On the final sitting day of the year, Liberal MP Gladys Lui threw Health Minister Greg Hunt a Dorothy Dixer: “Will the minister please outline to the House how our healthcare heroes have worked tirelessly to protect Australians throughout the COVID-19 pandemic?” Hunt replied that she was the “best member for Chisholm”.
It was a useless question better suited to an election campaign poster than Parliament. The groans from Labor were embellished by a bellowed “get a room!” from an as-yet unnamed male Labor MP.
The comment is obviously horribly sexist, implying men and women on the same team couldn’t possibly work together without there being sexual connotations.
It’s particularly concerning because interjections such as these don’t make it into Hansard, the transcript of proceedings. So unless the comment is picked up on by the speaker, another politician who has the floor, or a journalist, the public doesn’t hear about it — keeping the sexist, slimy nature of Parliament House yet again under wraps.
Representatives for Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese and Labor’s spokeswoman for women Tanya Plibersek didn’t respond to Crikey’s question whether the member would be reprimanded. But shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus said all parliamentarians need to watch their language: “I hope every member of this place reads the Jenkins report … and I want the behaviour of the 227 members of this Parliament to be an example to the nation.”
The shouted remark came just two days after sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins released her damning report into parliamentary workplace culture, “Set the Standard”.
In those two days, we’ve had Senator Jacqui Lambie interrupted by Liberal Senator David Van with what other senators called a dog-like growling noise. (Van denies this, saying it was an interjection that came out as a growl because of his mask. He apologised to Lambie.)
On the same day a former staffer for Education Minister Alan Tudge alleged their romantic relationship was emotionally and physically abusive. (Tudge denies this and has stepped aside from his portfolio pending an investigation.)
Yesterday Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe said to Liberal Senator Hollie Hughes “at least I keep my legs shut” as other senators called on the Senate president Slade Brockman to address “nasty” standards on the floor. (Thorpe quickly apologised for the remark.)
And unnamed MP in the House of Representatives laughed when the House was discussing the importance of respect as mentioned in Jenkins’ report.
Let’s not forget Jenkins also looked at the experiences of press gallery journalists. Some female reporters had male colleagues put forward to write analyses and opinions on the report over them. Others say they endured jokes in the office about the report while they sat poring over the harrowing testimonies. (This piece analysing the report by Dennis Shanahan in The Australian doesn’t include the words “woman” or “women” once. “Female representation” gets one mention, in the third last paragraph.)
Labor, Liberal, Greens. Women, men. The toxic culture is being cultivated by all (though as Jenkins’ report found, women in Parliament experienced sexual harassment and bullying at almost double the rate of men. It also found that having more men in senior positions led to power imbalances that can drive abuse).
The culture in Parliament House isn’t that far off an acne-ridden high school classroom, with insecure children bullying one another, making sexual innuendoes they’ve just learnt and are testing out, and playing dumb power games to test the pecking order.
But it’s more than that. In Parliament there’s real power, established hierarchies, and careers people have worked hard at for decades on the line.
People have been bullied into taking their lives. They’ve been sexually assaulted in their workspaces. And they’re afraid of the repercussions of speaking out. Neither Labor nor the Coalition has pledged to implement all 28 of the Jenkins report’s recommendations.
Despite the report making national headlines, it wasn’t the focus of Parliament in the days after its release. Despite being the protagonists of the 456-page document, politicians don’t appear to be overly disturbed by it. And they certainly don’t seem to be taking what needs to change seriously.
If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault or violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000.
No it’s not. The comment has been used for decades as a put down to people who are, for an example, in a meeting and just arguing with each other instead of focussing on the common topic. It has been used for male-to-male, female-to-female, and female-to/from-male.
Not in my decades of experience nor according to Google. E.g.:
“Get a room – Urban Dictionary
Expression used to make fun of couples who are overly (and inapropriately) affectionate in public, and hopefully get them to stop. Sometimes used to poke fun at …”
I’m with Toshi on this. In my experience it has been used in the way they describe.
I agree, and Gladys actually started the ball rolling, by referring to Hunt as the ‘best’ Health Minister, or words to that effect. In context, “Get a room” was pretty innocuous I reckon. Sexual not sexist?
More of sign of an absurdly unjustified/unlikely mutual admiration society than sexist.
Talking head tongue baths are the norm – Blot & Price, Dutton & Hadley, Morrison & Jones,
Hanson & Laws etc ad nasueam.
