Rita Panahi: Coalition losing their conservative credentials

Conservatives shouldn’t turn into what they have long mocked. If you want to be part of the hysterical PC police, join the Greens or the Labor Party.

Bewildering, bonkers and bulldust was my immediate reaction to the federal government’s latest “Respect Matters” campaign.

After a second viewing I started wondering what potent variety of medicinal marijuana the ad’s creators were using.

How else does one explain an ad campaign that uses lame euphemisms and bizarre analogies to teach teenagers about consent?

An issue that deserves to be treated with the utmost seriousness, where the teaching material should be clear and evidence-based is presented as a big fat joke — a confusing, unfunny one at that.

I defy anyone to watch the ads and not be left thoroughly confused about milkshakes, “end zones” and “yes lines”.

The consent ads are targeted at students in years 10-12 but anyone with a television has in recent weeks been subjected to the equally absurd “Stop it at the Start” campaign where a bloke yelling out “you’re playing like a girl” at a soccer match and 10-year-olds fighting in the backyard are presented as examples of dangerous attitudes to women that lead to violence.

What a load of balderdash. The ad will do nothing to stop violence against women but manages to demonise young boys and conflate serious issues around the treatment of women with nonsensical tripe aimed at policing speech that is neither dangerous nor sexist.

An issue that deserves to be treated with the utmost seriousness, where the teaching material should be clear and evidence-based is presented as a big fat joke. Picture: The Good Society

Why are our taxes being squandered on idiotic campaigns based on radical gender theory, junk research and ideological indoctrination?

The creative forces behind the commercial are clearly lacking for ideas because the government ran an almost identical commercial with the same scenarios, but different actors, five years ago. That campaign cost taxpayers upwards of $30m and did precisely nothing in reducing violence towards women.

Funding should be devoted to tackling violence where it’s most prevalent, not endless public campaigns that do nothing meaningful in the short or long term, beyond cheapening an issue of critical importance.

The federal government’s decision to implement, in part or in full, all the recommendations — the good, the bad and the utterly useless — of the Respect@Work report was a weak, panicked response to weeks of poor press.

At the announcement earlier this month, we had the unedifying spectacle of the Prime Minister and the Attorney-General Michaelia Cash resorting to the type of hyperbole and policing of speech that you’d expect from the Greens.

This ad from the “Stop it at the Start” campaign will do nothing to stop violence against women.

“In relation to looking at what we say and not understanding what the impact is, one that really resonates with me is … ‘don’t chuck like a girl’,” Cash said. “That’s one when growing up people may have said that but we now know that it has connotations, do not say it.”

Apparently a gibe aimed at men who are not physically strong is a sign of deep misogyny.

The PM was also alarmed by such hate speech and had his own anecdote to add: “I was recently at a game and there was an older couple sitting next to me watching the game. I heard something the husband said to the wife about what she had said, and he said, ‘We can’t say that anymore’.”

What is the point of electing supposedly conservative politicians if they are going to behave like the Greens, implement policies like Labor and have the nerve to earnestly lecture the country about the evils of using a phrase such as “chuck like a girl”?

Prime Minister Scott Morrison with Attorney-General Michaelia Cash resorted to the type of hyperbole and policing of speech that you’d expect from the Greens. Picture: Philip Gostelow

It’s not misogynistic to point out women and men are different. It is a biological reality women are not as physically strong as blokes; that does not make us inferior. It’s why we have separate men’s and women’s categories in sport. The world record for the men’s javelin is 98.48m, the world record for women is 72.28m, even though men use a heavier javelin.

The truth is males are faster, stronger, hairier and die younger than females. Noting these differences isn’t misogyny, nor is it misandry to note women excel in many academic pursuits and have outnumbered men at Australian universities since the 1980s.

Conservatives shouldn’t turn into what they have long mocked. If you want to be part of the hysterical PC police looking for offence where none exists then join the Greens or the Labor Party. Leave the Coalition for men and women who believe in merit, rationality, personal freedom and law and order.

On Tuesday two of the bonkers consent ads were thankfully spiked after an outcry from state leaders, stakeholders and frankly anyone unfortunate enough to watch the confounding catastrophe. But the “Stop it at the Start” ads continues with the federal government pledging more than $16m up to 2022 towards the campaign.

In a saner world those funds would be redirected to communities where rates of violence against women are in epidemic proportions. That would save lives. That’s what conservative voters would expect from a conservative government.

IN SHORT

Defence Minister Peter Dutton’s intervention in reversing the decision to strip thousands of soldiers of Meritorious Unit Citations shows he is the right man for the job. In overruling ADF chief Angus Campbell, Dutton shows he has the judgment and the backbone to do what’s right, not just what’s politically expedient.

Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist

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