AS the debate regarding Q&A rolls on I should like to relate my experiences of the ABC’s Q&A program.
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Some weeks ago oneinthree (an organisation which advocates for male victims of domestic violence) was asked to supply a panellist for the Q&A episode related to domestic violence.
This was the episode not long after Rosie Batty’s appointment as Australian of The Year. She was on the panel.
As a person who represented oneinthree at the NSW Legislative Council domestic violence inquiry (2012) and the Senate inquiry in 2013 I was one of the people who might have taken on this onerous task.
I and my colleagues knew the panel and the audience would be stacked with people eager to portray oneinthree as “male chauvinist nutters who probably support the gun lobby”. Yes, I have had that said to me. We therefore suggested a female supporter of oneinthree represent us. This woman is a very experienced and published psychologist who works with traumatised men.
This was not acceptable to Q&A. Only a man who could be used as a punching bag to reinforce the blinkered views of management and the tribe that is invited to attend, was acceptable.
When this was made plain to us we, like Tony Abbott, decided supporting this sort of program was not a good idea.
Go back and look at the final few minutes of that episode of Q&A. A very brave male victim of female violence got up and asked why male victims of female violence were ignored. The panel refused to answer his question and discussed male victims in the context of same sex relationships.
Q&A is not news, it is propaganda propounded by a carefully gathered collection of people that reflect the views of a rather small section of the population. These people still can’t grasp that the majority of Australian people rejected their views.
Regarding Q&A, Tony Abbott is wisely saying why should the government participate in a blatant exercise in propaganda where the government will only be derided and probably vilified?
National censorship of the media by the federal government is not proposed by Mr Abbott, but it was by Julia Gillard.
As for Bill Shorten and the unions Royal Commission, why shouldn’t Mr Shorten have to answer questions about why the AWU received money from companies they were negotiating with, when those negotiations resulted in workers being “dudded”?
I have been a member of trade unions all my working life. The Printers and Kindred Indust-
ries, the Victorian Secondary Teachers Association and last but certainly not least the NSW branch of the HSU.
Each of these organisations was corrupt in their own way and routinely ignored their duties to workers.
The executive of each body used their power within the ALP to manipulate the pre-selection and political processes of the ALP.
Australia then ends up with ALP politicians who govern for the benefit of their faction rather than for the good of the country.
A. Humphreys,
Narrawallee.