In the last few days, women have been thrown under more buses than usual by members of the Turnbull Government, making something of a mockery of the Prime Minister’s desire to make Parliament House a more woman-friendly workplace.
They have also demonstrated, yet again, that other women can trash you as easily as can a man.
The following story should finally put paid to the risible argument that the Coalition would be a better Government if only there were more female MPs. Rubbish. It’s the ideology, not the biology.
Senator Michaelia Cash, former Minister for Women, now representing the new Minister, Kelly O’Dwyer, in the Senate, lost her head and threatened to expose alleged rumours about the sexual lives of young women in Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s office, when asked seemingly innocuous questions in Senate Estimates about the movement of staff in her own office. You can still see the entire unedifying episode if by any chance you’ve thus far missed out.
.@SenatorCash just showed Australia who she REALLY is: vicious, grubby & nasty. Deflecting questions about her staffing with rumours about Shorten is DISGRACEFUL & proof of her guilt and total lack of character.@TurnbullMalcolm This is now a test of your leadership. #AusPol pic.twitter.com/Rc2e447kXD
— Kiera (@KieraGorden) February 28, 2018
Cash threatened to “expose” young women staffers – based on nothing more than “rumours” – if she was questioned any further about her new chief of staff. It has since emerged that her new female chief of staff has been transferred from Trade Minister Steven Ciobo’s office — a demotion, as Cash is a junior Minister.
The women in Shorten’s office are likely outraged by Cash’s murky innuendoes. And it is quite startling that the former Minister for Women should single out young women to use as a threat in an effort to avoid scrutiny of her own staffing arrangements.
In effect, Cash used the female staffers as political weapons. She didn’t threaten to expose Shorten, or any men rumoured to engage in office affairs. She focused right in on the young women, whom she implied were sluts.
Parliament House is not a workplace that looks out for women as a priority. For example, there is no specific procedure for addressing complaints of sexual harassment. A 2017 investigation revealed procedures in place for dealing with these complaints are woefully inadequate, even described by the investigators as “shocking” and below Human Rights Commission standards.
Yes. This is our Parliament. The heart of our nation. The home of our legislators. No adequate procedures for making complaints of sexual harassment. I kid you not.
Next, we woke up this Sunday morning to the news that Barnaby Joyce has decided he may not be the father of his lover’s baby after all, but being a decent bloke, he’ll love the boy and raise him as his own regardless. And he won’t do a paternity test. Journalists, Joyce claimed, are entirely at fault for not asking him when the story broke if he is the father.
Joyce is lying. At least two journalists did ask this question, Sharri Markson of News Corp and Leigh Sales on the ABC’s 7.30. Joyce enthusiastically avowed his responsibility for the baby boy and the reasons for his current disavowal remain unclear.
It’s quite something, to tell the Australian nation that your partner’s baby may not be yours. If you want to seriously damage a woman, there’s little more effective than implying she is such a slut she doesn’t know who her baby’s father might be — that she’s misled you into thinking the child is yours and now you’re such a great guy, you’re going to stand by her anyway. And yet, if you are such a great guy, wouldn’t you just shut up and carry on and not expose your partner and the baby to such awfulness?
There's been a bombshell twist in the Barnaby Joyce saga with the former deputy PM now reportedly saying he's unsure whether he's the father of his partner's unborn child. #9Today pic.twitter.com/1Tf4ZmkbLs
— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) March 3, 2018
It’s the enduring patriarchal myth: that women will lie about our babies’ fathers. The primary purpose of heterosexual marriage is to ensure a man knows the children are his. There is likely no greater transgression than a woman being uncertain of her child’s father. Joyce has dumped Ms Campion right in it. All that remains is for him to pin a red “S” on her shirt.
Yet again, we’ve seen played out in our politics the damaging myths of female sexuality, myths that position us primarily as sexual objects. No matter that a staffer in Shorten’s office may have three degrees and a fine brain, be first class at her job and work like a dog. She’s useful to Michaelia Cash only as a sexual object. In other words, she’s a slut.
In the Coalition Government, women’s bodies remain battlegrounds — for other women as well as men.
And spare a thought for women working in Parliament House without even the protection of proper process when they are sexually harassed.
You can follow Dr Jennifer Wilson on her blog No Place for Sheep or on Twitter @NoPlaceForSheep.
.@tanya_plibersek: 'You have to be thick-skinned to work in politics but women are disappointed with @SenatorCash comments. I don't care where she apologises but common decency would say you front up and say it to the person'
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) February 28, 2018
MORE: https://t.co/KUl77yVTpI #amagenda pic.twitter.com/8hwZ3dTjTk
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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