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Grace Tame opinion piece on PM's decision to make Porter leader of the House of Reps

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Grace Tame opinion piece on PM's decision to make Porter leader of the House of Reps

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Opinion

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Prime Minister Scott Morrison has just overseen Christian Porter's assuming of the role of acting leader of the House of Representatives. Amid a burgeoning, pre-eminent mass awakening to the endemic issue of sexual abuse, this decision marks a proverbial slap in the face of our entire nation.

Less than two years ago, the twice-convicted paedophile who abused me and others before me was awarded a doctorate by the University of Tasmania, despite breaking the student code of conduct and being charged and jailed a second time for producing child exploitation material during his PhD tenure.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has overseen Christian Porter's elevation to Acting leader of the House of Representatives. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

In light of my own experience, it's hard to process how an accused rapist - albeit one who will never face prosecution - could be offered one of the highest positions of power in the country by none other than our nation's leader himself.

Christian Porter has been accused of raping a woman in 1988. Last year, his alleged victim died by suicide. He has denied the accusation.

But it isn't just Porter's character that's in question here, it's the morality of our current leadership.

Outside of Parliament, positions of public trust are governed by codes of conduct that stipulate one must be a "fit and proper" person in order to occupy them, such as in the case of doctors who are bound by the Hippocratic oath. Furthermore, their adequacy - in terms of both knowledge and ethics - is repeatedly challenged and updated through mandated continuing professional development.

Australian of the Year Grace Tame says Porter's elevation is a slap in the face for survivors of sexual abuse. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

In Parliament, however, no such requirements exist. It is the Prime Minister who sets the standards and maintains them by appointing cabinet ministers at his or her discretion.

Given the seriousness of the allegations against Porter, the bare minimum test of his fitness to hold ministerial office would be an independent inquiry. How damning it is that the government refused to allow for one.

If the Prime Minister's recent rhetoric about wanting to support assault survivors and protect women's safety was indeed true, he would surely go to any lengths possible to ensure there was not an accused rapist amongst his own staff. Clearly, it has been nothing but lip service. His actions speak volumes that drown out his every word.

And now, not only has Porter been permitted to remain in office, he's been temporarily elevated. His are circumstances steeped in the protective privileges of a patriarchal Parliament.

There is no way this decision was accidental. It is a transparently deliberate, definitive statement that reeks of abuse of power and a blatant disregard of the people.

Last week I had what I thought was a productive meeting with the federal government, and now this has happened.

Sexual abuse is an issue of human rights and should therefore transcend all divides; political and otherwise. And yet, by his actions our Prime Minister has proven he is of a different mind. He is determined to associate his party with outmoded, oppressive cultures and attitudes.

I'm not party-political, but I call out injustice where I see it, and in this instance, it is damn-near blinding.

Typically, one of the things the leader of the House does is shut down debate. The role is embedded with the power to enforce silence; the power to suppress truth. How powerfully ironic.

Demonstrative actions at the apex of influence - such as the elevation of Porter -have a dangerously permissive effect on future corruption whilst simultaneously stifling progress. They send an intimidating message of chilling apathy.

In particular, this appointment is an insult to all survivors, and indeed the whole country. It reinforces the idea that accused predators are too often protected, feeding into the already crippling fear of victims and bystanders. It is an act of emboldening perpetrators.

My heart breaks at the thought of survivors still living in silence, looking to our leaders for hope.
Grace Tame is a survivor of child sexual abuse and the 2021 Australian Of The Year. The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day's most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Crisis support is available from Lifeline on 13 11 14. Sign up here.

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Porter's elevation betrays PM's chilling apathy towards survivors

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Opinion Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Prime Minister Scott Morrison has just overseen Christian Porter's assuming of the role of acting leader of the House of Representatives. Amid a burgeoning, pre-eminent mass awakening to the endemic issue of sexual abuse, this decision marks a proverbial slap in the face of our entire nation.

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Systemic responses at heart of failure to protect and support Aboriginal women from violence

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Systemic responses at heart of failure to protect and support Aboriginal women from violence

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Systemic responses continue to fail and traumatise Aboriginal women who survive violence - Marlene Longbottom - IndigenousX

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I was extremely alarmed to read the recent ABC news report by Sofie Wainwright and Declan Grooch about an Aboriginal woman from a western NSW community who had been charged, and further held in a local police cell overnight, for not attending court to provide evidence as a result of domestic violence Regardless of previous cases where victims were charged, as reported in the ABC article, the action taken by the magistrate of the local court was an inappropriate response to an extremely complex issue.

