For decades he’s been a loud and persistent voice in Australia, urging the nation to be the best it can be – generous, fair and just.<\/p>\n
They are ideals that have underpinned most aspects of the 71-year-old’s life and on Monday saw him awarded one of the nation’s highest honours.<\/p>\n
Mr Smith is among 717 people from across the broad spectrum of Australian society to be recognised on the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honour List for services to the nation or to humanity at large.<\/p>\n
True to form, the former Australian of the Year and now Companion (AC) of the Order of Australia, has used his latest public accolade to appeal for societal evolution – this time on the subject of same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n
As politicians grapple with the issue, Mr Smith says its a no-brainer for a sophisticated nation and he wants an end to the battle in Canberra.<\/p>\n
“It’s a basic human rights issue,” he says simply.<\/p>\n
“We all know it’s going to happen.”<\/p>\n
This year’s honours list includes many well-known Australians who have done great things. But it also recognises the quiet achievers who are heroes in their own fields.<\/p>\n
One of them is Professor Stephen Lynch, whose pioneering work in liver transplantation has saved countless lives at home and abroad.<\/p>\n
The Brisbane-based surgeon deflects praise to his colleagues, his supportive family and ultimately donors who give the gift of life in death.<\/p>\n
A few years after he and his colleagues pioneered the technique of transplanting adult livers into children in the late 1980s, Prof Lynch helped perform the world’s first successful liver transplant from a living donor to a patient, also now a common technique.<\/p>\n
In that case, he took part of a liver from a Japanese mother and transplanted it into her baby son. He remains in contact with the family and takes great pride in seeing what the boy has done with his life.<\/p>\n
“He’s a fit-looking, healthy physiotherapist working in Japan. It’s fantastic,” says Prof Lynch, who’s also been appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia.<\/p>\n
On Mr Smith’s theme of societal evolution, another of this year’s recipients has his own message for Australia.<\/p>\n
Revered Aboriginal songwriter Archie Roach plans to use his appointment as a Member of the Order of Australia as a platform to promote reconciliation, something he’s already spent years trying to do through his music.<\/p>\n
“It’s a great catalyst for change. It doesn’t change governments but it can change people,” he says.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Image | Twitter When it comes to household names in Australia, aviator, philanthropist and social commentator Dick Smith has few rivals. For decades he’s been a loud and persistent voice in Australia, urging the nation to be the best it can be – generous, fair and just. They are ideals that have underpinned most aspects […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":23029,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[144],"tags":[],"geo_market":[],"class_list":["post-23028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n