Scott Morrison is tweeting like a Trumpster. One of his recent little gems contained the following in response to a “Daily Telegraph” article about a course to help teachers identify students who may be transgender:
“We do not need ‘gender whisperers’ in our schools. Let kids be kids.“
Now there’s so much here that I’m almost at a loss for words… Which some might say is the first positive achievement for Scottie. I could start with the absurdity of taking anything a Murdoch paper says as being remotely connected to reality…
Speaking of Murdoch Muck, here in Victoria, the government tabled 80,000 pages of documents which showed that the Opposition leader, Matty “Family” Guy, spent over two million dollars of taxpayer money to settle a legal case even though the advice was that they’d have an excellent chance of winning the case. As far as we know, it didn’t go to a Liberal donor or the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, but the strong suggestion was that he did it to save his job. This was only worthy of a small article on page 3. However, the next day when it was discovered that the 80,000 pages also contained some privacy breaches of private citizens, this was front-page news. Balance?
Anyway, I’ve decided to start with some statistics. There was a county in the USA which had one of the lowest rates of people per square kilometre in the country. There were no big factories and the cities were all relatively small. It had one of the highest rates of cancer in America. Why? Ok, I’ll give you the answer later.
All right, back to gender issues…
Speaking of gender issues, isn’t Julie Bishop a beacon of light these days? Now that she no longer has much power to do anything about it, she’s speaking out about the terrible culture of bullying in Parliament. Ok, I shouldn’t be too cynical. After all, Julie has always been a supporter of women. All right, she did say that she wasn’t a feminist but that’s ok, because you don’t need to be a feminist to believe that women should be selected on merit and if there aren’t a lot of women in the Liberal Party that’s because there are no women of the calibre of George Christensen, Craig Kelly, Tony Abbott or Kevin Andrews. But one has to remember how Julie sprung to Prime Minister Gillard’s defence after her misogyny speech telling us:
“I think the Prime Minister’s problems have got nothing to do with gender, most of her problems are her own doing and it has to do with her competence, her honesty and her trustworthiness… I don’t think it is a question of toughness, I think it’s a question of competence and I think we’re overdoing the women have to be tough, women have to be competent.”
Bishop’s stand now seems quite different from her approach when we had a female PM, but, in terms of forgetting one’s past statements, she doesn’t even rate a bronze medal. Scott’s statement at the end of his tweet about letting kids be kids wouldn’t be so bad if he hadn’t – as Immigration Minister – been happy to lock them up on Nauru and ignore any suggestions of abuse because these are operational matters.
Of course, the whole idea that somehow teachers and counsellors are encouraging people to become transgender would be laughably absurd were it not for the fact that after the election of Donald Trump people are often happy to believe that laughably absurd is happening.
The implication of Morrison’s term “gender whisperer” seems to be that some people are going around slyly trying to convert kids into adopting a transgender personality.
Now let me quite clear here. I know so little about transgender people that I’m way out of my depth. I personally know of several. However, I have never talked to them about it, nor have I ever counselled someone going through any issues associated with it. In one case, I talked to one about poor attendance when she was a female student, but I have no idea if her poor attendance was relating to gender issues because nothing she told me gave me any inkling that she had any. In short, I am a complete moron on these matters and, as a teacher, it may have helped if I’d known a bit more about how to identify what was going on so that I could have referred her to someone who would have at least helped her work through these and not drop out of secondary school.
But even as a complete moron, I understand that the concept of satanic teachers whispering evil thoughts into students’ heads is neither likely to be happening, nor very likely to be effective. This is akin to the old idea that if you don’t talk about something then kids won’t know about it and they’ll be safe from it. This has been applied to such things as sex, suicide and same-sex attraction. And, as with all those things, people don’t suddenly change because you mentioned it.
I mean, if I say: “Have you thought of joining the Liberal Party?” I doubt that many of you are going to rush out and sign up in the next few minutes, but if I ask why you haven’t joined GetUp! then I may just give some of you a nudge which has you sending your hard-earned money to that terrible organisation trying to unseat Dutton.
