Going back to the award of the Knight to Prince Phillip.

Abbott was only following on from Labor / a Labor PM in awarding Prince Phillip an Australian Honor.

And since we now have knighthoods, protocol alone suggests he should have the highest one.

I bet none of you would have criticised a Labor PM if they had made the award and probably didn't

when Labor PM made the intiial one.

So this is just an upgrade from AC to Knight.