
A number of Catholics were honoured in this year’s Australia Day awards including former long-serving Liberal minister the late Kevin Andrews, who was posthumously made a Member the Order of Australia (AM).
Andrews, who passed away in December 2024 following a cancer battle, was awarded the honour for significant service to Australian parliament, the Catholic Church, and the community.
He was a member of the House of Representatives from 1991 until his retirement prior to the 2022 federal election and as a young backbencher was responsible for the private member’s bill which led to the overturning of Northern Territory’s euthanasia legislation in 1997.
His service to the church included decades of leadership in Catholic marriage education along with his wife Margaret, and seven years as a consulter to the Pontifical Council for the Family from 2007.
Former Justice of the Federal Court of Australia Duncan Kerr was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO).
Kerr serves as chair of the National Appeals and Reviews Panel with Australian Catholic Safeguarding Ltd, the body responsible for overseeing a national framework for the protection of children and adults who engage with the Catholic Church.
“The processes generally work well, and most church authorities are very aware of their obligations, but there are still improvements that could be made in how the scheme works and its coverage,” he told The Catholic Weekly.

As a young lawyer Kerr established the Tenants Union of Tasmania saying it was his first experience of applying his “philosophy of social activism to establish a lasting community service.”
He later worked for the Tasmanian Solicitor-General and taught at the University of Papua New Guinea before returning to Australia and practicing as a barrister.
He was elected as the member for the House of Representatives for Denison, where he stayed for 23 years until his retirement in 2010.
Kerr credits his parents for his strong sense of civic outreach and the importance of schooling, saying they impressed on him “some part of any well-lived life should be given to service to the community”.
“The great store my parents placed on community service and their hopes for a better world were, in significant part, a product of their experiences in the cauldron of World War II,” he said.
“Having seen its horrors, they accepted it was their generation’s responsibility to shape a better, fairer, world.”
Kerr said he had been many places in life he “could not have imagined”.
“Going to those places would not have been possible without the love and support of those who shared my life as partners and friends, I owe them so much,” he said.

“Nor could I have made a success of the chances that came my way without the friendship and loyal support of the many staff who worked with me as a parliamentarian, minister, and, later, justice of the Federal Court.”
The Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart expressed their “delight” at the awarding of a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) to MacKillop Family Services chief executive officer Dr Robyn Miller, for “significant service to children, young people and families”.
A former consultant to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Miller said in a statement she was “deeply humbled” at the recognition, “although the people who really deserve an award are the brave children and families I am privileged to work with every day.
“They are the real heroes.”
MacKillop’s board chair Charles Reis said Dr Miller exemplified the values of the organisation.
“Her leadership has had a profound and lasting impact on countless lives, and this recognition is richly deserved,” he said.
St Vincent de Paul stalwart Terence O’Hara and business leader Gerard McMillan each also received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to the community, and community and business respectively.

O’Hara said the award was a “nice acknowledgement” but he never expected any accolades for his work.
“I’m just owning the spirit of Australia and the spirit of God, really,” he said.
Similarly, McMillan believes in giving back to the community is “just what one should do.”
“I’m just a normal bloke doing normal things,” he said.
“I believe that if you live within a community, you put a little bit back into it.”