Your understanding is completely wrong. Would you like me to provide references?
My point is that Knight is an office that someone holds. It’s right there in black and white. 
BTW, does any other Commonwealth government but the UK’s grant knighthoods or baronetcies or peerages at present? I know that Kyle is a Knight in Canada, but that’s rather a special case.
Oh, and, apropos of nothing, here’s an unforgettable and too-good-not-to-use-here national slur from P.J. O’Rourke in National Lampoon’s classic 1975 “Unwanted Foreigners” issue:
From The Devil’s Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce:
I think perhaps you should refrain from posting while drunk.
A knighthood is an honour, not an office. It has no duties, no rights, no functions, no role - none of the attributes that would justify calling it an “office”.
This is kind of a slam-dunk. All you need to become a knight is that the Prime Minister should advise the queen to knight you, and the only consequence of being knighted is that you acquire a title which distinguishes you from people who haven’t been knighted. Is there any part of that for which you require “evidence”?
No, they’re not. I work with someone who holds an honour (an AM, to be precise) but this has no implications for how he is addressed or referred to, either formally or informally. I call him Fforename]. If I knew him less well I would call him Mr. [Surname]. And in writing I refer to him as [Forename] [Surname]. All of which is exactly the same as if he had no honour.
Because they’re patterned on British knighthoods and intended to resemble them. Had you not noticed that?
You think that knighthoods are offices and that all honours confer a title, and I’m the one who’s confused?
Having asked me to explain why I thought this, you should at least have waited for my answer before asserting that I had no answer. Your slip is showing, Blake; you seem to be approaching this conversation burdened by a degree of prejudice and preconception.
Nitpick: The AC is a lower level than the AK/AD.
As to how this differs, is that not obvious? There is no convention, expectation or social requirement that I should address an AC differently from the way I address someone who holds no honour at all; there is such a convention, expectation or social requirement in the case of an AK or an AD. And I think conferring an honour which people are expected routinely and repeatedly to acknowledge in speech to, or about, the person so honoured is significantly different from conferring an honour with no such characteristic. And, as I said at the outset, I think most people in Australia will consider is risible; repeatedly calling attention to your achievements purely for the sake of having them acknowledged even in contexts where they are not especially relevant would normally be regarded as a character defect in Australia.
Yes, the governments of quite a few Commonwealth realms advise the Queen to knight people from time to time.
Apart from Canada and Australia, though, I don’t think any of them have established local orders of knighthood; appointments are still made to one of the Imperial orders. For example, Julian Hunt, former foreign minister of St Lucia and now that country’s Permanent Representative to the UN, was knighted earlier this year in the Order of St. Michael and St. George. This would have been conferred on the advice of the St Lucian government, not the UK government.
:eek: That would be shockingly and indecently un-Australian!
From an Asian’s standpoint, no. A citizenship will do. 
Australia? Knighthoods? Seriously, who gives a fuck?
Seeing as Abbott denied having plans to do this:
I don’t think there is any harm in finding out what changed since December of last year.
Have you ever been to Australia? Let’s put to rest the rather tiresome idea that Australians are particularly exceptional in their consumption of alcohol. WHO’s data shows Australia ranks 45th in the list of booziest countries. Australia’s per capita consumption of pure ethyl alcohol is around 10L yearly, not far above the US at 9.4L.
Is that an issue in Australia? Is it hard to get naturalized?
What about the stereotype that every form of Australian wildlife is trying to kill you?
“Sharks, jellyfish, swimming knives, they’re all in there” - Dylan Moran
No. It’s hard to get permanent residence. Moving from permanent resident status to citizen status is straightforward.
Awarding knighthoods in Australia shows a great lack of imagination.
Perhaps they might come up with a system of honours that reflects the positive elements of the Australian character rather than borrowing this feudal throwback.
Best Mate of the Outback
Member of the The Order of Surfers and Lifeguards
Most Excellent Sheep Shearer
Member of the No Worries Order of Casual Optimism
and an award for those Britons who found contentment in the land Downunder.
The Grand Order of the Non-whinging Pom:
and one for the business community:
The Grand Order of Ned Kelly
Of course long standing heritage does have a part to play and anyone who descended from the convicts originally sentenced to transportation to the Australian Botany Bay penal colony deserves the right to wear a special costume.
With a symbolic ball and chain for anyone whose descendents was actually sentenced for stealing a sheep from an English Lord.
Canada doesn’t have local knighthoods, and hasn’t recommended locals for Imperial knighthoods since 1919. It also frowns on the UK giving titular honours to Canadian citizens. Canadian provinces also have their own honours and Nova Scotia also has it’s own baronetage (thought I doubt most ever set foot in, let alone lived in NS).
As mentioned upthread New Zealan has it’s own honours system. Just like in Australia knighthoods & damehoods were originally included, then abolished*, then reinstated. New Zealand has also reinstated the rank of Queen’s Counsel after briefly replacing it with Senior Counsel, and it looks like the same thing’s happening in Australia.
Naaah, those are no fun as it is (and it’s not a true “system of honours” in that it lacks system; the PMF is “America’s highest civilian honor” 'cause someone said so, but how do the other ones rank vs. one another?). Ya need to work 'em into something where you append a bunch of letters at the end of the name, y’know, so people can sign their name as “Rita Moreno, PMF, NMA”; and a list of precedence ranks within the individual civilian awards like, say, “Excellent Dude/Dude/Wingman of the Congressional Gold Medal”.