LAYING to rest the widely held belief that Canberra’s political and media elites live in a glistening ego-bubble, they emoted yesterday about the rights, harassment and bodily autonomy of workers at Parliament House. Is a sarcasm tag necessary? As hundreds of thousands of people continue to be blackmailed and bullied into taking a ‘vaccine’ that is illegal to force on them, the Miss Marple of Sex Discrimination, Kate Jenkins, tabled a report on nebulous infamies supposedly committed by parliament’s officer class against long-suffering women. I have no brief to defend politicians or their batmen who may have been helping themselves to pretty staffers as ravenously as they help themselves to everything else. Compared to the harassment and consent-trashing perpetrated by vaxxer maximalists, however, the capital’s latest melodrama is trivial.
Mrs Jenkins is a feminist culture warrior whose record as wrangler of quantitative reality is, to say the least, mixed. She eagerly endorsed a 2017 HRC report on harassment and assault on university campuses which was quickly demolished as fraudulent. Did she also use dodgy techniques to park a gender time-bomb on the desk of a Prime Minister already being assailed by a customary gotcha campaign on that subject? Yes and no.
The 2017 survey was debunked by expert reviewers on account of its laughable 10 percent response rate. Equally egregious were the criteria: unwanted leering and being bothered on a bus en route to university were handily classified as campus harassment. The HRC conjured the headline figure of 51 per cent; “More Than Half Australian students sexually harassed.” Coincidentally, the Jenkins report also found that “51 per cent of workers experienced at least one incident of bullying, sexual harassment or actual or attempted sexual assault.” For culture nudgers, less than half just won’t do – which is why feminists have been stuffing misdemeanours into equality polemics like pink batts into a bungalow for years.
A few lessons were learned from the 2017 debacle. Set The Standard received 1,723 contributions (written submissions, interviews, questionnaires). As a sample, that’s enough to be going on with but the survey catchment was sized to be as fecund as possible. The figures and percentages being discussed pertain to public servants, the Federal Police, electorate office staff, the media, caterers, security personnel and COMCAR workers. The veracity of the few submissions cited in the report is impossible to test but the bar for inclusion may not have been high. For example, under the sub-heading, Some participants shared their experiences (p.120), can be found this recollection: “I woke up the next morning naked in my bedroom in the hotel. I don’t know what happened.” If she doesn’t know what happened, neither does Kate Jenkins.
Am I being too cynical? No, I don’t think I am. The reason I described Scott Morrison as ridiculous for his Sunday sermon about evil trolls was not that I have any sympathy for curs who commit acts of psychic violence online – which I have never tolerated. His silence about such behaviour was the reason. I was thinking about those nameless government functionaries working to destroy Bernard Collaery and returned Afghanistan War servicemen. Likewise, Commissioner Jenkins’ endeavours are not risible because she condemns boorishness and worse in Canberra. They certainly are when she uses alleged victims to push a woke-leftist program of gender, race and sexuality quotas on an institution that doesn’t belong to either her or its coddled, transient employees. I’ll say this in her defence (but not his): at least she believes in something.
At which point the government should have disbanded the HRC for lying. Of course they didn’t. Therefore they only have themselves to blame for any subsequent criticism they receive.
Seriously, if you ask the Sex Discrimination Commissioner to look for sexual harassment in Parliament House, then she will find it, whether it is there or not. Especially if you have appointed a feminist to the job, which of course the government was stupid enough to do.
If Australia really must pay the salary of a SDC, then she should be set a task that is genuinely useful. Get her to write a report on the sexual harassment of women and children in remote Aboriginal communities.
Excellent point.
That expression elephant in the bathroom.
Professional middle class women garnering resources for themselves, again, and not even pretending to have common case with real suffering.
I remember reading Clarence Thomas’s autobiography, he was raised by his grandfather in the segregated south, and knew first hand what it was like to be poor, hungry, disadvantaged but was dumbstruck at wealthy white northen women claiming common cause with poor African Americans.
The Canberra mob don’t even do that.
I was hoping for a serious attempt at what is happening in Canberra. Alas it did not occur here.
The difference between what occurs now and when I regularly walked in the corridors of Parliament are the staffers. In My time people were frequently seconded from Treasury or PMC. That is how I first met Ken Henry. It is how I met Tim Stewart.
Those who were not came to Canberra after having at least some work experience.
These days they come straight from Uni where they played Uni politics. It is destroy or be destroyed. They play hard and therefore party hard. The two go hand in hand.
It is time to change that.
Having a HR department is a no-brainer. A person needs somewhere to go if they are bullied, assaulted etc.
Parliament needs to change. Let us hope it does.
Totally agree @Not Trampis
Shut it down.
Fire Them All.
Sack the top third of every government department.
Are you also a wombat whisperer?
TheirABC
Doesn’t sound like the sort of place a young lady should go to in the early hours of the morning, dead drunk, in the company of a man.
Try a police station.
Even if it happened, you wouldn’t tell anybody about it.
– Paul Keating on bullying
Also Homer: cut the crap.
This is a thing because the Liberals are in office. No other reason.
CL that is an ignorant statement.
No organisation these days wants bullying in their workplace. A HR department can work out if the allegations are correct and if so those who have bullied are sacked.
I am working out why you talked about ALP leaders in the last 38 years. It has nothing to do with the topic. Hawke walked away from his wife but Keating didn’t. Hawke did not give a toss about marriage Keating did. Despite all this Hawke was possibly out\r best PM
I guess going further back to Holt, Gorton. McMahon would have proved embarrassing.
Annita couldn’t take any more of him, apparently. You only have to watch his conduct in Parliament to see why.
I’m not actually interested in Parliament House. I’m more interested in why its navel-gazing elites pretend to care about bullying while the states violate the rights, bodies and consciences of millions of Australians with their illegal vaccine mandates.
Anyway, the reference to prime ministers’ marriages was a bit clunky anyway so I’ve edited it out.
A sub would occasionally be handy but this is a one-man paper, alas.
Hawke walked away from his wife but Keating didn’t.
Anita walked away from the marriage. He should have realsied marriage is much more important than making money.
People who holler about vaccine mandates cannot be taken seriously on either abortion or ‘legal’ suicide.
you are missing something way more important. The parliaments are merely supporting what most people want.
That is the fundamental problem
Most people want gay ‘marriage’ and Down syndrome babies exterminated as well.
I couldn’t care less what most people want.
Most people wanted Barabbas.
Thanks, Ivan. I remember reading that article. Very sad.
Certainly seems that he stood over her pretty badly for a long time.
The ladies of the press gallery don’t mind, though. They worship him still.
Most (German) people wanted Hitler for quite a long while too.
That worked out very well didn’t it?
Eureka! Non Compos Mnetis has said something vaguely sensible!
Those who were not came to Canberra after having at least some work experience.
These days they come straight from Uni where they played Uni politics. It is destroy or be destroyed. They play hard and therefore party hard. The two go hand in hand.
If you actually were to read and comprehend the comments here and at New Catallaxy, you would be well aware that others commenters routinely condemn the “Uni where they played Uni politics” route to Parliamentary staff positions (and even more the next step to member of Parliament).
Pity about this bit:
No organisation these days wants bullying in their workplace. A HR department can work out if the allegations are correct and if so those who have bullied are sacked.
Having spent some time in a public service HR division (Not bad for someone who didn’t complete primary school, eh?), the process is far from as straightforward as you imagine.
you are missing something way more important. The parliaments are merely supporting what most people want.
Given the general contempt in which politicians are held, that is drawing a long bow, even for you.
Most people wanted Barabbas.