Rolf Harris with his Officer of the Order of Australia honour, presented in 2012. Picture: John Stillwell, WPA Pool/Getty Source: Getty Images

But convicted paedophile entertainer Rolf Harris remains a member of the Order of Australia despite dropping his appeal against his convictions a fortnight ago.

Obied and Maitland, who both fell victim to corruption investigations by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, were stripped of their honours more than four months after ICAC handed down its findings.

They join the list of 45 political leaders, entrepreneurs, sports stars, entertainers, fake war heroes and religious leaders deemed unfit to retain their honours.

The announcements come as Governor-General Peter Cosgrove’s selection committee check the next group of Order of Australia members to be named on Australia Day.

ICAC exposed how Eddie Obeid corruptly abused his position as a NSW Labor minister to confer tens of millions of dollars of benefits on the Obeid family.

It also revealed how Maitland convinced former Federal Labor Minister Greg Combet to back a ‘training mine” that was later floated on the stock exchange, secretly turning his $166,000 investment into a $15 million payday.

Both men were aided in their corrupt activities by Former NSW resources minister Ian Macdonald.

Eddie Obeid has been stripped of his award. Picture: Adam Taylor

All three men have since been ordered to appear in court to face criminal prosecutions based on the ICAC findings.

Obied was awarded a medal of the Order of Australia in 1984 for his services to ethnic welfare.

Maitland became a member of the Order in 2010 for service to industrial relations in the mining sector.

Another OAM, David Fredrick Leonard, who received his award for service to the local community through his work with the RSL in January, resigned from the Order in July.

Mr Leonard had been an RSL member since 1966, and was president of the Nundle subbranch, its trustee and pensions officer. It is unclear why he resigned.

John Maitland outside the ICAC hearings in Sydney.

AWARDS TERMINATED:

2014

NAME: EDDIE MOSES OBEID

The former NSW Labor minister fell victim to corruption investigations by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption which exposed how Obeid corruptly abused his position to confer tens of millions of dollars of benefits on his family. Obied was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 1984 for his services to ethnic welfare. He currently faces criminal proceedings.

NAME: JOHN WILLIAM MAITLAND

A former CFMEU mining secretary, John Maitland was subject of NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption proceedings and now faces criminal proceedings. ICAC found Maitland convinced former Federal Labor Minister Greg Combet to back a ‘training mine” that was later floated on the stock exchange, secretly turning his $166,000 investment into a $15 million payday. Maitland became a member of the Order in 2010 for service to industrial relations in the mining sector.

2013

NAME: DANIEL BELL

A GOLD medal Paralympian, Bell handed back his gong in June, 10 months after pleading guilty to stalking and burglary charges in the Geelong Magistrates’ Court. The charges related to incidents involving two women in December 2011 and January 2012, when Bell, 29, trespassed into their bedrooms, stripped and ejaculated on their bed sheets. Bell was awarded an Order of Australia medal for services to sport after winning a swimming Gold Medal in the 4x100m medley relay at the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games.

NAME: CABIN CLONDA

ONE time junior world squash champion and head of Squash NSW, Clonda was stripped of her 2010 Order of Australia medal in September after a NSW Supreme Court judgment against her in 2012. Ms Clonda was found to have acted with “guile and deception” in altering a lease she had to hire facilities from NSW Squash at its Thornleigh headquarters, in Sydney’s northwest in 2008 to put the onus on the

body to pay outgoings such as council rates, electricity and power bills instead of her. Ms Clonda said she had been the victim of a personal vendetta by NSW Squash and has vowed to appeal the court decision.

NAME: CLINTON CONDON

A FORMER Australian Wheat Board chairman, Condon was stripped of his award 10 months after being sentenced to two and a half years’ jail, suspended for three years, and fined $12,000 for his part in a multimillion-dollar fraud more than a decade earlier. Condon, of the Gold Coast pleaded guilty to obtaining financial advantage by deception and providing false or misleading information to auditors in

200 and 2001 but was spared jail when a judge ruled it would be ``utterly unjust’’ given the delay in the case.

2012

NAME: LESLIE HOWARD

THE world renowned concert pianists’ 1999 award ``for service to the arts as piano soloist, composer, musicologist, and mentor to young’’ was terminated last September, after a UK court handed him a six month suspended sentence and banned him from driving for three years for a road rage attack.

2011

NAME: RONALD PAPPS

THE former radio personality and race caller in Melbourne, Adelaide and Hobart was stripped of his 1994 award for services to the racing industry a year after he pleaded guilty of endangering his wife’s life at their Port Lincoln home after charges of attempted murder were dropped. He was placed on a good behaviour bond after receiving a two-year suspended jail sentence.

2009

NAME: MARCUS EINFELD

THE former Federal Court judge was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty in 2008 to perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice after contesting a 2006 speeding ticket by claiming a friend was driving the car at the time. The friend had died overseas before the ticket was issued.

NAME: ROBERT JOHN AYTON

NAME: WILLIAM JAMES O’REILLY

2008

NAME: DONALD WINTON

2007

NAME: ROSS GILLETT

THE former Defence official was axed from the Order in 2007, two years after being sentenced to seven years’ jail and banned from driving for 10 years over the deaths of a family of three in a Sydney in 2003. Gillett was found guilty of three counts of dangerous driving occasioning death because he had lied to licensing officials about his epilepsy and should not have been driving in the first place.

