Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

The advice I have is that a defence honour may only be cancelled by the Governor-General. The process in relation to any such cancellation would be that the relevant minister would make a recommendation to the Governor general to cancel such an honour.

But, again, I make this point—and I don't intend to get into personal reflections on anybody: the government's view, and the CDF's actions are consistent with this, is that the recommendations of the Brereton report should be acted upon. CDF's actions are consistent with the government's policy position.