Andrew Bolt: How can Sam Mostyn, second-tier warrior of the new Left, be a neutral umpire as governor-general

Anthony Albanese was never going to appoint a straight white male as governor-general, but did he have to choose an ex-Labor adviser of the harbourside Left whose shtick has been to insist on more jobs for women?

Sam Mostyn sure has made affirmative action work for her. Demanding women get jobs ahead of men means she’s now our next governor-general.

Here’s proof that affirmative action helps mostly a highly political class of women, among whom Mostyn is now the queen.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was never going to appoint a straight white male, but did he really have to choose a former Labor adviser of the harbourside Left whose big shtick has been to insist on more jobs for women like, er, her?

I’m not being mean in calling Mostyn’s appointment the triumph of affirmative action over talent or accomplishment.

Mostyn, unlike past governors-general, has never risen to any great leadership position in politics, the military or the law. Journalists today – struggling to give her credit for more than getting plum jobs for herself – claimed she led the creation of the AFL women’s league.

Hmm, you mean the league that attracts just 2600 people to each game, on average, despite heavy promotion from the AFL and ABC? Whoopee-do.

Sam Mostyn, unlike past governors-general, has never risen to any great leadership position in politics, the military or the law. Picture: Richard Dobson

Mostyn has herself admitted in past interviews she’d got at least four jobs already by being a woman in a race where men were banned.

She listed them: made an AFL Commissioner in 2005, and then a board member of Transurban, Virgin and Mirvac, to help them show how progressive they were. Look! We’ve got Sam Mostyn on our board, telling us to hire more women!

“I’m very happy to say I was a quota appointment to the AFL Commission,” she insisted defiantly in 2017.

“I took a lot of criticism from women who said they would never take that job on that basis because you’d never have credibility.

“We’ve just got to get over this idea. Targeted appointments are actually part of our toolkit to get people from different backgrounds into these positions.”

Is that really what we want from a governor-general – someone very happy to get a leg up for being a woman? Someone whose career has not been in uniting but in identity politics?

I’m sure Mostyn will say she has more qualifications than her gender. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, in his lukewarm welcome of her appointment, dryly listed one of them: she is “well known to many people within the government over a period of time”.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was lukewarm in his welcome of Sam Mostyn’s appointment. Picture: John Appleyard

That’s putting it mildly. Mostyn was a Labor functionary for years – an adviser to former Northern Territory Labor leader Bob Collins, former federal Labor minister Michael Lee, and former Labor prime minister Paul Keating.

Lately she’s worked with the Albanese Government, which appointed her as chairman of its Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce to advise it on how to deliver on its election commitments to women.

No wonder Albanese likes her, helping him like that. But is being some Labor apparatchik really the qualification for governor-general these days?

Oops, that’s harsh. I should add that Mostyn has done much more than help Labor. She’s also been chairman of the Aware Super fund, deputy chairman of the Diversity Council, and president of advocacy group Chief Executive Women, calling for more women to be appointed to top jobs.

Like this one?

Mostyn has jumped on almost every hobby horse of the new Left, to the point of parody. Picture: Britta Campion

More relevant for Labor, Mostyn has jumped on almost every hobby horse of the new Left, to the point of parody.

Her National Press Club speech last year ticked all the boxes.

Race politics? Tick: “I accept the invitation to walk with First Nations in seeking a Voice to parliament.” She even called Australia Day “Invasion Day” in a tweet.

Global warming? Another tick from Mostyn, former chairman of Tim Flannery’s out-there Climate Council: “(Young Australians) know all about the impacts of climate change and there they are most often our teachers.”

Identity politics? Tick, tick: “(The young) alert us to the concerning impact of outdated gendered norms, and on the need for inclusion of gender non-conforming people.”

Naturally, she also enthused at the Press Club about the rise of the Teal independents, global warming extremists who are the darlings of well-off women of the Left of a certain age.

“Just as extraordinary was the political earthquake of the so-called Teal women in defeating sitting Liberal MPs,” she gushed, “and I am delighted that so many of them are here joining us today.”

Behold, then, your new governor-general, a second-tier warrior of the new Left, chosen by a Socialist Left Prime Minister to – ha! – be a unifying and apolitical figure representing us all. To be our neutral umpire in a constitutional crisis.

How standards have fallen.