Now the article which inspired Scott to tweet after taking as fact something from Rupert’s propaganda unit pointed out that since there was a significant increase of over 200% in people wanting to change their gender in the past three years and it suggested that was because teachers were being trained to identify possible transgender kids. This may be true. After all, there was a significant increase in the number of left-handers once schools stopped giving corporal punishment to anyone trying to write with their evil hand. Prior to that, there was no such thing as a left-hander and it’s only political correctness that allows the left to exist.
But back to the USA county with the high rates of cancer. Did you work out why? Yes, it’s because it has a small population. The county next to it had the lowest rate of cancer. If you only have a small sample then two or three can make an enormous difference. For example, homicide rates over Melbourne won’t vary much from one year to the next. but if there’s a triple murder in one street then the murder rate in that street will probably have jumped quite substantially. It doesn’t mean that the street is suddenly less safe. Similarly, a jump of 200% is pretty meaningless unless we know if that’s six kids instead of three, sixty instead of thirty or six hundred instead of three hundred.
Perhaps it’s time to stop expecting consistency from our politicians and accept the fact that Scott can change from the stern Immigration Minister who ignored reports about the sexual abuse of children to a kind person who just wants kids to be kids.
Unless they’re on Nauru where they need to be punished for the “sins” of their parents.
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Great line: Scott Morrison is tweeting like a Trumpster. So much happening! Julie Bishop has changed her tune all of a sudden, after years in a position where she could have set the standard, instituted a proper process for code of conduct and complaints. But no, only now Word is that Morrison is going to appoint her next Governor General. Cue the obliging current GG announcing he will retire at end of contract in March. That would get rid of Julie and free up the safe seat of Curtin for Christian Porter to slither into.
Labor has written to PM Morrison asking that GG contract be extended by 6 months because of proximity to Federal election.
Thanks Rossleigh, What a mess we are in. As for statistics, I apply the old saying: ‘Generalisations are generally wrong’. This has the obvious corollary …..
Morrison is much like the senior christians who made a name recently eg Pell and Hollingsworth who twisted the words of the bible.
The little children suffer who come unto me.
Great article Rossleigh! Yes it seems that everyone in this laughingly called “liberal” party are ALL hit with the silly stick! Not forgetting that they are all lying, inept, flat earth, right wing, conservative, obscenely overpaid so called “politicians”. Funny, or indeed sad, that this Morris Minor cares about his own children, but does not even acknowledge the number of innocent children locked in jail on Manus Island & elsewhere? And this is from a so-called “christian” (sic), although he is one of the happy clappers from one of these so-called “charismatic” (?) churches. WTF!! As for his comments re “gender whisperers” (?), we now know for certain that he has absolutely no idea what he is talking about–but then he is a effing “religious” liberal–it is painfully obvious that he does not agree with, like or even care about anyone who isn’t what he would call sexually “normal”, what a clown! But then I wonder if his crack pot so-called “religion” even allows people to talk about or even have anything to do with sex?
This rancid, flyblown meat head, this ace hypocrite, the rt. Hon. Snotty Motormouth, taking his facts from news corpse, where the truth goes to die, is typical of this putrid thing called government. Where else would this fcking twunt and all that follow get their reality from? The parrot? The bullying psychopath Hadley? Andy blot. All fcking traitors. For f*ck sake, what have we become? This shitshow that a proportion of us encourage will lead us ever onward to destruction.
LNP — the politics of hate. Everyone of them living in a universe of delusion, lies and some sort of bullshit christianity. When can we have an end to this tragedy?
As one “Slender theCat” in the Guardian Australia comments so often posts:
“If you hate Australia – vote Liberal.”
The political women of the libs are special because they are exceptional in overcoming the god given physical handicap. They got through the glass ceiling on merit and object to the being ‘lumped’ with ‘quota’ tainted token women. I happen to be married to easily the best secondary principal, I have ever met or worked with and, like the men of the education department, know her power and skill.but in canberrra we were greeted with don’t be put off by his appearance he is a top adviser in the territory. My darling just smiled and gave me the shut up he’s an idiot look.
I m a believer in Anne Richards words:’After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels.” To be a partner, a woman has to be better on a harder road To be second she has to be far better at hiding how good she is.
For success in any religious context women must have guile a la shakespeare’s the largest moon of jupiter.?
Wonder when women will realise how good they are and re-mobilise the green, white and purple?
ps
Put in green, white and see the list of colours google suggests?
