10 March 2009

The Community Protection Medal winners are...

| johnboy
Join the conversation
19

Simon Corbell has announced five winners of the ACT Community Protection Medal.

    The medal was established in 2002, and rewards members for sustained distinguished or outstanding service to the community in ACT Policing, ACT Fire Brigade, ACT Rural Fire Service, ACT Ambulance Service or the ACT State Emergency Service.

    Each year five of the medals are awarded, and this year the following people have been decorated:

    — Sergeant Andrew Palmer Warry (ACT Policing);
    — Mr Ashley Manton (ACT Ambulance Service);
    — Superintendent Peter Wayne Cartwright (ACT Fire Brigade);
    — Mr David Wassall (ACT RFS); and
    — Mr Paul David Cortese (ACT SES).

Congratulations to all.

Join the conversation

19
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

thumper, well said. My congratulations to all recipients of the 2009 CPM as well.

Just loving the suggestion that I check my facts before commenting and then you hazarding guesses about the gender composition of the response services.

I will restate – I am not trying to denigrate the people who won, in any way. I have nothing but respect and admiration for the people who work in these fields, even when they aren’t award winners. There aren’t many jobs more difficult, more demanding or less glamorous.

Perhaps it would be helpful to try to grasp that it is possible to question the unpublicised structures that support such awards, while not suggesting the winners are in any way unworthy.

Rather than characterise my position as being “screaming driscrimination”, I consider I made a passing comment that I have been subsequently called on to justify. I have been trying to do so with the facts I have been able to collect.

What I am getting is a small pile of people expressing their “feelings” about how unfair I’m being.

poptop said :

51% of the population, 17% of these awards is quite a credibility stretch.

As Granny said, these industries probably have more males in them than females.

For example, the AFP annual report says that there are 1390 officers in the ACT of which 309 are female. That is about 22% which fits in well with your 17% figure.

Now if you want to argue that women are grossly underepresented in the ACT Police as a whole, I am right behind you.

poptop said :

Thanks for raising the ‘cry wolf’ issue in the International Women’s Day Awards Thread, bigfeet.

I do apologise for not having the time to note and comment on every thread on this forum. I must admit I hadn’t seen that one.

Anyway, I would like to think that awards that are bestowed by what is probably the most human rights orientated government Australia has ever seen are able to be truly objective and go to the most deserving candidate regardless of their gender.

I think the fact that women have won the awards in the past shows that women are definitely considered as nominees.

I don’t think there’s any reason to think that the awards weren’t won on merit, although it would help if the citations were included.

I think there are probably still more men in the services than women, which is the most likely reason that they win less often. But I am just guessing – I really don’t know what the actual statistics are.

Thanks for raising the ‘cry wolf’ issue in the International Women’s Day Awards Thread, bigfeet.

51% of the population, 17% of these awards is quite a credibility stretch. Your valid point about the apparently Eurocentric nature of award recipients doesn’t make it any better in my view.

The opposite, in fact.

Um – so what are the real issues that need to be discussed and addressed?

And should we just put up with the fact that the world is full of discrimination?

And how can we fix it without mentioning it?

Hey wow…Therese Barnicoat in 2005. I didn’t know that!! She gave me a lot of help years ago when I was I needed some assistance from the police.

Oh my God. I missed it. There isn’t a single winner with an ethnic background from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan or Turkmenistan either. Not only are these awards misogynistic, they are also severely discriminatory against anyone from Central Asia as well.

Look…my point is…there is sexism, racism, and every other form of discrimination in the world out there. But let’s not go crying wolf. All that does is detract from the real issues that need to be discussed and addressed.

I can’t find the first 2 years, but it seems that the preponderance of the stats point to implication 1. 5 women out of 30 in the years 2004-2009.

Recipients of the 2008 ACT Community Protection Medals are:

Superintendent Alf Turketo, ACT Policing;
Mr Grant Hogan, ACT Ambulance Service;
Senior Firefighter Jeffrey Dau, ACT Fire Brigade;
Ms Virginia Dixon, ACT Rural Fire Service; and
Mr Warren Backhouse, ACT State Emergency Service.

The 2007 recipients are
Senior Constable John McDonald (ACT Policing);
Ms Rebecca Lundy (ACT Ambulance Service);
Ms Kristin Cantle (ACT State Emergency Service);
Cliff Stevens (ACT Rural Fire Service) and
Russell Cameron (ACT Fire Brigade).

“The 2006 recipients are:

Detective Sergeant Daryl Neit (ACT Policing)
Intensive Care Paramedic Michelle Blewitt (ACT Ambulance Service)
Station Officer Peter Rayner (ACT Fire Brigade)
Deputy Captain Patrick Barling (ACT Rural Fire Service)
Commander Phil Walker (ACT State Emergency Service).”

2005 = Mr Hargreaves awarded the medals to:

Trevor Stohr of the ACT Ambulance Service
John Hill of the State Emergency Service
David Tunbridge of the ACT Rural Fire Service
Therese Barnicoat of ACT Policing
Joseph Murphy of the ACT Fire Brigade

The 2004 recipients of the Community Protection Medal are:

Officer Matthew Dutkiewicz, a Bushfire Service volunteer
Deputy Commander Stephen Loiterton, an Emergency Service volunteer
Officer David Sutton, an Ambulance Service Intensive Care Paramedic
Sergeant Ross Woodyatt, an ACT Policing Welfare Officer,
Senior Fire fighter John Stafford.

Well from the comment you made there are three possible implications :
1.That the awards are biased towards males, and that the most derserving nominee did not get an award because they are female.
Or
2.That the most deserving nominees got the awards, but that a less deserving nominee should have got an award to make it more gender balanced
Or
3.You are sh!t stirring for the hell of it.

And in at least two of the nominated industries- ACT Police and Ambulance..there are very female orientated in management. Don’t know about the others.

Given the brouhaha over the Women’s Day awards I think my reasons are absolutely transparent.

On what basis do you believe that the winners are the most worthy winners? The sentence in the Media Release that says it is merit based and based on recommendation by a committee of industry professionals.

Want to hazard a guess on the number of women on the committee of industry professionals?

Anybody?

poptop said :

Without wanting to detract from the winners [I am sure they have done fabulous although unspecified things], anyone notice the complete absence of a second gender on the winner’s podium?

Anyone?

Until you pointed it out I hadn’t noticed. But so what? If these are the most worthy winners, then they are the most worthy winners. Whether they are male, female or transgender should make no difference.

So, are you alleging some sort of gender conspiracy, or are you just sh!t stirring for the hell of it?

Without wanting to detract from the winners [I am sure they have done fabulous although unspecified things], anyone notice the complete absence of a second gender on the winner’s podium?

Anyone?

Yes I agree, a small paragraph for each stating why they received their awards would give them more meaning in the eyes of the general public.

Congrats to them all.

Granny said :

The announcement doesn’t say very much about the winners. I would have been interested to hear a bit more about them, so they seemed like more than just a name.

Yeah…good on them all… I’m sure they deserve the accolades.

It would be nice though to know a bit of their bio’s. Of if there is a citation attached to the award, the wording of that.

Maybe that will come out a bit later when they have some sort of award ceremony.

Oh yeah… before I forget…thank you.

Oh, and thank you!

The announcement doesn’t say very much about the winners. I would have been interested to hear a bit more about them, so they seemed like more than just a name.

Very well done anyway, those men!

Andy Warry. A true gentleman and highly deserving

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.