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Domestic violence victim locked up because she couldn't attend court

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It is not unusual for Australian judges or magistrates to issue arrest warrants for people who do not turn up to give important evidence in court. But it is rare for the subject of the arrest warrant to be the alleged victim of domestic violence, where the accused is the alleged perpetrator.

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Reasons why Indigenous women are not reporting family violence

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Reasons why Indigenous women are not reporting family violence

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are not reporting family violence for fear of having children removed, according to new research.

The study, led by University of Melbourne Professor Marcia Langton, detailed the barriers faced by First Nations women when reporting violence, including the threat of homelessness and potential isolation from family and community.

The research was released on Tuesday by the Australian National Research Organisation on Women's Safety (ANROWS).

"We interviewed a number of women who were at risk of being homeless because there was simply no accommodation," Professor Langton said.

"Several women told us about their experience of being homeless and many women told us of their experience of losing their children and the fear of losing their children."

Professor Langton was joined by a team of researchers - Kristen Smith, Tahlia Eastman, Lily O'Neill, Emily Cheesman and Meribah Rose, to conduct the study in Albury-Wodonga and Mildura in regional Victoria.

Ms Eastman said a lack of services also contributed to the reluctance of women to report violence.

"Part of the reluctance to report in the first place is the fear of child removal," she said.

"And then on top of that, if you do report, there is nowhere for you to go.

"Not only is there a shortage of culturally appropriate services, there's a shortage of any services that support women in those areas."

Ms Eastman said the cultural appropriateness of these services can also be a barrier for Indigenous women who need to access support.

"Some Aboriginal women prefer to access mainstream services for the reason that they may have a family member working at the Aboriginal service so they may not want to go there for confidentiality reasons," she said.

"What we found is the mainstream services do not offer any Aboriginal liaison officers, any Aboriginal specific services, which are huge barriers for people seeking assistance and that's why there's such a huge amount of women there that are not seeking support.

"The support just isn't there."

'No accountability'

Professor Langton said there is also a lack of accountability for perpetrators, with "no real consequences" for failing to complete courses aimed at stopping their use of violence.

She said these perpetrators find ways around court mandates like AVOs by getting relatives to contact the victim or 'tricking' them into breaching the orders.

"The system is not working well for the victims and it's certainly doing next to nothing to stop the violence of the perpetrators," Professor Langton said.

"There is no real accountability for perpetrators and this requires a great deal of attention."

Professor Langton said this lack of accountability can be exacerbated by others in the community, and women can feel isolated, furthering the barriers women face in reporting violence.

"One of the reasons for the reluctance of victims to report violence, especially in the cases of extreme ongoing violence is that a prospect of an imprisonment term for the perpetrator will put them in an invidious position in the community," she said.

"In these communities, you have very high incarceration rates for Aboriginal people and a long history of poor relations with police and historical memories of the Stolen Generations and the ongoing trauma of that.

"Women are reluctant to report violence because they might be seen as contributing to the incarceration of Aboriginal men and therefore seen as traitors to their community."

Professor Langton said the researchers made a number of recommendations in their report, including the need to adequately fund Aboriginal-controlled services.

"Clearly there needs to be an increase in services for both victims and perpetrators and particularly an increase in Aboriginal services so that these services are able to invest more cultural intelligence into solving these problems," she said.

"These problems will not be solved without the active participation of the Aboriginal leadership and the Elders and the frontline workers in the Aboriginal services.

"Only they can solve these problems, otherwise it's just a continual entanglement of a marginalised community with the criminal justice system and the child protection system."

Ms Eastman said the recommendations need to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

"If these things aren't addressed, then lives will be lost," she said.

"The severity of violence in these communities is dire."

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Fear of child removal preventing Indigenous women from reporting family violence

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are not reporting family violence for fear of having children removed, according to new research. The study, led by University of Melbourne Professor Marcia Langton, detailed the barriers faced by First Nations women when reporting violence, including the threat of homelessness and potential isolation from family and community.

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eventeen-year-old Sonnie Hannaford isn't afraid to admit something: they really like going to school. "If you have a free class, you have a choice to go back home if you'd like, but I stick around. I love to stay and just really help out as much as I can."

At their old school, Sonnie had been bullied so severely that they had closed in on themselves and didn't want to go back. "Nothing made sense to me. I thought: What's the right answer? I'm just not fitting into any boxes, I should be fitting in."

Sonnie is gender-fluid, genderqueer and pansexual. They've been asking friends and family to call them Sonnie for about four years now, but it wasn't until they started at their new school this year that they felt comfortable enough to ask the teachers to call them that.

