Power and predatory sexual behaviour
Illustration by Michael LeunigCredit:Illustration: Michael Leuig
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CONSENT
Power and predatory sexual behaviour
My elitist, boys secondary school education encouraged competitiveness and dominance. As an impressionable young man, my “rite of passage” transgressions caught up with me and so I learnt the error of my ways. The males of our species are naturally predatory which has led to social exploitation, with the upwardly mobile using and abusing those who have less power.
In our modern world we admire such traits as signs of success in sport, commerce, politics and even entertainment (Hollywood). Up until very recently, males have dominated in business, sports, academia etc, using their sexual power in a predatory way. Power corrupts, as we have seen in Hollywood (Harvey Weinstein) and sport. Why should we be surprised about the alleged predatory sexual power of those who hold powerful positions in Canberra?
Jeffrey Kelson, Prahran
Tackling a problem that affects our whole society
Re the petition started by Sydney woman Chanel Contos, calling for sexual consent to be taught in schools from a young age, and the traumatic experiences of so many young girls who have been sexually abused, often by boys they knew and trusted (The Age, 27/2). Sex without consent equals rape. This is a problem for our whole society, for every school. However, I fear it is an uphill battle – we are watching this being played out in our own Parliament House where women are still named and shamed, and men’s career trajectories are unimpeded.
Belinda Burke, Hawthorn
Respectful relationships begin at home
We have all been disturbed by the harrowing accounts of sexual abuse of young women and the lack of awareness of the importance of consent. For most of us, the first and most influential experience of relationships is within our own families.
Why are so many boys and young men learning about sex from online pornography? Who is, or is not, monitoring what they watch? What are our children learning about relationships from what they see, hear and experience at home? Do they see their mothers and sisters treated with respect, and their fathers or brothers treating other women with respect? Without respect, women can be seen as objects or possessions and the issue of their rights and consent is not considered. Learning about respectful relationships begins at home.
April Baragwanath, Geelong
Ultimately, we all know that rape is wrong and illegal
It has been suggested that the alleged rapes by a former Liberal Party staffer of three women resulted from a culture of male entitlement. Is it asserted that burglaries result from a culture of entitlement to break into people’s homes and steal their property? The argument is perhaps sustainable where a person of great power, such as Harvey Weinstein, engages in sexual assault, and feels he can get away with it. But the alleged rapist was a relatively junior staffer. We all know rape is wrong and illegal. There are no sociological forces creating a sense that men can do it. It results from assailants’ perverse minds.
Michael Helman, St Kilda East
Ridding boys of these dangerous attitudes
Congratulations to Asher Learmonth for his mature and perceptive speech – “Our boys’ treatment of girls has been disgusting: prefect pleads for respect” (The Age, 27/2). If ever there was a clear argument against single-sex schools, here it is. It took me back to my private school education in the ’70s. We girls came face to face with boys only at occasional dances in the school gym, where we regarded those invited from local private schools as a different species.
It is clear that for so many boys, sexual conquests are just another item on the list of peer pressures, along with alcohol and drugs. If you have not tried these things, you are isolated and ridiculed. How to rid boys of these attitudes? Make the practices daggy and socially unacceptable. It is time boys stopped acting like some of their fathers did in the ’70s. And do not educate them in single-sex schools. It is not good for them.
Sue Lyons, Carlton North
THE FORUM
The right to residency
Congratulations to Nick Bonyhady for highlighting the plight of undocumented migrant workers (The Age, 27/2). Nationals MP Ann Webster says a path to a visa with work rights would give them the opportunity to work at legitimate businesses paying legal wages.
This is very good but logically this should lead to permanent residency. We have a ready-made workforce of undocumented migrants who pick our produce and work in tourism and hospitality. They should not be working for as little as $3 per hour.
They are a vast hidden and expanding underclass, and have earned the right to residency at the least. This would send a message to employers to do the right thing by their workers. It will not encourage breaches of our migration laws if there is an amnesty period involved. Let us give undocumented migrant workers a pathway to permanent residency and protect our rural industries and communities which rely on them.
