Speaker Sue Hickey reveals online abuse as part of new UTAS study

Speaker Sue Hickey has branded her online trolls “bullies, gutless and cowards” as she reveals the vile abuse she has copped on social media simply for doing her job.

Speaker Sue Hickey talks about cyber abuse. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

SPEAKER Sue Hickey has branded her online trolls “bullies, gutless and cowards” as she reveals the vile abuse she has copped on social media simply for doing her job.

Ms Hickey has opened her inbox to the Sunday Tasmanian after being interviewed for a University of Tasmania research project examining the cyber-hate directed towards women.

The messages and comments Ms Hickey shared with this newspaper were often sexualised. Most were loaded with expletives and centred on her appearance.

One email sent to the Liberal Speaker after she crossed the floor to vote with Labor and the Greens on transgender law reforms read: “Sent [sic] the fat old mole to the slaughter yard.”

And that was not the worst of it. But Ms Hickey said she would not be intimidated by online bullies.

“I’m committed to reading and learning about things before I make any decisions, and these are people who have just read a headline and shot off something,” Ms Hickey said.

“I think it’s just to make themselves feel better. I’m never going to allow them to get away with it. I rarely respond, but I refuse to let them distract me from the work I’m doing.”

UTAS gender studies lecturer Louise Richardson-Self contacted Ms Hickey to discuss the strong reaction the Speaker received online for “defying” her Liberal colleagues after the transgender debate in the House of Assembly late last year.

Dr Richardson-Self recently won an Australian Research Council grant for a three-year study into gendered hate speech — broadly defined as oppressive and hostile conduct aimed at humiliating and degrading women.

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Her interview with Ms Hickey was for a related but separate project analysing the online attitudes towards the Labor and Greens push to have gender removed from birth certificates.

“I believe that one of the factors amongst the many types of response is the misogyny factor,” Dr Richardson-Self said. “It’s not surprising to see when women especially make controversial decisions, that instead of someone writing a response that articulates the decision, they will instead attack the woman on the basis of her gender.”

Ms Hickey is not the only Tasmanian woman in parliament to attract online hatred centred particularly on her appearance or conduct.

Labor leader Rebecca White and Greens leader Cassy O’Connor both said they believed they were sometimes subject to a different style of scrutiny than their male colleagues.

“Quite frequently I see that interwoven into comments about women and about me [that] it’s not just a reference to your ability to do your job, it’s about how you look,” Ms White said.

Labor leader Rebecca White. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

Cassy O'Connor she was more often attacked on personal grounds than Tasmanian Greens senator Nick McKim. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

Ms O’Connor said when she compared the comments she received with those made towards her partner, Tasmanian Greens senator Nick McKim, she was more often attacked on personal grounds.

“[Senator McKim] gets issues-based abuse, whereas I think women in politics — and I do — get more personal abuse,” Ms O’Connor said.

Dr Richardson-Self said criticism of politicians based on their policy positions was fair. Broader arguments women in politics should “toughen up” only held water if they were being criticised for how they did their job, not who they were, she said.

It was hard to quantify, she added, but female politicians were often held to a different — and higher — standard.

“You have to be able to withstand criticism of the choices you make and how they affect the population, you have to be willing to hear disagreement with your ideological or structural take on an issue, but it is absolutely not required that they receive abuse for who they are,” she said.

Ms Hickey’s message to her online detractors was simple. She encouraged them to look in the mirror, ask themselves why they were “mouthing off” and consider instead what positive contribution they could make to society.

“I think they’re bullies, they’re gutless and they’re cowards,” Ms Hickey said.

“They should think before they press send. Is this something they would send to their mother?”

Attorney-General Elise Archer will this week table legislation that would have bullies proven as wanting to cause serious harm face possible jail time — including for online actions.

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