Sonnie's experience of school until this year echoes the picture painted by a recent University of Western Sydney (UWS) study, Free2Be... Yet that foundmore than 90% of LGBTQI+ students hear homophobic language at school, with more than one in three confronted with slurs on a daily basis. And, crucially, just 6% of gender and sexuality diverse students say that teachers within earshot always intervene, with some reporting that adults are actively participating in the bullying.

For Sonnie, it's the teachers at their new school that have made all the difference. "The school staff members are all very supportive. You feel like you can always speak about these issues ... and if there is an issue, they deal with it in a really assertive manner."

Five years after the "Yes" vote and manufactured controversy around Safe Schools, Sonnie's new school's approach is still pretty rare in many education institutions - and one that would be formally denied to other students if bills like the one put forward by One Nation's Mark Latham are passed. Latham's bill - which has some qualified support from church groups - proposes to prohibit all teachers from discussing gender and sexual diversity in the name of asserting parental rights. It would make offering targeted, requested support to gender and sexuality diverse students grounds for revoking teachers' accreditation and would deny prospective teachers the relevant teachings in university.

The proposal is the mirror opposite of the UWS study recommendations (and for that matter, the national curriculum): namely, that "school leaders, teachers and all school-based adults receive professional development that addresses expectations for inclusivity of gender and sexuality diversity and provides guidelines for inclusive language and related curriculum resource integration". The report states that "all members of the school community must be aware not only of the existence of these policies, but how they will be uniformly implemented ... to identify and prevent harassment of gender and sexuality diverse students".

So what does a "whole-of-school approach" look like, and how does it translate into the everyday lives of students and teachers?

[Wellbeing measures] are so important to academic results

Associate Prof Jacqueline Ullman

Kylie Hand is the assistant principal and head of engagement and wellbeing at Sonnie's new school, Bendigo Secondary Senior College (BSSC), a year 11 and 12 school located in one of Victoria's fastest-growing regional areas. In 2017, at the height of the public commentary around Safe Schools and the postal vote on Australian marriage law, the college introduced a program of its own making called the Ally Network.

"Given the school takes in students from around the region, we were hearing stories from young people, and hearing stories from other schools, that made us realise we needed to focus on inclusion," Hand says.

The school decided to focus on "creating a culture of inclusion" as part of its four-year strategic plan and, as Hand says, it became a central goal of the school. The college started conducting informal research across universities and worked in conjunction with the Safe Schools unit at the Victorian Department of Education, as well as consulting with the local community. This research spawned the Ally Network model - boasting a network of staff "allies" who receive specialised training and work with the LGBTQI+ student group to drive inclusion throughout the school, including through the provision of support to students.

"We expected to get maybe 10 staff to sign up and we were overwhelmed, we have over 70 staff involved - around 40% of staff have opted in," Hand says. "We deliberately ensured it was opt-in, because we wanted people to be genuine about it."

Since then, BSSC has mentored more than 15 schools in Victoria, including high schools that cater for junior years and adapt their approach accordingly. Inspired by the success of the Ally Network, the school then created the Inclusion Ambassador program, to help promote and celebrate diversity in all its forms within BSSC - only this time the ambassadors are students.

Jessica Neale is a mental health social worker who has worked with young people for the majority of her 20-year career, and is a member of the wellbeing team at BSSC, where she provides support to staff and students.

Neale considers the continuing support and training of teachers as crucial. "I think it is really important to resource them to ensure that they have access to any information that they need, which is ever-changing in this space. We need to give them a place that they can go to ask those questions and not feel like they're going to be judged for not knowing."

Neale's background in social work also means she looks at the school environment with fresh eyes. "It's so incredibly important - there's lots of students that we see that really do identify school as their safe place, and particular teachers as key support. When students are able to identify that there is a particular teacher that really sees them ... and engages with them in a way that feels comfortable, it makes a huge difference."

Jacqueline Ullman, an associate professor in adolescent development, behaviour and wellbeing at Western Sydney University and author of the Free2Be... Yet? study, says: "There's a very practical reason why most states and territories have embedded wellbeing measures into their reporting: it's because they are so important to academic results."

But it's not enough to bury a commitment to LGBTQI+ students' wellbeing in a paragraph as part of a PE policy: visibility and expressed support for the wellbeing of LGBTQI+ students is critical, and that's where it gets murkier. As Ullman's report states: "While such inclusions are named at the federal institutional level ... the extent to which Australian secondary schools have named gender and sexuality diversity is, as yet, highly variable."

