By Kishor Napier-Raman and Stephen Brook
Less than 24 hours before NSW became the last state in the country to apologise for laws criminalising homosexuality, the upper house was busy debating a bill that would make it unlawful to discriminate against … straight people.
This is because back in March Mark Banasiak, from the Shooters Fishers and Farmers Party, introduced a private members’ bill seeking to amend state anti-discrimination laws to rectify what he called a “glaring omission”.
While there were laws to prevent discrimination on the grounds of race, disability and sexual orientation, Banasiak said, they failed to account for a “forgotten group” – the heterosexuals of NSW.
He even introduced the upper house to some new vocabulary.
“Currently there exists a term – heterophobia – which, for the benefit of some of my more left‑leaning fellow members in this place, is known in modern woke parlance as cisphobia”.
The great thing about being an elected representative is you get the right to waste taxpayers’ money and parliamentary resources pursuing all manner of silly culture war piss-takes, no matter how small or irrelevant your special interests-focused minor party may be.
Democracy manifest, as they say.
So on Wednesday, the debate over Banasiak’s unserious bill continued in a similarly unserious vein when Liberal Susan Carter took the floor.
“If I look hard enough, I can certainly identify experiences of discrimination or even vilification because of my heterosexuality,” Carter said.
“I have certainly been called a breeder more than once, and no one presented me with a rainbow or any other type of lanyard identifying my sexuality when I entered this place – but that is perhaps because I am often to be seen wearing my distinctive Liberal Party lanyard; you can always go somewhere with pearls.”
Carter ultimately opposed Banasiak’s bill because it would add more “lines of division” to what is, apparently, an already divisive anti-discrimination act. And for good measure, she even ended with a Martin Luther King Jr quote about how only love can drive out hate.
It was a strange contribution, but no less than the bill deserved.
OFF-FIELD ACTION
Wednesday night’s State of Origin opener might’ve been over when Joseph Suaalii committed his random act of violence seven minutes in. But off-field, there was plenty of action to catch our eye.
One was the sight of state Natural Resources Minister Courtney Houssos hanging out at the coin toss with Ampol’s government relations manager (and former Labor staffer) Madeleine Treacy-Maclean. Nothing quite like seeing the schmoozing between minister and industry lobbyist happening right out in the open, to be later immortalised on LinkedIn.
But we were equally intrigued by the return of troubled Fox Sports host Paul Kent, charged with affray following a street brawl outside Totti’s in Rozelle months after being found not guilty of domestic violence charges.
Kenty was seen hanging out with Queensland Rugby League boss Ben Ikin, even popping into the Maroons sheds after the game. You just know he’ll be back.
STATE OF INDIFFERENCE
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was in State of Origin spirit on Wednesday morning, but wasn’t able to make it to Accor Stadium for the Blues’ meltdown.
Instead, the prime minister jumped on Toto One after parliament rose and hopped over to Adelaide to deliver an evening speech to the Australian Council of Trade Unions’ conference.
Deputy PM Richard Marles is more of an AFL man.Credit: John Shakespeare
We heard whispers that Albanese’s deputy Richard Marles would be slumming it to Adelaide on business class, but instead, he was spotted at Canberra’s Eastlakes footy club, with a few of his Victorian factional comrades – Sam Rae, Carina Garland, and Michelle Ananda-Rajah, whose future seems uncertain with the Australian Electoral Commission proposing to nuke her electorate of Higgins. All appeared to be doing their best to avoid the game.
We’ll be keen to see whether the Victorians maintain their indifference when Origin II comes to Melbourne next month.
RIGHTS FIGHT
The addiction that local members of Amnesty International have to letting it all hang out has provided CBD with years of entertainment. But after last year’s annual general meeting descended into an intemperate, nine-hour affair, this year they took no chances.
Last Saturday’s AGM merely lasted several hours because all speeches were canned after just a minute. And last year’s chaos agent, the anti-Chinese Communist Party activist and Wimbledon finals ejectee Drew Pavlou, who had towelled the group over its controversial report on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, squibbed on his threats to seek board election, withdrawing at the eleventh hour.
It wasn’t a great day for Pavlou. Motions he supported to explicitly condemn Hamas over its October 7 terror attack, and calling for Amnesty to retract its controversial Ukraine report which had delighted Kremlin propagandists, were both defeated overwhelmingly.
The board elections were a more tepid affair. The leadership’s two candidates Ajoy Ghosh and Anne Wright were both elected. But Sophia Tsai, backed by colourful former Labor MP Belinda Neal, whose “night at Iguana Joe’s” incident now has folkloric political status, was not. Neal scored a three-year board term last year, after four previous unsuccessful attempts. So there’s hope for the equally tenacious Pavlou, whom we are told might consider a board tilt when he has finished his university exams.
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