Anything to report? Way back in March, sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins released a report, following an 18-month national inquiry, which “examined the nature and prevalence of sexual harassment in Australian workplaces, the drivers of this harassment and measures to address and prevent it”.
At the time, Minister for Women Marise Payne said the government would “carefully consider the report and its 55 recommendations”:
The attorney-general and I will work with colleagues to put together a considered government response. The report does raise some quite complex issues across various legal and regulatory frameworks, so that is a matter that does require obviously cross-government and, in fact, cross-jurisdiction consideration. As a government, we are committed to making all Australian workplaces safe and free from sexual harassment.
So we welcome the opportunity to consider this extensive report to assist in that process.
Just wondering, apropos of nothing much, if they’ve gotten round to reading it yet?
ACT like you know After yet another loss in October, the Liberal Party in the Australian Capital Territory has not been in power for 19 years — its absence from government is itself old enough to vote for a different party.
But the future is bright if the ACT Liberal’s youth wing is anything to go by, whose members are clearly learning all the right lessons from the most recent of their six losses.
Since the election they’ve hosted anti-choice/anti-marriage equality campaigner Martyn Illes, endorsed Donald Trump for president and now, in the minutes of their upcoming policy meeting (having now learned the importance of regular meetings), they show that they really understand what future Australian voters care about — bias at the ABC and US Supreme Court appointments.
It’s worth checking out the whole thing, it’s quite a read.
NAIDOC The Western Australian Police Union (WAPU), most days, will tweet a memorial for a police officer who died on that day in history.
You might be surprised to learn that this recognition can extend back to 1834, as it did yesterday, marking the passing of Captain Theophilus Ellis who, as WAPU put it, was “murdered” in Pinjarra in 1834.
A little context around how that “murder” took place: Ellis was struck by a spear in the early stages of what would come to be known as the Pinjarra massacre, in which a detachment of soldiers, police and settlers ambushed a group of Binjareb Noongar people, killing 15 of them (at the very lowest estimate; modern estimates put it closer to 50) in the state’s south west. A highly dubious commemoration at the very best of times, it feels particularly insulting and gratuitous during NAIDOC week.
PHON it in Now that its calculated outrages don’t get the attention they used to, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation has resigned itself to doing what it does best: selling out its base over and over again, getting enough of the vote to frighten various major party MPs to the right, and leaping on any opportunity to sell merch.
And the NSW-Queensland rivalry of the State of Origin makes for some such merch. The party’s highest-profile MPs are from Queensland (Hanson herself) and NSW (Mark Latham), so now you can show your allegiance with blue and maroon bar runners featuring their faces. We have a few questions, not least of all: why do the coolers clearly have coke cans in them?
PHON memorabilia? Why would you want to keep your stool sample at exit temperature?
Just sold out older workers yesterday.
The PHONies merch. offerings are proof positive of the need for a voter IQ test.