Which is why the visibility of the BSSC's Ally Network is so instructive. Crucially, Hand says, the school "felt a great deal of confidence in being able to do this work because we knew we had the backing of the education department".

It's worth notingthat Victoria's Department of Education is the only education department in the country that still has the Safe Schools program embedded within its support offerings, with all other state departments subsuming measures around the wellbeing of LGBTQI+ students into more general health and wellbeing policies, or outsourcing the work to external agencies.

Ullman's concern is that a culture of silence will lead to kids going online for information they can't get at school. The internet can provide positive experiences for children looking for communities, but it's unregulated and unsupervised - "and what might they accidentally access online?"

Jesse Dickason is a former BSSC student who attended the school in 2012 and 2013. Now 25, Dickason struggled to come to terms with his sexuality throughout high school and didn't come out to friends and family until he was 21. He attended BSSC well before the Ally Network was rolled out, and although he remembers the school as broadly inclusive, he never felt safe enough to speak up.

We've had many, many calls of support from parents

Kylie Hand, Bendigo college

"I remember Headspace setting up a table at the start of school with some leaflets for LGBTQI+ kids, but I didn't go anywhere near it. I wouldn't want my mates to see." But Jesse did gravitate towards one teacher in particular.

Erica Masters, who is still at BSSC and is a member of the Ally Network, remembers Dickason well, especially given they kept in touch after he left school and as he came out. At the time, Dickason gravitated towards Masters because she was approachable, and he suspected she herself was a member of the LGBTQI+ community. "I think she probably suspected something was up with me," Dickason recalls. "I was tempted to confide in her, but in the end I wasn't ready to talk about it."

Masters says something like the Ally Network would have been "a total gamechanger" for her as a student trying to come to terms with her sexuality. "It would have made a massive difference even as an adult and would have impacted some of the decisions I made. It would have been life-changing."

Both Dickason and Masters remember feeling entirely alone. "I was not aware of anyone else who was struggling with coming out," Masters says.

Masters, who married young and came out just before divorcing her husband at 26 years of age, gradually gained confidence to be less guarded in the workplace as the language and attitudes in schools changed. "I started being far more open about my own journey."

The Ally Network training made Masters feel even more personally supported, and it equipped her with extra confidence when it came to educating students. "I think I've always had a heightened sensitivity around LGBTQI+ issues and have been prone to speaking up, but I didn't always have the tools to know how to do it effectively. Our ally program gives me confidence that I am going to be supported 100% in that space ... In the past I may have heard something in the school ground, like a derogatory comment like 'that's gay', and I might have kept walking. Now I would stop and I would engage in a conversation around it."

But one of the most striking aspects of BSSC's approach is just how uncontroversial it has proved to be. "When we were rolling this out I was a bit nervous," Hand says. "Bendigo is fairly conservative, but to this day we've not had a complaint. Instead we've had many, many calls of support from parents."

Sonnie agrees it all seems pretty simple. "When I moved to this school I realised that there is no box to tick and you can be open about anything and it's ... just not that hard. I think what people don't realise is ... it's not that hard."

In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978. In the UK, the charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393 and Childline on 0800 1111. In the US, Mental Health America is available on 800-273-8255

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LGBTQI+ allies: the Australian teachers standing up to homophobic slurs and bullying

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eventeen-year-old Sonnie Hannaford isn't afraid to admit something: they really like going to school. "If you have a free class, you have a choice to go back home if you'd like, but I stick around. I love to stay and just really help out as much as I can."

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A self-confessed former "ADHD-sceptic" researcher is calling for the condition to be listed as an official disability after conducting a review of the studies on the issue.

Associate Professor Helen Boon from James Cook University has published a research review looking at 174 neuroimaging studies from around the world that used brain scanning imaging such as MRI to compare the brains of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) sufferers with a control group.

A child behaviour expert is calling for ADHD to be considered a disability and sufferers given access to assistance payments. Credit:File image

She said in every study the brains of ADHD children were found to have significant neural anatomical and processing differences compared with the control group.

"I was a sceptic, I thought this review would unearth some clarity about what was actually going on regarding ADHD," Dr Boon said.

"I didn't expect to find that there would be so much difference [between sufferers and the control groups], I expected they would be all the same, but I found the exact opposite."

Dr Boon, who teaches in the areas of educational psychology, special needs and behaviour management, said the findings were especially stark given she also looked at teachers' attitudes to ADHD in the same paper and found some were dismissive of ADHD.

She had many people tell her anecdotally that teachers were still treating ADHD symptoms as children being "naughty".