@wam: Start with “Women supporting Adultery support National$” ….. thank you Bridgette McKenzie and Michelle Landy both National$ women.
“there was a significant increase in the number of left-handers once schools stopped giving corporal punishment to anyone trying to write with their evil hand. Prior to that, there was no such thing as a left-hander and it’s only political correctness that allows the left to exist.”
In defence of left handers: they compose about 20% of the population, slightly more male than female, generally have independent thinking, creative skills in music, art, or other arty pursuits, and frequently are the best at what they do. OK, I’m left handed ambidextrous and have studied this phenomenon for over 40 years.
NEC,
Bridget Mackenzie is probably still deeply touched and ticked pink by the fact that dad-on-the-side Barnaby took advantage of his turn with the parliamentary conch to have Senator Mackenzie officially entered in the Hansard record as being ‘a flash bit of kit’.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C_nULc3VYAELvCo.jpg
I am a little worried myself about gender whisperers, however it was good to read that there are checks and balances. I know that virtually ALL people have a propensity to want more others to be like them, and there are some very weird parents out there who always try and be ultra-modern and/or way way too concerned about the normal trials a kid goes through, or NEEDS to go through. Trans folks are also at their peak “seeking recognition” and politically activist power phase.
“In other words, part of her role is to rule out kids who aren’t actually trans. She meets with the kids three times before she even makes a call on whether to refer them to another doctor, and the parents are kept in the loop the entire time. And once a kid gets to, say, Westmead Children’s Clinic, the process kicks off with more of the same: “the very first thing they do is put them through quite a stringent diagnostic process, refer them to a psychiatrist and an endocrinologist,” Dr. Riley said. “It’s only after all these people agree and the parents are supportive, and the child agrees, and everyone’s on the same page — it’s only when all the dots line up that people go into their next process of intervention, if that’s appropriate.”
http://junkee.com/scott-morrison-gender-whisperer/174136?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Fact-checking_the_PMs_nonsense_1536130515&utm_content=Fact-checking_the_PMs_nonsense_1536130515%20CID_fc7caac0eed6bcda0b6c25c92363dd7a&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=We%20Fact-Checked%20The%20Daily%20Telegraphs%20Rubbish%20About%20Gender%20Whisperers%20And%20Trans%20Kids
The Dr Riley is trans…but still there does seem to be adequate checks and balances one hopes.
I am not yet convinced that they would be better off learning how to handle the negatives from other people as adults – as they will cop it. Trans is different from just being gay – for a start it is so more obvious, but they also tend to be less attractive and are a lesser percentage of the population, thus will have less generic value to others. In unis, they are also playing a lot of identity politics at present, so will attract scorn.
I did not personally know any trans kids at school in the 60-70’s (how would I! – it was not allowed). The only one I have known socially, as a crossdresser only, died from a car accident, believed to be on purpose.
I’ve not come to grips with whether sexuality matters one itoa or not at the whole of humanity scale. My concern is more about it being a pointer to decadence, so I will remain anti gender fluidity.
I’ve not come to grips with whether sexuality matters one itoa or not at the whole of humanity scale. My concern is more about it being a pointer to decadence, so I will remain anti gender fluidity.
Trouble ahead for Australia. The Pentecostals are on the move. One of theirs is in the big office and they want in on the politics of Australia. Scott Morrison is on notice from his happy clapper congregation.
The Guardian has a fascinating article today with a video clip that is so far outside of rational as to be laughable but there is no doubting the these nutters believe they are heading inside our parliament with ‘born again’ Scott as the anointed one.
From the Guardian: “..pastor Adam F Thompson from Voice of Fire Ministries and Adrian Beale from Everrest Ministries told a congregation of Hope City Church that Morrison’s elevation to power was divinely inspired”
Faaaarrrrrk – when this proselytising nutter from the Voice of Fire Ministries says “it is either prayers or persecution” we should stop laughing and take a deep breath because, what I think he means is that any push back, criticism, or challenge to his and by association, Scott Morrisons views, will be deemed ‘persecution’ and how the white Christian majority love being seen as victims of persecution stakes.
I can’t even look at Morrison let alone listen to him any more – he comes across as deeply conflicted and manipulated by irrational beliefs. I don’t want a political leader to play happy clay with national and international policy.
