THE Australia Day Honours list has become a standing joke. 

Unlike the Australian of the Year Award which went to the very deserving Neale Daniher, the Honours list has been hijacked by university academics who are nominating each other and receiving the highest awards. They disproportionately outnumber the many deserving members in all local communities who work tirelessly for charities and institutions where they are not well paid (e.g. aged care centres and personal emergency centres such as Lifeline).

Obviously, the criteria for the awarding of the Honours have been skewed in favour of professors and associate professors.

As a result, many good people are being awarded an AM when they are deserving of an AO. The higher award AO is almost exclusively the domain of an elite academic and political class who are less deserving.

Alan J. McDonald, Woodleigh