Discrimination

It says a lot about changing community standards that a state such as Queensland, which under Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen was every civil libertarian’s nightmare, has this week voted to recognise same-sex unions.

Or does it?

It could show that the Queensland Parliament has responded to majority community sentiment in support of gay marriage. Or it could just show that the Queensland Parliament is now home to a majority of MPs who support gay marriage.

Continue reading "Gay marriage: there’s nothing easy about “I do”" »

Is Julia Gillard copping more flak than past prime ministers because she is a woman? No. And yes.

Julia Gillard has been the subject of much public debate and media scrutiny over her appearance, her voice, her de facto relationship, her lack of children, her disinterest in domestic affairs.

Some of this debate has been quite rugged and quite insulting. In caricature she is often drawn as a rectangle; Peter Nicholson in The Australian habitually draws her with such a big bum that her buttocks appear to be chasing the rest of her body.

Continue reading "Is Gillard a victim of sexism?" »

A couple of South Australian politicians were featured in the paper this weekend, parking their government cars in very clearly marked disabled parking spaces. The photos were published and, judging by the comments on The Advertiser’s website, people were really, really angry that a pollie would do such a heinous thing.

The MPs were suitably reprimanded by public opinion, and the Dignity for Disability MLC, the Hon Kelly Vincent, who uses a wheelchair herself, demanded that they each cough up the equivalent of the fine to a disability related charity, which they did, heads hanging low. They admitted their shameful and embarrassing “crime” and no doubt, no other MP in South Australia at least, will park in a disabled space without a permit for a very long time. But how can people who truly need those spaces get that message through to the “ablebods”?

I put a call out for a contribution to this column about disabled parking spaces and received stories from Nicola Stratford and Kate Jenian, over the jump, this week’s piece of angry. Their stories are not unusual. They do remind us, however, that stupidity and arrogance are not disabilities which qualify for a disability parking permit.

Continue reading "What bastard would park in a disabled space?" »

Some might be wondering why two days of our national media cycle have included debate over a man miaowing like a cat and the appropriate level of offence it should or shouldn’t cause. While we’d like our parliament to set a standard for the rest of the community, the truth is we often fall well short - in terms of behaviour and sexism.

There has been progress but it is still a parliament dominated by men in suits. Women here, like women in any workplace, are entitled to enjoy equal treatment in all senses. No-one is asking for favours or complaining about the hustle and bustle that accompanies hard-fought debate but there is just one request - maybe we could treat members of both genders equally.

There were howls from the Opposition when the Government described the noise that was made towards Penny Wong as sexist. The reality is that not only was it sexist but it also pointed to a pretty unpleasant pattern of behaviour, which has flourished under the leadership of Tony Abbott.

Continue reading "How a 19th century leader sets a tone of sexism" »

In a room full of females, raise the issue of women in sport and you can expect a collective groan and eyes rolling in unison. And, given the facts on sponsorship, media coverage and support, it’s hardly surprising.

Take the Matildas, Australia’s national soccer side. They regularly qualify for the World Cup and the Olympics but still play to half-empty stadiums while making the same commitments as their male counterparts, the Socceroos.

It’s a given perception that women in sport get a raw deal, and arguably the focus for too long has been on their appearance and sex appeal. But over the past few years there’s been a substantial shift in the paradigm of women’s sports coverage. Sponsors and television networks alike are starting to see the value in investing in women.

Continue reading "TV finally gets it: viewers like watching women’s sport" »

“It is not ideal that religious freedom is protected by so-called ‘exemptions and exceptions’ in anti-discrimination law, almost like reluctant concessions, crumbs from the secularists’ table.”

Cardinal George Pell’s recent lament to Prime Minister Julia Gillard about the “secularists’ table” seems odd, given that religion still defines our nationhood. Just ask our atheist Prime Minister. It is hard to imagine then how exceptions and exemptions are metaphorical “crumbs”, when they have a vast reach in excluding minority groups in Australia.

While each state and territory currently has anti-discrimination laws which protect against some forms of sexuality or gender identity discrimination, the inconsistency in terminology, and the wide-ranging exemptions (particularly for faith-based bodies) means there are considerable gaps in protecting the rights of individuals accessing health services, goods or services, aged care, employment and education.

Continue reading "The faithful are feasting on religious freedoms" »

Sue O’Reilly, who has guest written today’s column on The Angry Cripple is a freelance journalist and the mother of a 21-year-old son with cerebral palsy. She co-founded Australians Mad as Hell last year with Fiona Porter to campaign for an NDIS and established a charity called Fighting Chance to help people with disabilities pay for essential therapy services.

