There have been mixed reactions to former Prime Minister Tony Abbott receiving a Queen's Birthday honour, with critics labelling the award "shameful".
- for his "significant contributions to trade, border control and to the Indigenous community".
But not everyone agreed the honour was warranted, with the Human Rights Law Centre's legal director David Burke saying he thought that Mr Abbott did not deserve the gong.
"Whatever your political beliefs, the deaths of 12 men and indefinite detention of thousands of people - in conditions that made children try to kill themselves - isn't something to be celebrated," he tweeted on Monday morning.
"This cruelty doesn't deserve honours. Glorifying these actions is shameful."
Mr Abbott took the top office in 2013 following a campaign vowing to "stop the boats", implementing his zero-tolerance Operation Sovereign Borders scheme immediately.
Data from the Refugee Council of Australia says 3127 were detained in offshore processing facilities in Papua New Guinea or Nauru after July, 2013.
In August, 2018, Prime Minister Scott Morrison offered Mr Abbott, a then-backbencher, a new role as special envoy on Indigenous affairs.
"All of us are concerned about Aboriginal disadvantage, but very few of us get very involved in it," Mr Abbott said on Monday, the morning after he received the top honours.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott and then-social services minister Scott Morrison during a visit to the Torres Strait Islands. Source: AAP
"I thought that by spending serious amount of time in remote Indigenous communities as Prime Minister, as well as Leader of the Opposition, I was letting Aboriginal people know that, as far as I was concerned at least, they were every bit as important as anyone else, and I figured that the least I could do as Prime Minister was to spend a week a year in remote Australia."
Mr Abbott drew criticism for telling people not to attend Saturday's Black Lives Matter rally in Sydney, which brought thousands of people together in protest of Indigenous deaths in custody and police brutality against Indigenous Australians.
"You can't go to the footy ... Why on earth should 10,000 people be allowed to make merry at the Town Hall steps?" he told 2GB on Friday.
Associate Professor of Indigenous Health at LaTrobe University and Palawa woman Cath Chamberlain said she thought the award was "offensive" to Indigenous Australians.
"He cut more funding for health than any other prime minister and argued people in remote areas didn't need services as it's their 'lifestyle choice'," she said.
"I'm surprised they didn't award him for 'services to women' while they were at it."
Other politicians were quick to issue their criticism on Monday morning, with Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young calling it a "ridiculous spectacle".
"Meanwhile, there’s lots of Australians who do amazing work for our community and will never receive well-deserved recognition," she said.
South Australian Labor health spokesman Chris Picton joined the rebuke, saying "they’re not even pretending with these awards anymore".
Not everyone was critical of the honours, with Mr Abbott's Liberal Party colleague Jason Falinski congratulating him and his fellow honourees Bronwyn Bishop and Mike Baird.
"Their service to the community and country is admirable," he wrote.
Other supporters drew attention to Mr Abbott's work with the Rural Fire Service, of which he has been a member since 2000.
Trent Dowling, the captain of the Davidson Rural Fire Brigade, said Mr Abbott had become a good friend in the almost 20 years they had volunteered together.
"He's a highly skilled and highly qualified member of our brigade and obviously being a deputy captain as well, he is one of the leadership team of the brigade," he told SBS News.
"We are very privileged to see the other side of the person that the media don't usually show. So we know him intimately as a mate and a brigade member.
"He's the first person out of the truck, grabbing the hose and leading by example. Tony volunteers in the community in many, many ways outside of the political sphere that you've seen him in."
