Rough old feminist broad wants more imperial honours for women



Rather amusing to see a radical feminist arguing for the relevance of imperial honours. Few Australian Leftists would.  Though it is rare for anyone to refuse a gong.

But her basic argument is the same as Hitler's.  Hitler was in fact more reserved.  He only thought that Jews were unfairly privileged whereas Jenna Price thinks that men in general are unfairly privileged.

What Hitler overlooked is that Jews had earned their eminence in Germany by hard work and superior brains.  What Ms Price overlooks is that it is difficult to achieve eminence in any field while you are at home minding babies.  I am all in favour of women staying at home minding babies and I think they should be honoured for it.  They once were until feminists began deriding them and calling them "breeders".

But however you cut it, women are just not in large numbers in occupations that are likely to generate especial honour.  Some are but they are simply not there are often as men are.  And the imperial awards reflect that.  The demand from Ms Price that women be at least equally represented in the awards is then procrustean.  It seeks to impose an un-natural equality or a pretence at equality that is just not there in the real world. Procrustes would gladly have taken her as his wife.

But her demand is of course just another iteration of the manic and incessant Leftist demand for equality in all things -- an equality that has never existed, does not exist and never will exist.

I have written at greater length about Ms Price here


Once again the honours list has failed Australian women.

This cannot continue. It's a complete dishonour to the thousands of women across Australia who deserve to be recognised at the highest level.

The awards announced on Monday will show that the percentage going to women has sunk even lower than the five-year average, already an embarrassingly low 31 per cent. In the general division of the Order of Australia, it's 467 males and 206 females. Just 30 per cent women. 

That said, there's no choice but to entirely recast the Council for the Order of Australia. If the organisation that oversees the awarding of honours to Australians can't get anything close to a semblance of Australia in those who receive these awards, the entire leadership needs to go. It must be replaced by people who are agents of change.

It needs to meet the government targets for 50 per cent of women on government boards. Of the 18 councillors, four are women. Of the four women, one, Elizabeth Kelly, comes from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Two others are state reps. And community rep and former sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick, who must be losing her mind at the slow rate of change.

So why is this organisation failing? Here are some answers.

Chairman? Air Chief Marshal Sir Angus Houston. Secretary? Mark Fraser. Official secretary to the Governor-General. Ex-officio representatives? Senator George Brandis. Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin.

All decent people but from worlds dominated by men. The military. The Liberal Party. None famous for equality. How is it possible to reshape this reflection of Australian spirit if all you see reflected is the people with whom you grew up, with whom you went to school; and now work alongside?

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Deported: Fake Iranian refugees kicked out as Immigration Minister Peter Dutton overrules AAT

SIX fake Iranian refugees who lied to get asylum in Australia will be deported despite the Administrative Appeals Tribunal’s attempts to let them stay here.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has decided to use his power to override the AAT and cancel the visas of all six Iran­ian boat people.

It is the latest in a series of moves which indicate Mr Dutton has lost patience with the AAT repeatedly foiling attempts by the Immigration Department to deport foreign-born criminals and economic refugees.

The Herald Sun last month revealed murderers, rapists, paedophiles, armed robbers and drug dealers were among criminals the AAT had saved from deportation.

Mr Dutton is planning to introduce new legislation to widen his power to set aside rulings to include citizenship decisions made by the AAT. “Where a visa has been ­issued and then cancelled by the minister, it can be referred to the AAT,” he said.

“If the AAT reinstates the visa, then the minister of the day can substitute that decision with a new decision. “The minister does have the ability to substitute a decision of the AAT, which I did in relation to those six Iranians.

“But at the moment, no such arrangements exists for citizenship applications, so the decision of the AAT can’t be overruled by the minister — and that’s what we are seeking to change.”

AAT statistics reveal it has overturned 4389 visa decisions made by delegates for Mr Dutton in the past year — that equates to the AAT rejecting a staggering 39 per cent of the ministerial visa decisions reviewed by the AAT in the 12 months to April 30.

The Herald Sun is aware of cases where the AAT has granted citizenship to a convicted people smuggler, a man convicted of sexual assaults against young boys and a convicted killer.

It did so despite the Immigration Department recommending that the three criminals were not worthy of being granted citizenship because they were not of good character.

Mr Dutton’s decision to cancel the visas of the six Iranians came just days after the Herald Sun revealed he had stepped in to ensure sex creep Melbourne taxi driver Jagdeep Singh is kicked out of Australia.

Several Australian Border Force officers grabbed Singh, 34, at his Lalor home on May 30 and put him in detention prior to his deportation back to India.

Mr Dutton’s intervention in the Singh case came after the AAT overturned a decision by Mr Dutton’s delegate to cancel Singh’s visa after he pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a female passenger.

The AAT reinstated Singh’s visa despite making a formal finding that he committed “a significant sexual offence involving a vulnerable member of the public whilst the applicant was engaged as a taxi driver”.

Mr Dutton’s decision to kick out the six Iranian queue jumpers comes after the Herald Sun last month revealed the Iranians were caught holidaying in their homeland after lying on their visa applications about fearing for their lives if they had to return there.