The president of South Australia’s Council on Intellectual Disabilities recently stated that all people with disabilities have “a right to live in an ordinary home in an ordinary street”.

But what if some people with disabilities don’t want to live in “an ordinary house in an ordinary street”?

What if they want to live in something like the manicured villages that have sprung up everywhere for people over 55, or an apartment complex with 24/7 care facilities?

Continue reading "Disability advocates ignoring what’s best for disabled" »

Most Australian media like to run the “Crippled Orphan Boy overcomes Headlessness to Swim the Murray for Charity” or “Wheelchair Bound (yuck) Woman Speaks to Schoolkids about Dangers of Drunk Driving” kinds of stories.

They are not often actually inspiring to me. Mostly, they make me feel as though people with disabilities are to be routinely pitied, and awarded if they do anything more than get out of bed in the morning.

There was, however, one guy doing the rounds last week who was a little different. Nick Vujicic, a 28-year-old Brisbane bloke who is a Minister and motivational speaker, and he’s got no arms or legs, just a kind of a foot that sticks out from one hip. This guy’s ‘can do’ attitude is almost sickening.

Continue reading "The Angry Cripple goes out on a limb" »

One of my favourite episodes of Will & Grace involves Jack stumbling across the “Welcome Back Home” conversion program.

It’s hilarious for two reasons: One, because Jack cunningly chooses to think of the group as “Welcome Back Homo” and two, as the episode amusingly shows, washing that gay right out of your hair isn’t all that simple. Or successful.

My interest in conversion programs is two-fold. I find them stupidly hilarious as Will & Grace and But I’m a Cheerleader and Saved and Boston Legal and Big Love and plenty of other examples testify.

Continue reading "Apple should have kept the anti-gay app" »

What a week it has been for the Prime Minister of our nation, Our Lady of the Lodge, the Very Reverend Julia “Traditional Values” Gillard.

Let me get this “straight”…if you’ll pardon the expression.  Our first female Prime Minister, an atheist living in a de facto relationship, claims to be a traditionalist with a conservative upbringing. 

We are exhorted to go back to Bible stories to understand why marriage equality doesn’t fit with Australia’s cultural heritage because we have to see where we have come from.

Continue reading "The Very Reverend Julia “Traditional Values” Gillard" »

When I was a kid, I loved watching all the old movies.

I can remember precisely the day that I asked my mother for a pair of black and white wing-tip shoes so that I could learn to dance like Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire.

Turns out those shoes, even at that time, were very much out of fashion and hard to find, so I never got them.

Continue reading "Kids need encouragement to play to their strengths" »

“Homosexual tendencies (are) one of many conditions that beset fallen humanity.”

According to Exodus International’s policy statements, those who embrace “homosexual behaviours” have lives that are “sinful” and “destructive”.

Rather than simply condemn non-heterosexual desire, Exodus International (A Christian organisation that condemns homosexuality) adopts what they refer to as a ‘redemptive’ approach – seeking to ‘reorient’ the ‘fallen’.

Continue reading "‘Pray away the gay’ app a sign of deeper bigotry" »

hy·poc·ri·sy (h-pkr-s) n. pl. hy·poc·ri·sies

1. The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.

2. An act or instance of such falseness.

Continue reading "How do you spell hypocrisy?" »

An exhaustive survey of Aussie Rules fans by Melbourne’s Herald-Sun found that dumped football commentator Kelli Underwood was regarded as the most annoying caller on television by 39.5 per cent of respondents.

The survey could show two things. It could show that 39.5 per cent of people surveyed are football purists with legitimate concerns over Underwood’s grasp of the game.

Conversely, it could show that 39.5 per cent of respondents are sexist dropkicks who think footy is a man’s game and that girls should stick to talking about cosmetics and recipes.

Continue reading "One thing Kelli Underwood lacks as a footy commentator" »

Gay marriage is supported by a majority of Australians. At least that’s what the few published opinion polls on the issue would suggest.

The most recent poll, in October of this year, was commissioned by a pro-gay marriage lobby group called Australian Marriage Equality. But it was conducted by the independent polling firm Galaxy, which since 2004 has one of the best records at picking federal and state election results. With a solid sample of 1050 respondents, the Galaxy survey found that 62 per cent of Australians did not have a problem with the idea of same-sex marriage.

