understand government and politics. We need good people to step up and get involved,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mathias Cormann, the OECD secretary general and a former finance minister in the Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments, also became a Companion of the Order.<\/p>\n

The Indigenous social activist and former AFL executive Tanya Hosch was appointed a Member of the Order. She told Guardian Australia many of her career opportunities have been down to the work of important leaders before and peers alongside her.<\/p>\n

Tanya Hosch counts her work on the Indigenous voice as one of her proudest achievements. Photograph: Mike Bowers\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

She singled out her work as part of the Recognise movement, \u201cwarming\u201d the country to 2023\u2019s Indigenous voice referendum and serving as the AFL\u2019s social inclusion manager as some of her proudest achievements.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite the failure of the actual vote itself, the opportunity to talk to Australians from all around the country and all walks of life about that gap in our constitution was amazing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Skateboarder Renton Millar, the head skateboarding judge at the Paris Olympics, was awarded a Medal of the Order after nearly 40 transformative years in the sport, including its induction into the Games at Tokyo 2020.<\/p>\n

The children\u2019s book author and artist Graeme Base, best known for his award-winning 1980s works Animalia and The Eleventh Hour, became a Member of the Order.<\/p>\n

Anyone can nominate any Australian for an award in the Order of Australia. Nominations can be made now at www.gg.gov.au<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s beloved Olympic sprinter Cathy Freeman has been recognised in this year\u2019s Australia Day Honours list alongside a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-436682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}