Rob Blakeley, Horsham
Cost of non-vaccination
Nobody is being forced to have the COVID-19 vaccine. However, I do hope that anti-vaxxers are aware that several workplaces have already indicated they will require proof of vaccination for their staff. I suspect this will also be the case for getting on airlines and ships, and for visitors to aged care homes and hospitals. Maybe a list of all the places anti-vaxxers will not be able to enter without a vaccination certificate could be published.
Liz Harvey, Mount Eliza
How will I get around?
Daniel Andrews, please be sensible. I, like many people, do not have a smartphone. As I am 78 and use a walker when I am out and about, taxis are often necessary for me. I enjoy weekday seniors lunches at local restaurants. If you make QR codes essential in taxis (The Age, 27/2), I will have great difficulty eating out, shopping, having a haircut etc. I will be a depressed pensioner.
Sue Oliver, Frankston
Maybe reserve filtering
How does the Prime Minister’s Office work? From the outside, it seems that it receives a lot of correspondence, like many other large organisations. It also seems to filter much of this correspondence before it is passed on to the boss. Just like other large businesses. But unlike the others, the Prime Minister’s Office seems to be able to do some of this filtering in retrospect.
Grant Hawthorne, Golden Square
Well done, Mr Wright
Thank you, Tony Wright, for your article paralleling the humble tugboat captain and crew to the entitled tennis players – “Unsung heroes of the sea offer us a lesson” (The Age, 27/2). What a great little story, finishing off the tale with a moral to all of us. Be ever so humble as you go through life. None of us get out of this life alive. Another great article by, may I suggest, a thoughtful writer.
Stan Kluzek, Colac
The haves and have-nots
What sort of world are we living in when the child of a single parent cannot ask her mother for $10 for a Secret Santa at school – “At 41, university teacher fears career over” (The Age, 27/2) – knowing she does not have it, while Gerry Harvey, founder of Harvey Norman, in justifying not returning JobKeeper payments of $6million, can say: “It’s a tiny amount of money” (Business, 27/2)?
Samantha Keir, East Brighton
Possible self-interest?
A group of Coalition backbenchers, headed by Tim Wilson, is pushing a “Home First, Super Second” campaign (The Age, 26/2). However, Industry Super Australia has calculated that giving first home buyers early access to their superannuation for a home deposit could push up the median property price by 16 per cent, the economic equivalent of throwing petrol on a bonfire. It makes you wonder how many politicians have invested in the property market for their retirement incomes.
Jeff Moran, Bacchus Marsh
A bold step forward
Kevin Rudd maps out a visionary and strategically bold way forward for the federal Labor Party and also for our nation – “Courage is needed to go negative” (The Age, 27/2). The federal Coalition’s electoral success is in stark contrast to Labor’s ongoing success at the state level in Victoria. Scott Morrison would be well advised to spend less time in high-vis at photo opportunities, and more time developing policies to address the significant challenges we face as a nation.
Come back “Kevin07”. All is forgiven. We desperately need your intellect and vision for Australia.
Peter Bainbridge, Altona
Path to electoral success
I agree with Kevin Rudd’s premise that the Liberals have a “yawning deficit in ideas, vision and policy” and campaign with “anxiety, fear, anger and even rage” to focus attention away from the party’s gaping hole. However, his underlying thrust that Labor “must radically lift” its “negative game”, is wrong. Has he forgotten Labor almost defeated the Coalition at the last election, despite an unpopular leader and ill-explained policies?
Rudd’s assertion that the nation’s future requires a larger population is also wrong. An increase in population is no guarantee that employment opportunities will increase. Companies will still reduce their labour force and replace people with machines to maximise profit.
Our nation needs a visionary party, one with credible and clear policies that will lead us to a sustainable future. We need a defined pathway to achieve those policies. We need to know what they will cost us. Importantly, if Labor’s policies take something away, like the abolition of negative gearing, something must be given back, like a grandfather clause and more public housing. Armed with viable policies, Labor may win the election. A change in leadership, not going negative, will help its chances.
Sue Bennett, Sunbury
Scootering to happiness
It is interesting that Monica Dux – “A daredevil in disguise” (Spectrum, 27/2) – has joined a trend that my wife took up after I gave her a “real scooter” for her birthday five years ago. She races the grandchildren. She rides to the postbox. She just enjoys the swiftness of getting there. In her sixth decade, she has always been ahead of the trend. Join the trend and enjoy the ride.