The result was in keeping with other recent polls which have shown either a narrow or comfortable majority of people supports gay marriage. A different question, however, is whether people wanted the Gillard Government to act as a matter of urgency to legalise gay marriage.

Continue reading "Besieged Gillard can’t afford to act on gay marriage" »

Who would have thought that in the year 2010 a “good” school would try to enforce a “Ken and Barbie doll” image on its senior students? Don’t they watch Modern Family? Haven’t they tuned in to Glee?

I was shocked to see the story today about Hannah Williams and her girlfriend Savannah Supski. Hannah was banned from bringing her girlfriend Savannah to the school formal and was told that if she wanted to attend, it would have to be with a boy so they could get a nice gender balance. 

It is just not a credible argument that if they allowed girls to invite anyone they wanted, they would all invite other girls. I suspect the Principal already regrets saying that.

Continue reading "Lesbian prom ban: welcome to Ken and Barbie High" »

Given Victoria’s November election and the Greens Party’s policy on sexual orientation and gender identity this week’s controversy about a girls’ school banning a student from taking her lesbian partner to the school social is timely.

If the Greens Party wins the balance of power in the upcoming state election and is able to implement its policy then there is every chance that Catholic schools will be forced to employ gay/lesbian teachers and promote the benefits of alternative sexuality and gender lifestyles to students.

Government and other faith-based schools will also be made to teach a curriculum that positively discriminates in favour of gays, lesbians, transgender and intersex persons.

Continue reading "Lesbian prom ban: religious schools can set standards" »

That apt French phrase about the more things change, the more they stay the same could have been minted to describe this election campaign, maybe even all election campaigns in two-party democracies.

It’s the same dispiriting stuff every time, is it not? Each side disparaging the other, every candidate in every electorate seemingly basing his or her re-election strategy on avoiding controversy, on staying “on message” (read, repeating their party mantra ad nauseum), on probing for any opportunity to diminish an opponent’s credibility, on getting their smiling face on as many bill-boards, as many newspaper pictures, TV grabs as possible.

And well, why not?  With every aspiring and/or sitting MP under the absolutely microscopic scrutiny which an increasingly pervasive and diverse news media is now able to bear, any blunder by any candidate has the potential to be an election-winning tipping point. So the tactic of being the “small target ” has become more or less universal.

Continue reading "Ideology aside, let’s hear it for the sisterhood" »

Few have succeeded in defending the seemingly indefensible; O.J Simpson’s attorney being a notable exception. Yet I will attempt to make a defence for Wendy Francis, Queensland’s much maligned Senate candidate for Family First.

At the outset – a disclosure. Francis has used my PR company in the past for strategic advice (don’t laugh – I already know what you are thinking) and I assisted her from a media perspective in her campaign to “make the outdoors G-rated” a few months back.

That said, this article is not being written for her, nor does she have any knowledge of it. I am merely adding my perspective to bring some sense of balance and understanding to what has been an extremely one-sided, and in some ways unfair, reaction.

Continue reading "Gay marriage row: in defence of Wendy Francis" »

One in four Australians experiences some form of racism. (“The People of Australia”, AMAC, April 2010).

83% of Australians agree that there is racial prejudice in Australia (“Challenging Racism, The anti-racism research project”, Prof Kevin Dunn et al, October 2008).

In his discussion of different kinds of racism, Prof. Kevin Dunn includes amongst them that which protects “privilege” usually as perceived by the White establishment.  The “quality of life” arguments of the current political debates around population are dangerously close to the privilege arguments of racism.  Words such as conformity to “Australian” ways of life are being aired bravely.  As Dunn points out, assimilationist positions are inherently anti-multicultural.

Continue reading "No holds barred for racism in Australian politics" »

It’s like waking up after a one-night stand and wanting to chew your arm off. Twice.

Our flirtations with Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard have been wildly passionate but short-lived. The reasons have been well canvassed: Policy backflips and spin over substance.

But La Gillard will find it harder than her predecessor to win back one important sector of the community – women. We expect more of our female leaders. Rational or not, we expect those who break through the glass ceiling to make it easier for the rest of us.

Continue reading "Julia Gillard and the problem with women" »

There is a new dog whistle in Australian politics and it is being blown in sections of the media, in the Liberal Party and most devastatingly, by a traitor inside the ALP.

The encrypted message it carries? That Julia Gillard is a childless, career-obsessed feminist, unmarried by choice, and uninterested in the normal things such as children and families and the elderly.

