Of cats and coalitions

What is it with the opposition? Go ahead, oppose, make a good argument but must you continue to refer to female politicians as cats? Western Australian Liberal MP Don Randall made comments in an address that Julia Gillard has 'pussy-whipped' the mining industry. Are you serious Don? I might not agree with everything that any politician says but I do know that my argument kind of goes out the window when I use sexist, racist or homophobic language to get my point across. What surprises me even more is how Julie Bishop thinks such insults towards women are fair game...internalized misogyny anyone?

Dear Mr Randall,

I am writing to you to express my concern about comments you made referring to Julia Gillard in a recent meeting. Regardless of your individual views related to economic issues associated with mining, suggesting that Gillard has ‘pussy-whipped’ the industry is insulting to her and other female politicians as professionals and misogynistic at its core. There should be a clear line drawn between disagreeing with a policy and resorting to demeaning language to challenge the views of others.

In light of Senator Bushby’s incident where he made ‘miaowing’ noises at Senator Wong and Tony Abbott’s record of disparaging comments about women it would appear that the culture of your party is sexist and must change to respect women and work with them as equals in our community.

I hope that you can grow to challenge people for the quality (or lack therefore of) their work and ideas rather than using sexist language to express your opposition to their ethos.

Sincerely,

 Me

I'm on a boat

I will be chasing up on a few different issues soon, but for now I will continue to hound our government overlords about their stance on refugee and asylum seekers. The expansion of the community detention program is making slight headway in treating people more humanely in our community, but we are a long shot from replicating the broad and accomodating migrant camps we were able to sustain in generations past. Chris Bowen you haven't heard the end of this!!


Dear Minister,

I am writing to you to express my concern over the government's 'Malaysia Solution' that fails to guarantee the safety of vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers in their plight for protection. One of the most troublesome elements of your government's policy is the failure to ensure detainees will be no worse off in the custody of the Malaysian government. I urge you to pursue talks with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to articulate what measures will be taken to ensure that detainees are treated humanely with dignity and respect.

I am also concerned about plans to disallow unaccompanied minors entry into Australia. Matters relating to refugees and asylum seekers should be assessed on a case by case basis, rather than assuming that the motives of every arrival are suspect. We should be seeking to protect the most vulnerable, not isolating them and refusing them shelter from persecution. I urge your government to review its current policy and reflect upon the positive contributions that refugees and asylum seekers past and present have made to our country.

Sincerely,

ME