"It seems there are a lot of people out there who don't understand this is an actual condition just like visual impairment or a physical impairment," she said.

"And sufferers need support that is targeted to their difficulties."

About 1.2 million people or one-in-20 across Australia are estimated to have ADHD, which can cause symptoms including inattention, distractibility, hyperactivity and impulsivity.

While children with the condition often struggle in school, it is not considered a learning disability in any state or territory.

Dr Boon said just like those with a recognised disability, ADHD sufferers had a condition that acted as a barrier to their education and deserved access to support payments and services in line with the severity of their case.

"I think it's important that teachers understand the condition so they can observe their students and help with diagnosis if need be," she said.

"I think teachers are instrumental in advocating for the students, but in order for them to do so they need to have the correct information."

The review of research into teachers' attitudes included at least one previous review of the available data done in 2019.

The research has been published in the journal Child & Youth Care Forum.

Stuart Layt covers health, science and technology for the Brisbane Times. He was formerly the Queensland political reporter for AAP.

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Researcher says ADHD sufferers deserve disability payments

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Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size A self-confessed former "ADHD-sceptic" researcher is calling for the condition to be listed as an official disability after conducting a review of the studies on the issue.

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Jessica's son was four years old when she was told he was no longer welcome at his school, and according to some experts, she is not alone in her plight.

Jessica has told the ABC her son was excluded from a private school because of his disability

The Human Rights Commission received 1,006 disability discrimination complaints in 2019-20

That number is up 34 per cent from 2015-16

Her son Elliot*, who lives with high-functioning autism, was excluded from his Sydney school just months after being told there would be additional support to accommodate his needs.

"I don't even have the words for how devastated we were," she said.

She said the primary school in Sydney's eastern suburbs told her it could add support in the classroom and introduce methods to manage his behaviour when he became over-stimulated or agitated.

"They assured us that they would be able to meet his needs and would apply for funding," she said.

"Elliot was very happy going into school, he had friends, he spoke about his teachers highly, he seemed to be very settled."

'He's not welcome'

However, six months into his first year, Jessica met with the preschool and prep to discuss how her son was going.

"At that meeting, the question was 'do you think this is the place for him?'" she said.

Jessica said she was concerned about the question, as no complaints had been relayed to her about her son's behaviour.

She said she was then told at a subsequent meeting "he's not welcome" and would not progress to the next year level.

Jessica lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission, with a no liability settlement reached in 2019.

Under the settlement agreement, the school denied it had discriminated against Elliot or that it was liable to pay the family any compensation.

It waived $13,037 in school fees and paid an additional $21,500 to the family and Jessica discontinued her complaint.

The school told the ABC it was unable to comment on individual students because of privacy laws.

"[The school] offers an inclusive educational setting," they said.

"As a proportion of our student cohort, we have comparatively one of the highest student disability intakes based on [national disability] data.

"Whilst extremely rare, any decision taken by the college not to continue a child's enrolment would always be made in the child's best interests and fully communicated to their family."

The ABC spoke with another parent from the school who said she was happy with the support provided to her two neurodivergent children.

"I think it's important for other parents to know that it's not okay that children with disabilities are excluded from schools that they have a right to be at," Jessica said.

"These children are going to be adults, as part of our society, and as much as it's important that our children learn to be part of the mainstream society, the mainstream society also needs to learn the difficulties that people with disabilities experience day in, day out."

What does the law say?

Australia's Disability Discrimination Act makes it illegal to discriminate against a person with a disability, including in educational settings.

Discrimination is described as disadvantage based on either being treated without reasonable consideration of their disability or being treated unfairly in a way that is different to others without a disability.

Under the act, there are standards for education that set out the rights for all students with a disability to be included in education and provided with reasonable adjustment to help them succeed at school.

Complaints can be brought to the Human Rights Commission, which investigates and mediates to find an outcome, but most agreements include a non-disclosure clause that prevents the case from being publicly discussed.

In Elliot's case, this clause was removed.

In 2019-20, the commission received 1,006 disability discrimination complaints, a 34 per cent increase from 750 complaints in 2015-16.

'The story doesn't change'

Chief executive of peak advocacy group Children and Young People with Disability Australia, Mary Sayers said that the exclusion of children with a disability could be subtle or overt.

Children and Young People with Disability chief executive Mary Sayers.(
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"We hear that more than one in 10 students experience gatekeeping - that's where they're told they are not welcome at the school, they should enrol their child somewhere else," Ms Sayers said.

"We also know that many students, while they are at school, face exclusion, around 40 per cent of students with disability - and this could include not being invited to school camps or not being invited to participate in whole school activities.