In an election-heated political climate in which showing empathy with the suburban mainstream is everything, this finely honed message is designed to seep almost unnoticed into the public consciousness and once there become politically lethal - to leave an impression without ever owning up to it.

Continue reading "Rank sexism behind the persecution of Gillard" »

Good on you Adrian Piccoli for finally having the guts to say what so many wouldn’t. For too long men in politics have been judged more on their hair cuts and the choice of their ties than on their ability to do their jobs.

Poor Tony Abbott, with just a smattering of lycra to protect him, has had to suffer sexualised appraisals from the commentariat.

Lindsay Tanner has had to carry on those broad shoulders the burden of being known as “thinking woman’s crumpet.” And as if doing a tax review wasn’t enough to deal with, Treasury Boss Ken Henry practically has groupies.

Continue reading "This disgusting sexist double standard must cease" »

The German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom announced recently they would introduce a dictate that by 2015 30% of middle and upper management positions must be filled by women.

They are thus far the only DAX-listed company to consider such a move, but elsewhere in Europe gender quotas are becoming an increasingly familiar site on the corporate landscape.

Norway introduced legislation in 2002 that required 40% of all board members to be women, with Spain and the Netherlands following suit. Other countries contemplating passing similar laws include Belgium, Britain, Germany, France and Sweden.

Continue reading "The other inequality behind gender imbalance at work" »

The Anti-Discrimination Commissioner plans to launch a federal High Court action to ban the recognition of April Fool’s Day in Australia on the grounds that it discriminates against stupid people.

If successful the case could trigger a tidal wave of litigation from schoolboys who got their fingers caught in chewing-gum-box traps, teachers who have had shoes drop on their heads, co-workers who agree to go looking for a long stand and other victims of their own gullibility.

They could in theory seek compensation from the federal government for having failed to protect them from hilarious practical jokes.

Continue reading "Court bid to ban April Fool’s Day for discrimination" »

Anthropologist Peter Sutton has a long association with indigenous people.

In his new book The Politics of Suffering, he makes an observation that deserves quoting at length:

The first consideration must be to focus on those conditions that are conducive to the emotional and physical wellbeing of the unborn, infants, children, adolescents, the elderly, and adult women and men. It is remarkable how many people living in the comfort, affluence and healthy surroundings of Australia’s suburbia have, in the debates over indigenous policy and especially the Intervention, covertly promoted the view that respect of cultural differences and racially defined political autonomy takes precedence over a child’s basic human right to have love, wellbeing and safety. It is as if political feelings and political values are more important than one’s emotional feelings and moral values as fellows of those other human beings in the ghettos.

Continue reading "Putting do-gooder politics ahead of helping people" »

I’m going to confess straight up to having little to zero interest in the underwear choices of Venus Williams.

Yet in recent days her flesh coloured shorts have become a story in sport in themselves and sent twitter abuzz with is she or isn’t she wearing underpants debates.

Perhaps this isn’t so shocking, Maria Sharapova’s green “frocklet” (I kid you not- apparently there is indeed such a thing), got its own press conference launch and then we saw precious column space designated to the diamond earring and necklace choices of Serena Williams, (which she liked “because it had lots of S’s in the design”, and we can all respect that).

Continue reading "Treating women’s sport like a trivial fashion contest" »

Would Australia’s sporting mainstream benefit from the introduction of a Rooney Rule?

In 2003, America’s NFL introduced the Rooney Rule to provide legitimate opportunities for minority candidates. The rule, named after Dan Rooney, owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers franchise and a strong advocate for the rule’s introduction, requires all NFL teams to interview at least one minority candidate for any vacant head coaching or front office position.

Concurrently the Fritz Pollard Alliance was established to identify candidates, submit names for vacancies and to prepare prospective applicants for the interview process.

Continue reading "A simple rule that could transform sport in Australia" »

Unless you were lucky enough to be of nightclubbing age in the 1970s it has never been cool to wear white leather shoes. Despite being akin to wearing a large sign that says “I’m a tool”, this hideous footwear has had something of a resurgence in trendy nightclubs thanks to metrosexuality.

But after a decade at the cutting edge of cool, metrosexuals have been given one clear signal they may have to go back to being ordinary blokes. Nightclub promoter Scott Mellor has chalked a line in the pavement outside a new club event in Melbourne that debuts on Friday. Beyond it, metrosexuals shall not pass.

