Let us now praise (less) famous men …

In all the noisy carry-on over Australian values, and what it means to be an Australian, perhaps it is worthwhile to cultivate a similar sense: that being a good Australian necessarily involves a generous recognition of duties that go beyond our borders. To love one’s country is to love its openness to others. And perhaps it is worthwhile to carry over this wider sense of being Australian when we honour distinguished actions and character of those within our borders.

Australian governments honour citizens during their life. They also honour citizens on their death, for example, by the offer of a state funeral. There are certain persons who are automatically offered a state funeral, by virtue of the public position they held in their lifetime.

For instance, the New South Wales government stipulates that present or former premiers, state governors and so on are automatically offered a state funeral. Governments also offer state funerals to “distinguished” citizens. Examples of state funerals for such distinguished citizens are the funerals of Henry Lawson in 1922, Dame Mary Gilmore in 1962, Dr Victor Chang in 1992, and Alec Campbell, the last Gallipoli veteran, in 2002.

However, the criteria for “distinguished” seem to have been relaxed even within the last ten years, such that a state funeral may now be offered in all seriousness to a spruiker who made a practice of commodifying his own children. The criteria for state funerals stipulate “distinguished” citizens, not those who are “famous” or “notorious”. And I would argue that this sense of distinction as an Australian embodies a more generous sense of obligation and duty.

I am thinking of someone like Peter Norman. There could be few finer images of courage and duty and love of country than Norman’s quietly standing without flinching beside John Carlos and Tommy Smith at the Mexico Olympics, with the badge of the Olympic Project for Human Rights on his chest. Time was when sportsmen were honoured for being “best and fairest”. Peter Norman was both.