If ASIC regulated banks instead of Eggsluts we wouldn’t need a royal commission
Why didn’t the Australian Securities & Investments Commission stamp out bad behaviour? Mike Taylor, moneymanagement.com.au, September 18:
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg … wants to know why … (ASIC) did not act on key issues raised at the royal commission … “there’s certainly a case to answer here for the regulators because a lot of these activities they were aware of … fees for no service, fees to dead people … lying to regulators … 300,000 alleged breaches by a company providing unsolicited insurance advice to the public … I want to understand why ASIC did not stamp out this bad behaviour ” Frydenberg said.
Was it egg-cessively interested in Eggsluts? John Birmingham, The Sydney Morning Herald, August 20:
When (Peter Coster) was a soldier, one of the things he most looked forward to … coming back off a long … march in the morning was the bacon and egg rolls served piping hot at the barracks. When he got out of uniform he wished to share his egg-love with the world, setting up a cafe … The first venue he looked at was in Lutwyche, and … he came up with Eggs-Lut. You can see where this is going. Straight to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal! Because … (ASIC) refused the registration on the grounds that the word “slut” (was offensive) … Sitting in judgment … was deputy president Bernard McCabe (and four lawyers) … (ASIC) paid to do battle in the tribunal against the egg-loving former soldier … (Coster) had already … trademarked the term ‘eggslut’ … (gaining) eggsclusive rights … (but the) government, and its phalanx of lawyers, was holding firm for propriety … (McCabe) reserved his decision.
A win for ASIC — Eggslut is egg-ceedingly offensive. Frank Chung, news.com.au, September 17:
McCabe described (Eggslut) as a case with “something to offend almost everyone … Conservatives will be aghast at the coarsening of public discourse … liberals of a classical bent will be troubled by the attempt to regulate unseemly … expression. Progressive types might see the attempted use of a misogynistic slur … as evidence of the need for more stringent regulation of … practices that tend to excess, insensitivity and oppression.” He pointed out that ASIC’s primary role was regulating the financial system. “That mission would not be fulfilled if ASIC were required to obsess over business names that offered only trivial or largely theoretical offence,” he said. “Good government would grind to a halt … ASIC should be wary of ceding a veto over business names to mere cranks” … (Yet) McCabe … was “satisfied the proposed business name is ‘of a kind that is undesirable’ within the meaning of the act”.
Are they cartoonists? Sarah Malik, sbs.com.au, September 13:
We asked Australian cartoonists (about the Serena Williams) match … Sam Leighton-Dore: “… it was telling that white men … managed to make such an historic event … about them and their misplaced rage” … Safdar Ahmed: “… if you’re a mediocre, middle-class, typically white male cartoonist who wants to pretend there’s no racist genealogy to what you do … the joke is on you” … Costa A: “… I worry about all the other injustices … that never get this sort of spotlight.”
Or cackling harpies? John Spooner, The Australian, September 17:
Bill (Leak)’s life was ruined by … murderous Islamist threat and insidious defamation by the Australian Human Rights Commission. Now another crowd of cowards is going after Mark (Knight) … A cartoonist will often notice that the … cackling harpies around the guillotine will be knitting reusable shopping bags.