"The exclusion that children with disability face can be both very subtle and very overt, which is a real concern to us and unfortunately, year on year, the story doesn't change much.

"We wouldn't tolerate now, girls learning home eco while boys learn IT skills. We need to have that same mindset for students with disability where they're seen as equally-valued members of the classroom."

Ms Sayers said a national coalition of organisations had compiled a policy document for the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability, in the hope it would strengthen the inquiry's recommendations to bring about change in the coming decade.

As part of its inquiry, the royal commission is looking at barriers experienced by students with disability in accessing inclusive education.
*Elliot's name has been changed at the request of his parents.

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Jessica's son was four when she was told he was no longer welcome at his school, and according to some experts, she is not alone

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Jessica's son was four years old when she was told he was no longer welcome at his school, and according to some experts, she is not alone in her plight.

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Boris Johnson has a long record of controversial comments about women, gay people and ethnic minorities.

He has called gay men "bumboys," and compared Muslim women to "letterboxes."

In one column he labelled black Africans "piccaninnies" with "watermelon smiles."

He suggested that Malaysian women only go to university "to find men to marry."

LONDON - Boris Johnson's spokesman this week denied that the UK is a racist country, in the wake of widespread protests by Black Lives Matters protesters across the country.

The UK prime minister also used an address to the nation on Monday to claim that protesters across the country who clashed with police and knocked down a statue of a slave trader, risked undermining the cause against racism.

However, Johnson himself been dogged by allegations of racism and bigotry over the course of his career, due to a series of controversial columns he has written and comments he has made.

Johnson claims that some of the comments were "wholly satirical," while others have been taken out of context.

Here are some of the key comments he has made over the years, with context and links to their original sources.

Black Africans labelled 'piccaninnies' with 'watermelon smiles'

Writing in the Telegraph in 2002, Johnson referred to a visit to Africa by the then prime minister Tony Blair.

"What a relief it must be for Blair to get out of England. It is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies," he wrote, referring to African people as having "watermelon smiles."

Confronted about the comment during his first campaign for London Mayor, Johnson claimed that the comments had been "taken out of context."

The problem with Africa is 'we are not in charge any more'

Boris Johnson this week suggested that he understood the anger felt by black people in the UK about the country's history of slavery.

However, this is not an attitude that he took while the editor of the Spectator.

In a column written in 2002, Johnson wrote that British colonialism in Africa is "not a blot upon our conscience."

He added: "The problem is not that we were once in charge, but that we are not in charge any more."

Comparing Muslim women to 'letterboxes'

Boris Johnson was in 2018 reported to the Equalities Commission after comparing Muslim women who wear burqas to "letter boxes" and bank robbers.

The former foreign secretary wrote in an article for the Telegraph that "it is absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes," adding that any female student who appeared at school or in a lecture "looking like a bank robber" should be asked to remove it.

It is not the first time that Johnson has been accused of Islamophobia.

Islamophobia is 'a natural reaction'

In 2005, Johnson wrote in the Spectator that he believed it was only "natural" for the public to be scared of Islam.

"To any non-Muslim reader of the Koran, Islamophobia - fear of Islam - seems a natural reaction, and, indeed, exactly what that text is intended to provoke," he wrote.

"Judged purely on its scripture - to say nothing of what is preached in the mosques - it is the most viciously sectarian of all religions in its heartlessness towards unbelievers."

'Islam is the problem'

In the wake of the London bombings, he also questioned the loyalty of British Muslims and insisted that the country must accept that "Islam is the problem."

"It will take a huge effort of courage and skill to win round the many thousands of British Muslims who are in a similar state of alienation, and to make them see that their faith must be compatible with British values and with loyalty to Britain," he wrote.

"That means disposing of the first taboo, and accepting that the problem is Islam. Islam is the problem."

He added: "What is going on in these mosques and madrasas? When is someone going to get 18th century on Islam's medieval arse?"

Sexism

The ex-foreign secretary and former London Mayor has long had a questionable attitude towards women, with both the House of Commons speaker John Bercow and female members of the London Assembly accusing him of sexist behaviour.

Evidence of Johnson's views towards women can be found throughout his career.

In 1996, while a journalist for the Telegraph, Johnson went to the Labour conference and wrote a piece reviewing the quality of "the hot totty" who were present.

"The unanimous opinion is that what has been called the 'Tottymeter' reading is higher than at any Labour Party conference in living memory," he wrote.

He added that: "Time and again the 'Tottymeter' has gone off as a young woman delegate mounts the rostrum."

