30 June 2011

Pear fuelled Liberal outrage continues.

| johnboy
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Zed Seselja is maintaining the rage over Katy Gallagher and Andrew Barr failing to do exactly what he wants after John Hargreaves made a not particularly offensive comment about the Liberals Vicki Dunne.

After being given multiple opportunities, Katy Gallagher is still refusing to apologise for, or take action against her senior colleague, John Hargreaves, for offensive comments made about another MLA, Leader of the Opposition, Zed Seselja, said today.

It was also revealed in the Chamber today that the Deputy Leader of the Government, Andrew Barr heard the offensive comments made by Mr Hargreaves. Neither he nor the Chief Minister has condemned the behaviour.

“By refusing to apologise for Mr Hargreaves’ behaviour and refusing to take any action against her Government Whip, the Chief Minister is telling the community she will accept this sort of behaviour from her team,” Zed said.

“There have been many media opportunities and again in Question Time today, Ms Gallagher has had the opportunity to condemn the actions of her colleague – every time she has refused.

“This sends a terrible message to the community that offensive comments about female colleagues are somehow acceptable in any workplace.

To date, Ms Gallagher has said she will not take any action in part because she believed Mr Hargreaves intended the comment as a ‘joke’.

Zed apparently sees this as a failure of leadership. Others might think ignoring Zed stamping his feet is good parenting.

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I once got bear hugged by Kate Carnell at a function.

Odd….

I once got bear hugged by Kate Carnell at a function.

Odd….

Oh lucky you Thumper. I got introduced to her in the old Cannons days at a post match function and she’s all ‘Kate Carnell, really nice to meet you’, offering me a fairly manly hsake. I’m on the other end of the handshake thinking, yep I know who you are and I’ve heard all the stories……

Skidbladnir said :

Quickly, distract from the mysterious Liberal Party’s funding sources by feigning outrage on an unrelated topic!
Zed will stand in front of a camera and shake his tiny powerless fists at people, while everybody at Liberal HQ is busy shredding the documents developing good policy.

PS: Vicki isn’t a pear shape, I reckon she’s an apple.

I have to agree, instead of again presenting the Canberra Liberals as an ‘alternative government’ they are getting themselves in a lather over a comment made by quite frankly one of the biggest boofheads in Australian domestic politics. Need I remind people of JHs classic comments at the launch of Blind Cricket a few years back? Seriously, instead of ratcheting up the whining on who said what about who, they should be offering us something, anything.

May as well dig up some ancient history. How about Teflon Kate making the Fat Bottomed Girls comment about Rosemary Follett?

amarooresident33:57 pm 30 Jun 11

This is the same Vicki Dunne who was happy to imply that a fellow MLA was/is corrupt

http://the-riotact.com/what-is-vicki-dunne-talking-about/13119

smilesr said :

By referring to Vicki Dunne as pear-shaped he is trying to gain a point by reducing the argument down to a person’s appearance. You don’t think that’s low?

Don’t you think that was what slut-walk was about? That it shouldn’t matter what women wear or what they look like (pear-shaped or apple, in a hajib or in tight jeans), they should be treated with respect, without reference to their appearance and able to make intelligent contributions to a debate without being rudely reduced to the sum of their physical parts.

His comment was childish and rude and by Ms Gallagher stating it as a “joke” it’s essentially bringing the assembly back to the 50s when women were “nudge-nudge, wink-wink” for appearances only.

I fail to see why this comment would be sexist at all. Making jokes about people’s appearances isn’t exclusively aimed at one gender.

In fact, Zed’s out of proportion reaction to it and labelling it as sexist, seems to imply that women cannot deal with criticism about their appearance. While, who cares?!

+1 on the analogy of Zed as a tanty-throwing toddler. Seems that he’s always throwing his toys out of the cot when nobody is paying him enough attention.

What I particularly like is that if Zed hadn’t beaten this up no-one would have heard a word about it outside of the Legislative Assembly.

I’m sure Vicki’s loving being dragged around as an object of outrage.

Quickly, distract from the mysterious Liberal Party’s funding sources by feigning outrage on an unrelated topic!
Zed will stand in front of a camera and shake his tiny powerless fists at people, while everybody at Liberal HQ is busy shredding the documents developing good policy.

PS: Vicki isn’t a pear shape, I reckon she’s an apple.

By referring to Vicki Dunne as pear-shaped he is trying to gain a point by reducing the argument down to a person’s appearance. You don’t think that’s low?

Don’t you think that was what slut-walk was about? That it shouldn’t matter what women wear or what they look like (pear-shaped or apple, in a hajib or in tight jeans), they should be treated with respect, without reference to their appearance and able to make intelligent contributions to a debate without being rudely reduced to the sum of their physical parts.

His comment was childish and rude and by Ms Gallagher stating it as a “joke” it’s essentially bringing the assembly back to the 50s when women were “nudge-nudge, wink-wink” for appearances only.

Gungahlin Al1:41 pm 30 Jun 11

Only through maintaining this concoted rage can they further divert the justifiable rage from being forced to repay their ill-gotten “community volunteer” grant.

True, but who was numpty that read the application and approved it as eligible?

Another community group. As I understand it, the grants were devolved.

colourful sydney racing identity1:10 pm 30 Jun 11

How about they sincerely apologise for stelaing from the poor box – a much worse crime than Hargraeves committed.

Gungahlin Al12:57 pm 30 Jun 11

Only through maintaining this concoted rage can they further divert the justifiable rage from being forced to repay their ill-gotten “community volunteer” grant.

Does he really expect them to apologise for “pear shaped” comments? This is the same party whose former leader labelled their constituency as “red-necked Neanderthals”.

Pear-shaped is nothing compared with some of the insults thrown around by Stanhope and Barr over the years. On the scale of politicians’ insults in a defamation-free zone, this should be an easy one to apologise for.

If only Hargreaves had made the link to J Lopez more explicit, then things would be so very different.

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