A delegate for Mr Dutton cancelled their visas after the Immigration Department discovered they had voluntarily returned to Iran and later came back to Australia — despite earlier claiming to Immigration Department officials that doing so would result in them being killed or persecuted.

The AAT foiled that attempt to kick them out by overturning the deportation decision made by Mr Dutton’s delegate. That prompted Mr Dutton to use his ministerial power to set aside the AAT decision and order that all six visas be cancelled.

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Must not tell the whole truth about FAT

MIA Freedman, founder of women’s news website Mamamia, has been criticised by a best selling American author for “humiliating” her about her weight.

Freedman interviewed the New York Times best-selling author Roxane Gay to promote her new book Hunger, a memoir discussing her lifelong battle with her body.



Gay was gang raped at age 12 and says she turned to food for comfort. At her heaviest, she weighed 261kgs and is medically classified as super morbidly obese.

When Gay’s publishers were arranging her visit to the Mamamia office in Sydney to conduct an interview with Freedman for her No Filter podcast, Freedman says they had a long list of requirements.

“I estimate that there were a dozen exchanges back and forth between my producer and her people and the details of them both broke my heart and opened my eyes,” Freedman said on the podcast.

“Now, I would normally never breach the confidence of what goes on behind the scenes of organising an interview, but in this case, I’ve thought a lot about it and the fundamental part of her story and what her book is about. She writes about it in the book, I’m sure she won’t mind me telling you any of this,” Freedman said.

“Her size is incredibly imposing [Gay is six foot three]. This is a logistical nightmare for her, there’s no other way to put it. The requirements that we had to go back and forth with her publishers ... were extremely detailed.”

Freedman listed some of the questions Gay’s publisher asked Mamamia’s podcast producer in a series of calls and emails.

“How many steps were there from the kerb to the end of the building? Were there any stairs? How many? How big was the lift and was here a goods lift? How many steps from the lift to the podcast studio?

“There was also a lot of talk about chairs - making sure we had one sturdy enough that would both hold her weight and make sure she was comfortable for the duration of the interview.”

Freedman goes on to say that Gay and her publishers requested that no photos or video footage be recorded of her. “Originally, this interview was going to be filmed in front of the office - we sometimes do this with No Filter guests who are loved and admired by the Mamamia team,” she said.

“But Roxane said no, no way. We couldn’t film her under any circumstances and she wouldn’t even have photos taken with anyone for private use. She was very polite...but it was non-negotiable.

That’s why there is no photo of Roxane and I that accompanies this podcast or even that I keep on in my phone and this is the first time that’s ever happened. We always take photos of everyone that comes into Mamamia. It’s kind of what happens. We use them on Facebook to illustrate the podcast and the post [online].”

Just hours after the interview and accompanying online story went live on Monday, Gay tweeted to her 211,000 Twitter followers that she found Mamamia’s discussion of these issues to be “cruel and humiliating”.

“I am appalled by Mamamia. It was a s*** show. I can walk a f***ing mile,” Gay tweeted. “‘Can she fit into the lift?’ Shame on you Mamamia,” she added. “It is cruel and humiliating.”

Mamamia has since removed the story from its website and edited the podcast description to remove details of her publisher’s requests.

Later in the podcast, Gay talks about how her size can make it difficult for her to negotiate public spaces. “It’s very stressful because you just never know is there a space that is going to accommodate me,” Gay said. “Are there going to be sturdy chairs? Are the chairs going to have arms? How wide are the arms? How low is the chair?

“It’s just a constant series of questions that you are asking yourself every single day before you go into any space and it’s exhausting because people don’t think, they just assume that everyone fits in the world that they do.”

Gay, a college professor, is the author of Bad Feminist and has travelled to Australia several times before. She has appeared on Q&A and given talks at the popular All About Women and Sydney Writers’ Festival events.

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More evidence-based education policy is needed in Australia

Blaise Joseph

If you asked any of the key players clamouring for more money in the Gonski 2.0 rumpus at the moment for (a) evidence that more funding will improve student outcomes, or (b) evidence-based policies the extra money should be spent on, you would likely receive a blank sheet of paper in reply.

While the federal government, the opposition, the Greens, the states, and the Catholic system will all admit funding isn't the only important education issue and more money by itself will not improve student outcomes, this is certainly not reflected in the way they are approaching the Gonski 2.0 debate.

This is an endemic problem in Australia's education system: investments are not necessarily informed by evidence and teaching practices are not subjected to rigorous evaluation.

A recent report from the Productivity Commission details the current issues with the education evidence base. The report identified a number of gaps in existing education data, most notably a lack of evaluation of school policies and programs. This particular gap means less accountability, making it difficult to identify best practice and subsequently turn this into common practice.

It is important the federal and state governments carefully read and respond to the report. It behoves Australia's school system to invest in evidence-based practices that are cost-effective in boosting results -- for the sake of both student achievement and fiscal responsibility.

The Gonski 2.0 plan risks getting the process back to front: the government committed to spending an additional $18.6 billion over the next 10 years and commissioned David Gonski to look at how the money can best be spent. In other words, they decided how much to spend before thinking about what it should be spent on.

As Sir Humphrey Appleby said: "Government policy has nothing to do with common sense."

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Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here