In an attempt to explain the trend of women shifting their allegiances to the Labour party, Johnson suggests that it is either due to the party's "planned erosion of male liberty - such as ending the right to drink in public places," or because of "Labour's most bizarre promise, that women will be more promiscuous if Mr Blair comes to power."

However, he concluded that the real reason women are turning to Labour is because of their natural "fickleness."

"The real reason why Blackpool is buzzing with glamorous women is surely that they scent victory. It is not the great smell of Brut that makes John Prescott attractive. It is the whiff of power. With the fickleness of their sex, they are following the polls."

'Emotional' women are often 'blubbing blondes' or 'collapsing with emotion'

Johnson also brought his admiration for "hot totty" into the office, pinning a Pirelli calendar to his desk, which featured nude photography, despite complaints from female colleagues.

Boasting of his decision, Johnson told Telegraph readers that the calendar "caused something of a stir."

"They made women feel embarrassed, I was told," he wrote.

"I'd hate to stand next to some guy and try to get my point across while May was on display," said one woman.

'Just pat her on the bottom and send her on her way'

In a farewell piece in the Spectator marking his exit as editor, Johnson offered the following advice to his successor.

"Once the fire is going well, you may find your eyes drifting to the lovely striped chesterfield across the room. Is it the right size, you wonder, for a snooze. . . ?" he wrote.

"You come round in a panic, to find a lustrous pair of black eyes staring down at you. Relax. It's only Kimberly [Quinn, who was then the Spectator's publisher] with some helpful suggestions for boosting circulation."

He advised his successor to "just pat her on the bottom and send her on her way."

This attitude towards women was carried over into his writing. As Sonia Purnell, a former colleague of Johnson, notes in her biography of him:

"In his writing women were portrayed as rather feeble 'blubbing blondes' or 'collapsing with emotion ...'"

In an article complaining about the reaction to Diana's death, Johnson lamented: "We live in an age where feminism is a fact, where giving vent to emotion in public wins votes."

"The Princess is a symbol for every woman who ever felt wronged by a man."

He once said, 'Voting Tory will cause your wife to have bigger breasts'

Johnson's use of sexual imagery about women was most prominently displayed in his GQ motoring column, in which he reviewed his favourite 'babe magnet' cars. As Purnell notes in her biography:

"The reviews relied on words such as 'filly', 'chicks' and 'flapping kimonos' and were garnished with plenty of 'gearstick' gags ... There is talk of blonde drivers 'waggling their rumps,' his own superior horsepower 'taking them from behind,' aided by tantalising thoughts of the imaginary 'ample bosoms' of the female Sat Nav voice."

"On driving a Ferrari F340, he wrote: 'it was as though the whole county of Hampshire was lying back and opening her well-bred legs to be ravished by the Italian stallion."

Boris's use of "ample bosoms" to promote his wares carried over into his political career.

In 2005, while campaigning to become the Conservative MP for Henley in the general election, he told voters that "voting Tory will cause your wife to have bigger breasts," apparently forgetting the other 50% of the electorate he needed to appeal to.

And in 2012, while hosting the London Olympics as mayor, Johnson told his readers of the "magnificent" experience of watching "semi-naked women playing beach volleyball ... glistening like wet otters."

Female Malaysian students only want 'men to marry'

In 2013, Johnson launched the World Islamic Economic Forum at London's City Hall. The then mayor appeared alongside the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who was asked about the role of women in Islamic societies.

Razak told journalists:

"Before coming here my officials have told me that the latest university intake in Malaysia, a Muslim country, 68% will be women entering our universities."

Boris interrupted with the suggestion that: "They have got to find men to marry."

You can listen to the recording here:

Homophobia

Writing in the Spectator in 2000, Johnson attacked what he called "Labour's appalling agenda, encouraging the teaching of homosexuality in schools, and all the rest of it."

In his 2001 book "Friends, Voters, Countrymen," Johnson compared gay marriage to bestiality, writing that "If gay marriage was OK - and I was uncertain on the issue - then I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men, or indeed three men and a dog."

There was even more explicit homophobia. As Business Insider previously revealed, in a 1998 Telegraph column about Peter Mandelson's resignation from the Labour government, Johnson said the announcement would lead to the blubbing of "tank-topped bumboys" in "the Ministry of Sound" nightclub, and "the soft-lit Soho drinking clubs frequented by Mandy and his pals."

He added that Mandelson's departure would cause the "lipstick" to come away from Blair's government.

In a separate Telegraph column Johnson also bewailed attempts to increase equality at the BBC for gay people.

