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Australia Day Honours

Consuming Passions' host Ian Parmenter is an OAM recipient today, as one of an eclectic bunch of media names who have been honoured.

The Australia Day Honours list includes an eclectic group of names in media and journalism.

Ian Parmenter, who presented the five-minute cooking show, Consuming Passions, was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for promoting the country’s food and wine around the world.

He spent 20 years producing and directing major projects for the ABC when he was approached to present the cooking show in the early 1990s.

“I certainly never intended to be on camera – I always thought I’d scare children,” Parmenter said.

“I wasn’t a professional cook, and I said to the bosses, ‘What are you doing putting someone like me on camera?’

“I’ve got about 15 recipes to my credit, and you need more than that.” But with 450 shows – which were syndicated overseas, including the UK – as well as several books to his name, Parmenter helped kickstart Australia’s culinary awakening.

Another recipient, boxing entrepreneur Fred Brophy, was the subject of an SBS documentary earlier this month, Outback Fight Club.

For his services to charities in Birdsville, where he has helped raise money for three decades, and to the entertainment industry for keeping old-style tent boxing alive, Brophy has been recognised with a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM).

“It’s the greatest thing that has ever happened to me in my life,” Mr Brophy told AAP.

“To think people think I am worthy of this leaves me very humble.”

The ABC’s Afghanistan correspondent Sally Sara received an Order of Australia for services to journalism and to the community as a foreign correspondent, and as a reporter on rural Australia.

”I think it’s really important to have the chance to see the stories through Australian eyes, and to be the eyes and ears of the audience back home and try to explain to them as best I can what’s going on,” she said.

Other recipients included:
AINSWORTH, Howard Laurie (Member of the Order of Australia)
For service to the media and communications industry as a radio broadcaster and television presenter, to the promotion of the performing arts, and to historical preservation organisations.

BOSTOCK, Lester Fraser (Member of the Order of Australia)
For service to the Indigenous community, to the broadcast media industry as a presenter and producer, and as an advocate for people with a disability.

ROBB, Jill (Member of the Order of Australia)
For service to the Australian film and television industries as a producer, through executive roles with industry organisations, and as a mentor to emerging filmmakers.

Source: NineMSN, It’s an Honour

9 Responses

  1. The ABC stopped making Consuming Passions nearly a decade ago – but they remained on air for a few years after that. They were recut, with the interactive element removed, as the production unit was disbanded. I know, i had the ardusous task of re-editing them! He is such a distinctive talent, and a most accomplished program maker behind the camera.

  2. @Dick, tent boxing is still legal in Queensland, but it’s the only state in Australia still allowing it. I think there’s moves to ban it outright. The two part documentary Outback Fight Club which aired recently covered this subject.

  3. “…and to the entertainment industry for keeping old-style tent boxing alive, Brophy has been recognised with a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM).”

    Isn’t tent boxing banned by the government? If I’d known this, I would have made my dog fighting business more public.

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