Ian Conabere, Traralgon
Call for a diversified media
Your editorial states that “a liberal democracy cannot operate well without an effective opposition, one that is united and holds the government to account” (The Age, 27/2). It also needs a diversified, fair and non-partisan media just as much as a functional opposition. Something sadly missing from our democracy.
John Maher, Mildura
Try the bigger picture
Surely the real elephant in the casino is not the operator, but the gambling regulator. The challenge for any government is to enact legislation that enables the regulator to be adequately resourced to do its job. Things are unlikely to improve unless the current and proposed investigations look beyond rectifying an operator’s dodgy dealings, and deal with the bigger picture.
Jenifer Nicholls, Armadale
Not such good practice
Aged care. Alcohol advertising. The promotion of gambling in the sporting world. Poker machine venues and client care. Media industry code of conduct. Lobbyists, known and unknown, stalking government ministers. And now a handful of (mostly) inhouse government inquiries into a scandal. Really, how many examples of “world’s best practice” in self-regulation before we wake up and get serious?
Peter Angelovski, Hoppers Crossing
Protect our environment
Australians love and care about our beautiful natural places and wildlife, and expect our environment minister to champion their survival. However, the amendment bill to the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act consigns a thriving natural world to mere chimera (The Age, 27/2).
Graeme Samuel’s review of the act (October 2020) found that it had failed both to protect nature and to support business, and recommended comprehensive reform and strong enforcement of national environmental standards.
The new bill proposes an Environment Assurance Commissioner which will not have the investigative powers, staff or independence necessary to enforce national standards and protections. This will guarantee the continuation of environmental destruction, animal and plant extinctions and contracting biodiversity. Surely enough public money has been wasted and more than enough destruction wrought over the last 20 years of the failed act. We paid for a comprehensive review; its recommendations must be enacted.
Julia Croatto, Kew
A father’s deep love
Anita White (Letters, 27/2) is correct that a politician with respect for women would not allow two little Australian girls to be detained on Christmas Island for years. It is also difficult to believe that anyone with the slightest appreciation of paternal love would allow the girls’ father to endure the agony of watching their lives being destroyed because he believes that the alternative to detention would mean death for them and his wife.
Juliet Flesch, Kew
Giving, from the heart
I was inspired on Saturday. While walking the dog, I passed the local 7-Eleven store, where an an old bloke was fast asleep on a piece of cardboard outside. A middle-aged lady came out of the store and gently set a paper bag full of goodies next to his head, popped some money into it and walked away.
Keith Lawson, Melbourne
AND ANOTHER THING
Credit:Illustration: Matt Golding
Politics
Anti-vaxxers calling for Kelly to be PM? I haven’t laughed as much since Joh’s bid for Canberra.
Ralph Frank, Malvern East
Morrison toppled Turnbull with the “I know nothing” strategy. He’s using it successfully again.
Margaret Maguire, Coburg
For all MPs, particularly Morrison and Dutton: Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive.
Patricia Church, Bonbeach
″Respectful relationships″, Mr Merlino? Sounds like a rerun of ″love your neighbour as you love yourself‴.
Doug Petering, Blackburn
Rather than just admiring Nicolle Flint’s stand against bullying, Morrison should do something about it.
Patricia Rivett, Ferntree Gully
Women will bring to account the misogyny, disrespect and abuse in Canberra in numbers too big to ignore.
Lorraine Ryan, Templestowe
Dan, my neighbour, Beryl, says that if you come to our street’s barbie, she’ll give you tips on networking.
David Cayzer, Clifton Hill
Prime Minister, is your tardy response to all these allegations “traditional values” in action?
Hans Paas, Castlemaine
The federal government’s modus operandi: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
Phil Mackenzie, Eaglemont
Forget dole bludgers. We now have the obnoxious JobSeeker bludger.
Geoff Allen, Mount Eliza
Gerry Harvey won’t repay JobKeeper and the government won’t do anything about it. It only goes after pensioners and the unemployed.
Marie Nash, Balwyn
Furthermore
Pub funerals (27/2). Last drinks.
Doug Springall, Yarragon
New culture needs new leadership.
Barbara Lynch, South Yarra
Mitch McConnell: He who rides the tiger cannot dismount.
Lloyd Davies, Warragul
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