Agree! Just an excuse to sing each others praises… I would have said “pass the bucket” myself!
I would agree that in a collegial context of mutual respect this comment is relatively innocuous and a humorous put down. Moreover, the whole Dorothy Dixer process is nauseating, patronising (of the electorate who are supposed to appreciate this self-congratulatory garbage) and contrary to what parliament should be about. This sounds like a worse than usual example, deserving a put down.
However, parliament is clearly not a collegial place of mutual respect, at least as far as women are concerned. It’s a place shot through with sexism and abuse, of the sort that one associates with boys boarding schools of the worst type. Frankly it’s toxic. Nowhere in the public service, where people were on $200,000 a year salaries, would it be tolerated. Not that the pay should matter and few public servants earn more than half this amount. However, that the perpetrators are so privileged just makes the behaviour even more egregious.
In the current toxic context, language has to be much more careful, an effort has to be made to accord every respect and avoid ambiguity. If at some point the culture improves enough, such a comment might be fine. At present it is not and it speaks volumes to how far parliament has to go that that is the case.
Doubt I’m alone in wanting some explanation of Lidia Thorpe’s bizarre insult. Or that her party leader Adam Bandt do/say anything about it… Her explanation – “something disturbing I saw” – just begs for clarification. What exactly did she see?
“Something nasty in the woodshed?” Cold Comfort perhaps.
It was deeply disappointing. Lidia Thorpe has really tried to good for low income Australians- especially First Nations Australians and especially women- and then she came out with that.
It’s always so much worse when a woman does it to a woman.
You show me an Australian woman who hasn’t had a manspreading, mansplainer pontificating at her – usually with power over her – and I’ll show you a lady who’s spent her life living under a rock. And here we have one woman senator throwing the old “nice little girls sit with their knees together” at another in our Parliament.
Sexist double standard in all its horrible glory.
Yes I would expect better from Lidia…
I assumed she meant she could see too far up the woman’s skirt, but who knows?
On David Spiers’ 702ABC radio segment this morning, a caller/texter bought up Lidia Thorpe’s offensively sexist comment, labelling her “the woman whose name ABC dared not mention.” Presenters Wendy & Robbie got all sniffy and said, “we’ve mentioned her!” but there was some truth in the observation. Their station had indeed duly reported the senator’s apology with a long sound grab from her speech at 9am on Thursday – without saying or giving any hint about what she was apologising for! The item left me mystified. Several hours later, presumably after an editorial crisis meeting in ABC news management, they finally revealed what she had said…
But all was back on track at the ABC for Richard Glover’s journo’s political forum later in the day. Asked what could be done to “fix” toxic behaviour in parliament, some progressive left hack guest whose name I don’t recall trotted out the usual pieties. Clearly we “must have more women in positions of power”, he suggested. More indigenous women, he should have added…
As with Waukesha – “When good liberal lapdogs attack“?
I heard the whole story from Virginia Trioli speaking to David Speers on morning radio ABC just the morning after-
Selective listening on your part. The issue was thoroughly aired on RN. Maybe stop regurgitating IPA talking points.
Yeah sorry, but the “get a room” jibe is not overtly sexist, IMO-as I’ve used it, myself, on both males & females, who are either overly aggressive or overly friendly. If I had to put up with MP’s throwing out Dorothy Dixers all day, I’d probably shout “oh, get a room you too” as well-no matter the gender of the questioner or the answerer.
” On the final sitting day of the year, Liberal MP Gladys Lui threw Health Minister Greg Hunt a Dorothy Dixer: “Will the minister please outline to the House how our healthcare heroes have worked tirelessly to protect Australians throughout the COVID-19 pandemic?” Hunt replied that she was the “best member for Chisholm”.
It was a useless question better suited to an election campaign poster than Parliament. The groans from Labor were embellished by a bellowed “get a room!” from an as-yet unnamed male Labor MP. ” depending on how is was said from the MP to the minister and their reply “get a room ” would not be out of context and it seems the speaker thought the same. To me the question sounds so patronizing but then this is parament and both sides are just as good as another.
They wonder why we hold them in contempt. Howard once said politics is a noble profession. Piss off!
I doubt that they wonder – they just don’t give a flying.
Why would they – 70% of the electorate never change their (ancestral) vote, 10% “swing” according to the B/S proferred, 5% don’t show and 5% deliberately spoil their ballots.
The remaining 10% languish in La-La Land under the misapprehension that reason & rationality play some part in governance.