Anthropologists might be tempted to attribute this to a socio-collectivist and culturo-genetic realisation that men are not capable of understanding manicures and shopping to the extent required to live a truly metrosexual life. But most would say metrosexuality was like platform shoes for blokes – a stupid idea in the first place – and besides, since David Beckham first dyed his tips blonde women have been clamouring that they prefer real men.

Continue reading "End of metrosexuals is a win for real equality" »

In his deservingly scornful review of the book Iron John, Robert Bly’s absurd bible of the men’s movement in the United States, British author Martin Amis describes the comical pilgrimage made by maladjusted men into the American woods to sniff each other’s armpits, channel negative energy into circles of hate and howl at the moon at the fact that mum had them circumcised.

Happily, this quest to unleash what Amis ridicules as “the hairy satyr within” does not appear to have any formal and organised equivalent in Australia.

This is probably because most Australian men have nothing of any real magnitude to get off their chest, or simply find that the odd night at the pub or the occasional fishing weekend provides ample therapy for any lingering sense of gender injustice. That, and the fact that we’ve got too wry a sense of humour and too much self-awareness to engage in anything that silly.

Continue reading "Angry boys club needs a Bex and a good lie down" »

Fifty-eight years ago, as a conscript in the Australian Navy, I was on parade with ship’s company on the wharf at Williamstown, I believe it was.

A police identity check was taking place. Two rather hefty men, wearing dark fedoras, so favoured by celebrated criminals and successful detectives of the day, and bearing police standard issue suspicious scowls, moved between our ranks.

A third, slighter and very nervous, man was in tow. The offence being investigated was the bashing and robbery by sailors of a homosexual man in a park, the third person with the two detectives.

Continue reading "We’ve come so far on gay rights but it’s not enough" »

So long, farewell, and thanks for all the flab.

Goodbye “Dance Your Ass Off”. Goodbye to the lurid outfits and the ridiculous hats that Australian audiences for but one brief week got to sample. Goodbye to the prospect of a weekly side-serving of self-abasing, mortifying attempts at burlesque routines and swing-dancing in the name of farewelling the extra kilos.

Channel Nine in its estimable wisdom and impeccable taste broadcast the first episode of this part dance competition, part ritualistic humiliation of overweight wannabes for Australian audience’s viewing pleasure a couple of weeks ago.

Continue reading "Finally, modern TV masters the art of humiliating the fat" »

Is it playing up to stereotypes to put Bruno’s failure at the Australian box office down to the same more-than-lingering homophobia that doomed it in the US?

The numbers would suggest so, with ticket sales in both countries following the depressing downward curve set aside for movies that cop a flat ‘don’t see it’ around the watercooler.

The mockumentary opened here July 9 and is largely concerned with putting its title character, a flamboyantly gay Austrian TV presenter, in play opposite unsuspecting rednecks in order to get audiences laughing and/or squirming at flamboyantly gay behaviour.

Continue reading "Too many poofs spoil the broth for Bruno" »

When the delegates at the ALP National Conference sat down on Saturday to discuss the issue of same-sex marriage, there’s one question that should have loomed large in their minds: “Which side of history do you want to be on?”

Despite the result, same sex marriage is inevitable in Australia - and a quick analysis of two factors makes this blindingly obvious. The first is the international situation.  Seven countries have now introduced same-sex marriage, along will six states of the USA.  Just like so many other waves of social reform before it (giving women the vote, decriminalizing homosexuality, etc.) same-sex marriage will spread throughout the western, liberal democracies eventually reaching Australia.
 
The second factor that makes same-sex marriage inevitable is the demographics. 

Continue reading "Gay marriage - which side of history is Labor on?" »

Raised on a diet of Disney movies, contemporary society has become so besotted with the idea of heterosexual romance, marriage and weddings, we fail to see the people for the confetti and happily-ever-afters.

Caught up in a Hollywood version of what constitutes a legitimate union, we’re becoming exclusive, political and discriminatory and overlooking what should be a very basic human right: the right of the individual to form a loving, public and legal commitment to another person and have it civilly sanctioned regardless of sexuality.

I find it fascinating and more than a little bit perplexing, that when it comes to discussions of same-sex unions, those best positioned to provide compassion and understanding resort to straw polls, prejudicial language and silencing tactics to proclaim, yet again, the almighty significance of heterosexual unions. 

Continue reading "Marriage: Not that there’s anything wrong with that" »

David Penberthy and others on The Punch have written about the issue of gay marriage recently. His argument was, essentially, that there are lots of bad traditional marriages and there would be some good gay marriages therefore we shouldn’t be worried about gay marriage.