NAME: JOHN DUNBAR FOWLER

ACT police found 200,000 pornographic images on Fowler’s Parliament House computer, half of them of children engaged in sexual acts, when he was arrested in 2005. In 2006 he was sentenced to 12 months’ periodic detention

2005

NAME: RAY WILLIAMS

THE former HIH chief was stripped of his 1998 award for “service to the community as a financial benefactor and supporter of medical research and youth welfare organisations’’ in 2006 after being jailed for 4 1/2 years for his part in the collapse of insurance company.

NAME: GEOFFREY MCGIBBON

A RETIRED swimming pool manager exposed for falsely claiming a distinguished military career with the Special Air Service in Vietnam a month after being awarded for his services to the Royal Lifesaving Association and sport in 2005.

2004

NAME: KEITH HELGESEN

2003

NAME: ROQUE CHARLES “CHINA’’ HAMMAL

“CHINA’’ received a gong in 2002 for service to the welfare of Vietnam veterans and their families, particularly in Western Australia, but was forced to return it a year later when he was exposed for inflating his military service record, including medals.

2002

NAME: CLARENCE GLUSKIE

A SYDNEY psychiatrist and founder of a children’s charity who received an award in 1999 but lost it in 2002, a year after he was struck off the medical registry indefinitely for sexually abusing a vulnerable female patient for four years.

NAME: NOEL HOBSON

2000

NAME: MARION WATSON

A SOCIAL worker awarded on Australia Day 1998 for her work rehabilitating drug addicts, only to lose it in 2000, after she was jailed for heroin trafficking and admitting to using the drug within hours of receiving her award.

1999

NAME: BRIAN QUINN

THE former Coles Myer chief’s 1988 Queen’s Birthday honour was taken back in 1999 after he was found guilty of using company invoices to fund $4.46 million of work at his Templestowe home.

NAME: JOHN GERARD PATRICK SWEENEY

A FORMER Catholic priest who joined the Order of Australia in 1991 but was terminated after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting four young trainee religious brothers in 1999.

NAME: REGINALD AUSTIN

ONE of the world’s leading veteran sprinters was given a gong in 1990 but lost it in 1999 after misappropriating $92,986 as an agent of Mercantile Mutual.

1998

NAME: RAYMOND FREDRICK AYLES

THE Adelaide man was given a 12-month suspended sentence in 1993 after being convicted of encouraging two 15-year-old boys to masturbate in front of him during a church camp. He did not lose his 1987 award until 1998.

1997

NAME: ALAN BOND

THE disgraced tycoon was stripped of the gong he received in 1984 in 1997 after being jailed for siphoning $1 billion from WA company Bell Resources.

NAME: JACK STEVEN DIAMOND

A SYDNEY lawyer and philanthropist who was stripped of his 1991 gong in 1997 after being found guilty of a $4.8 million fraud involving a resort.

1996

NAME: KEVIN JOHN PARRY

HEADED the Kookaburra Syndicate in the 1987 America’s Cup and awarded the following year but the gong taken back in 1996 after was charged with stealing $75,000 from the WA State Superannuation Board. The charge was thrown out in 1995.

1995

NAME: BRIAN BURKE

THE former Western Australian premier was stripped of his 1988 award in 1995, after serving seven months of a two-year jail sentence for rorting the state of more than $17,000 in public money.

NAME: RAYMOND JAMES O’CONNOR

THE former Premier of Western Australia joined the Order in 1989 but was dismissed in 1995 when he was jailed for stealing a $25,000 Bond Corporation cheque.

NAME: BRIAN ERIC ANDERS

1994

NAME: NEVILLE GEORGE PHILLIPS

NAME: ALAN IVOR TERRELL

NAME: GERARDUS THEODORUS WYKAMP

1993

NAME: WILLIAM ROGER CHARLES KING

NAME: BARRIE RAYMOND MILLER

RECIPIENTS RESIGNED

2014

NAME: DAVID FREDRICK LEONARD

Mr Leonard was awarded an OAM for service to the local community through his work with the RSL in January resigned from the Order in July. Mr Leonard had been an RSL member since 1966, and was president of the Nundle subbranch, its trustee and pensions officer. The Governor-General’s office has not said why Mr Leonard resigned

2011

NAME: GEOFFREY GRANT HORWOOD

THE South Australian was awarded in 1998 for service to gliding and scouting.

2010

NAME: DR BALAJI RAO

THE NSW GP handed back his 1998 award for service to the community through service with the Lions Club after he was deregistered over the death of two palliative care patients.

2008

NAME: DICK PRATT

BILLIONAIRE Pratt returned his Companion of the Order and his Officer of the Order honours in 2008 shortly before being formally charged with providing false and misleading evidence over price fixing.

NAME: FRANK DE STEFANO

DISGRACED former Geelong mayor and accountant De Stefano resigned from the Order five years after being sentenced to 10 years behind bars for stealing $8.6 million from clients, including a quadriplegic’s almost $5 million compensation lifeline.

NAME: STEVE VIZARD

THE former TV funnyman collected a gong in 1997 for services to the community but resigned from the Order in 2008, three years after being fined $390,000 and banned from being a company director for 10 years for insider trading while a Telstra director.

2005

NAME: RODNEY STEPHEN ADLER

GAVE back his 1999 award for services to the insurance industry and philanthropy after being sentenced to four years jail in 2005 for his part in the collapse of HIH Insurance, where he obtained $2 million from HIH by false or misleading statements and being dishonest as a director.

NAME: PHILIP GREEN

THE Reverend Monsignor handed back his award in 2005, two years after he resigned from active ministry after allegations of inappropriate behaviour were made against him by two men who said they were abused as children and after being sentenced to a three months suspended jail term

peter.mickelborough@news.com.au