Dutton might well turn out to have been the better of two evils!
Promoting a religious view outside the mainstream is a risky business. When it involves speaking in tongues or glossolalia as it is known, it becomes particularly hazardous. Every stumble, stammer or stutter will invite ridicule from the Opposition benches.
But then again – that won’t happen because Scott will have God on his side and besides a translation service will be provided for Hansard recorders. Here’s why Scott sends his children to such a school.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm_NNLZiusg
I can’t believe the situation we find ourselves in. The fascist Dutton squad or the pentecostal/evangelical christians.
According to Morrison and his crazy religious peers, three days of prayer did the job for them to take the leadership of the loony Libs and to spruik from the prime minister’s chair.
If that’s the case we all need to pray to our various dogs to dispel this travesty from the parliament.
I don’t need someone who believes in myths and money to tell me or mine how we should be living our lives, according to them.
I find it appalling that someone sitting in a prime minister’s seat, by default, should be imposing his beliefs from the government bench of a secular state.
We need an election now!
Update.
I had a vague memory of this.
From The Age, 28th September 2011
“THE row over the Baillieu government’s bungled bid to rezone farmland at Phillip Island has been reignited by the revelation that the company behind the move is a generous contributor to the Liberal Party and headed by a former president of the party’s Queensland branch.
“Brisbane-based Brown Consulting played an instrumental role in Planning Minister Matthew Guy’s surprise decision to rezone 23 hectares of farmland for residential development on the fringe of Ventnor hamlet on Phillip Island.”
Wonder how long before someone in the mainstream media brings this up again.
Adrianne Haddow, in future, au pairs who already speak another language will have a walk up start when it comes to receiving a visa. As for an expansion of the Chaplaincy program … LOTE speakers will be in greater demand.
Why oh why did Morrison have to belong to a church that spoke in tongues?
Couldn’t he belong to one that involves snake handling instead?
Then again, perhaps they would never bite one of their own.
The Andrews government totally FUBARed the opportunity to out Matthew Guy and possibly the rest of his party of grifters.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/07/victorian-government-takes-private-documents-off-website-as-legal-threats-mount
Why, why, why didn’t Labor release only the relevant documents? If the LNP wins the state election… doesn’t bear thinking about, say goodbye to massive public transport upgrade and hello, again, to more roads, which fill up, become gridlocked… so it goes …
just got a pasta post there will be darkness in Australia if morrison doesn’t win the election says pentacostal
the next government is a coalition with hanson and leyonhjolm
ps adrianne not default engineered by turnbull not standing so leaving his voters free to dump the token woman and then dopey dutton.
Zathras, maybe our Scottie would make a good snake charmer…
Then again the snakes might be a bit baffled about which tongue is their charmer speaking in…
“this is not the one we heard spoken in India…”, they’d say and shake their heads…
A few video clips exposing the noble beliefs of our new PM and his charismatic supporters. Be very afraid.
From John Oliver
From Tim Minchin
It was reported yesterday that a senior Aust doctor working with asylum seekers on Nauru has had his visa cancelled. Something about too much duty of care stuff when identifying sick patients requiring medical assistance/transfer to Oz. Can’t be having that! Ps. I was identified as a lefty as a youngun. It carried some minor issues- mostly to do with pen ink mess. My mum had her left-handedness whispered away, or as she recalls, caned out of her at Catholic school
The conservatives hoped to make a quick getaway after the coup, but Dutton’s stupidity and the oafishness of those conducting the coup meant a flat tyre situation for them. Every moment might count now, as an election looms glacially but inexorably nearer, as they seem to be bogged at just the time issues like Nauru, sexism racism and classism, the desperately suppressed Banks inquiry, GBR and the NEG bank up and become fixtures for conversation for an increasingly skeptical electorate.
Jimhaz – as the mother of a transgender person I find your comments deeply offensive, ignorant and prejudiced.
You state that transgender people are ‘less attractive’, that they are of less generic value to others and that being transgender is a ‘pointer to decadence’. You have no understanding of what these children and their families go through. It is not about ‘weird parents’ trying to be trendy. It is not about sexual attraction or wanting to live a decadent lifestyle. It is not a lifestyle choice, in fact it is not a choice at all. Nobody in their right mind would voluntarily expose themselves to the vicious prejudice, threats of violence, actual violence and discrimination that transgender people regularly encounter. No sane person would choose to go down a path that can result in rejection by family and friends, social exclusion, loneliness, depression and often suicide.