While a lot of people may agree and leaving aside the fact that there would also be a lot of bad gay marriages, it’s not particularly good logic. It fails to discuss the nature of marriage and its purpose.

Is marriage perfect? Of course not. But mere imperfection of itself is not an argument for its removal or significant change.

Continue reading "There’s no logical reason to allow gay marriage" »

Why is anyone surprised by this? There’s plenty of people who go on Dancing with the Stars who can’t dance. Gerrard Gosens is a very inspiring man. He’s run marathons, flies an ultralight and plans to climb Mount Everest, all things most of us have no hope of achieving.

This is a man who in spite of his visual impairment, is used to being good at things, and is obviously extraordinarily competitive and is accustomed to positive feedback and public adulation.

But he can’t dance to save himself. I saw him on Sunday night on Dancing with the Stars, and as McKenney pointed out, Gosens has no rhythm, hunches his shoulders, and doesn’t exactly look like he’s cutting up the dance floor.

Continue reading "Todd McKenney is right, Gerrard Gosens can’t dance" »

On Friday, 5th of June this year, my partner Beck and I were married in Vancouver, Canada. However, since arriving home in Australia, our marriage is no longer recognised, and this has brought significant sadness to our lives, and also to our families who were unable to travel to Vancouver to be with us on our special day. 

Beck and I are now in the bizarre predicament, that we are married in a growing number of countries in the world, but not married here in our own country.

Some people find this funny, saying we have the ‘best of both worlds’ we can get on a plane and be married one day, and get off a plane and be free of the ‘ball and chain’ the next. But this situation is far from funny to us. It is heartbreaking because we want to be married all the time, not just in certain parts of the world.

Continue reading "We’ve had the wedding. Why doesn’t our marriage count?" »

Can you believe that in 2009 we don’t allow same-sex couples to get married? It happens in countries all around the world. Not just where’d you expect like Holland and Sweden. But places like Spain and South Africa. It makes Australia look a little behind.

We all have gay mates or rellies who pay their taxes and live by the law.

But when it comes to one of the most important moments of your life - your wedding day - the law says gays are suddenly so different they’re not allowed to have one.

Continue reading "It’s time to allow gay marriage in Australia" »

Apart from the kerfuffle it caused in Brisbane last week, the nation may have missed a rugby league scandal that makes Cronulla’s woes look as shocking as a Phil Spector wig.

In fact it was less a rugby league scandal and more the culmination of years of a war on the interaction of the sexes in the workplace.

Poor Joel Clinton, the Broncos frontrower, was fined $50,000 for inviting a friend to his room the night before the match against the Tigers recently. That friend happened to be a woman.

And? And nothing That’s it, that’s all he did.

Continue reading "Wowser watch: battle of sexes skewed against men" »

My name is Tracey and I am not a lesbian. Well, except for 15 minutes in 1987. At university. Does that count? 

Everyone is at risk of being ‘outed’ these days, as tabloid media organizations eat their own to get the next exclusive story.

Last week, journalists were salivating at the mouth at the prospect of using the name ‘Tracy Grimshaw’ and ‘lesbian’ in the same sentence, following Gordon Ramsay’s outburst.

Tracy has publicly denied the allegation, but she will be forever haunted by a claim that, until now, was only whispered by carpet-strollers in TV corridors.

Continue reading "Hysterical hunt for the only gays in the media village" »

It has been reported in recent times that the proportion of women on corporate boards and in the top management of Australia’s leading companies is actually shrinking has come as a shock to many.

Australia was once ranked second only to America in the number of top companies with a woman senior executive, and we now fall last on a list of comparable nations including New Zealand, Britain, South Africa and Canada.

In Australian about 55% of the top 2000 companies have at least one woman in an executive management position – compared to 85% in the US.

Continue reading "Some women just don’t want to break the glass ceiling" »

Take note Lleyton Hewitt - the phrase “spac attack” is now on the banned list. And while he’s normally the kind of bloke who would rail against political correctness, it’s National Party Senator Barnaby Joyce who agreed to put it there.

Joyce will tonight apologise on television for saying Kevin Rudd had thrown a “spac attack,” after the Spastic Centre called on our political leaders to stop using the word “spastic” as a term of abuse.

“I would like to blame ‘Kylie Mole’ from the 1980’s Comedy Company but I should have understood the derivation of this word,” he told The Punch yesterday afternoon. “I generally can not stand political correctness but this definitely deserves an exception.”

Continue reading "“Spac attack” banned - Senator about to apologise" »