Lord Malcolm of Point Piper has finally received an official honour, the Companion in the Order of Australia, the AC. It comes with lovely lapel pin and other bits and bobs.

In prior times, this would have been a knighthood, but the times they have a changed.

This is an image of the nice medal he receives.- See the big royal crown on the top? A nice touch for one Australia’s leading republicans (Pirate Pete already has an AM, by the way).

Turnbull will say he’s only following convention by accepting the medal that traditionally goes to former prime ministers, but such a fan of innovation and disruption could have innovated and disrupted and made a real republican statement by turning it down.

And Turnbull aside, I do have a dream. That we Australians as a community end this childish charade of tax payers paying for gold pins and medals give by and to connected insiders — the most offensive being those given to former senior politicians and public servants for doing, you know, the stuff they have been well paid to do.

Stephen Spartacus blogs at Sparty’s Cast where an earlier version of this piece also appeared.