As for your comment on trans people’s physical attractiveness or lack thereof, how shallow can you get?
You say ‘Dr Riley is trans’. So despite all her qualifications and the fact that she has lived experience of growing up trans, she shouldn’t be allowed near children? A perfect example of the discrimination that trans people regularly suffer in the workplace. On the other hand, priests and other godly people are to be trusted implicitly around children because…well, being godly, they’re inherently of higher generic value so checks and balances are unnecessary.
You say you never met any trans kids at school. The chances are very high that you did, they just didn’t dare reveal it. The only interaction you have had was with a ‘cross-dresser only’. You are explicit that this was the case but in fact you have no idea whether this person was in fact transgender. If the person was a male, you should be aware that the vast majority of male cross-dressers identify as heterosexual men who have no desire to change their sex or live as women. You say this person committed suicide by car accident. Transgender people aged 18 and over are nearly eleven times more likely to attempt suicide than those in the general population. Join the dots.
Transgender people are stronger than you will ever be. They have to be, if they’re going to survive the prejudice they cop from people like you, while at the same time trying to work out what the hell is happening to them and why, and learning to accept and value themselves in a world that tells them they are worthless.
My child has made it through a very difficult time and is now completing a double degree at one of Australia’s top universities. I will use the term ‘they’ as that is the term my child has asked me to use when referring to them in the third person. They consistently achieve high distinctions for their studies and have received awards for being among the top students in their university. They are academically gifted but also work very hard, which has lead to them being invited not once but twice to be a mentor for new students in one of their degree courses. Evidently my child’s university is not concerned that they will use their mentor role to convince their students to become transgender.
They part-time, undertake volunteer work, pay their taxes and obey the law. They pay for their own hormone treatment – they’re not consuming Medicare funding just in case you were worried about that. They are not, and have never been sexually decadent or promiscuous. My child is a kind, decent human being who contributes positively to our society and embodies the best of what it means to be Australian. They have as much generic value as every other human being, irrespective of their sex, gender identity or any other personal characteristic, and they are entitled to the same rights and respect.
So, apart from your concern that transgender people are ‘less attractive” and are somehow dragging us all into decadence, how does the existence of people like my child materially affect your day-to-day life? What possible harmful impact can they have on you? The answer is none, but your ill-informed judgements, and those of others who hold the same views, have the capacity to impact the lives of my child and other transgender people in negative and damaging ways.
Statistics show that it is overwhelmingly males who commit murder, rape, domestic violence, child sex abuse, animal abuse, theft, one-punch attacks, sexual harassment, fraud, illicit drug manufacture and distribution and white collar crime. None of these activities present any generic value to Australian society, in fact the opposite is the case. I assume from your name that you are a male. If so, in my view you have less generic value than other Australians who are not male. There you go. I’ve never met you but I have chosen to judge you on the same basis as you are judging trans people. It doesn’t feel very nice, does it?
On a side note; if you removed the sales to libraries the 1,570 purchased copies of the Beetroots book will probably go down to less than 1,000. Expect it to go half price in a couple of months and into the el cheapo, “We can’t get rid of ’em.” bin not long after.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-1570-people-who-haven-t-had-enough-of-barnaby-joyce-20180907-p502gu.html
Excellent response, Patagonian.
Written by some one who knows what they are talking about. Not based on opinions formed by so called religious groups or shock jock pundits.
When we stop worrying about which gender box to put people in, and start worrying about the state of humanity in this world and our treatment of people who are different to ourselves, our lives will improve.
All power to you and your child.
Patagonian,
You are rightly proud of your child – and your child should be, and no doubt is, very proud of you. I will never understand why people are so cruel or why they want to impose their prejudices and ignorance on others. What right have they to judge and why do they even want to?
Our children are our most precious resource. They must know they are valued and loved if they are to achieve their potential. What they look like, what they wear, or who they love is so irrelevant.
Your love and support have empowered your child to not only succeed personally, but to contribute positively to our society and to help others do likewise. More power to you both.