"It must be a spoof," he wrote.

"In my hand was a magazine from something called the BBC Resources Equal Opportunities Unit. There were letters from gays asking about their "partner's" right to a BBC pension."

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Boris Johnson called gay men 'tank-topped bumboys' and black people 'piccaninnies' with 'watermelon smiles'

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Boris Johnson has a long record of controversial comments about women, gay people and ethnic minorities. He has called gay men "bumboys," and compared Muslim women to "letterboxes." In one column he labelled black Africans "piccaninnies" with "watermelon smiles." He suggested that Malaysian women only go to university "to find [...]

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Increasing Neurodiversity in disability & Social Justice groups

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Increasing Neurodiversity in disability & Social Justice groups

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Great resource about self advocacy with lots of good links.

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ADHD still seen as bad behaviour in schools

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ADHD still seen as bad behaviour in schools

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Ashton has been suspended twice, and he's yet to start high school.

Plenty of parents would be angry about that, but Ashton's mother, Catherine Cook, is adamant that it's not her son's fault.

"He's not just being naughty for the sake of it. There's a reason," she says. It's a reason she's intimately familiar with: Catherine, like her 11-year-old son, suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD.

ADHD, as the name suggests, can manifest as problems with attention, problems with hyperactivity and impulsivity, or all of the above. Symptoms can include difficulty sustaining attention on a task, making seemingly careless mistakes or frequently losing items, fidgeting and squirming, experiencing difficulty waiting in turn, and more.

The exact cause of ADHD is unknown, but it's understood to be a neurodevelopmental disorder. And yet ADHD is often dismissed as a behavioural issue for kids, a symptom of poor parenting that stems from a lack of discipline.

The debate over its legitimacy has had a profound impact on the way it is diagnosed, treated and supported -- so much so that children with ADHD aren't eligible for disability support under the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

That means that schools don't receive any extra funding to support ADHD-affected students in the classroom. For parents, it means that their frequent trips to see a doctor, psychologist or paediatrician aren't subsidised.

For parents like Catherine, that adds up to a deeply frustrating lack of support.

"He's got a Ferrari brain with a bicycle brake," she says of Ashton.

"You wouldn't say to somebody in a wheelchair 'wake up to yourself and walk!' They can't help it, but you can see that, so you just wouldn't say that."

"But ADHD, you can't see that."

Research conducted by Parents for ADHD Advocacy Australia found that a quarter of ADHD students had been suspended from school, often many times.

The survey found that nearly half of the students who had been suspended were under seven.

Nine-year-old Henry is currently on a 15-day suspension. He's been taking ADHD medication since he was six.

Recently, his mother Anabel had her worst nightmare come true after she received a call from the school principal. Henry had had an outburst in the classroom. It scared his teachers and fellow classmates. The police were called to the school to handle it.

"They had to restrain him with handcuffs," she told The Feed. "My nine-year-old boy."

In the classroom, there are a number of things teachers can do to cater to the needs of ADHD students. But Anabel has found that not every school is committed or consistent with individual learning programs.

"I think there's a lot of teachers out there that are trying hard, and they're trying to do the right thing, but I think they're let down by either the way that the system is run, or the fact that they're not receiving the support at high levels because ADHD isn't viewed as an independent disability."

Instead Henry's condition is referred to as an 'emotional disturbance' in the school system.

But recent studies have indicated that ADHD is likely a lot more than that.

David Coghill, the Chair of Developmental Mental Health at the University of Melbourne, has been working in the field of ADHD for over 25 years, and he says that recent research "leaves no doubt that ADHD is a biological disorder, and a biological disorder of the brain."

"Kids with ADHD often get in trouble, but their problems don't arise from the way that they're parented -- their problems arise from differences in the way that their brain develops," he says.

Coghill thinks that ADHD should be considered a disability, and that people with ADHD should be supported accordingly.

"The real impact of not being noticed, not being recognized, means that you don't get the support that you need."
If this story brings up issues for you, there's always someone you can talk to at Lifeline on 13 11 14 or beyondblue on 1300 22 46 36. You can reach Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800.

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Many schools still treat ADHD like simple bad behaviour. These parents are sounding the alarm.

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Ashton has been suspended twice, and he's yet to start high school. Plenty of parents would be angry about that, but Ashton's mother, Catherine Cook, is adamant that it's not her son's fault. "He's not just being naughty for the sake of it. There's a reason," she says.

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critical gaps - parent and carers experience of schooling for ADHD children

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critical gaps - parent and carers experience of schooling for ADHD children

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As a disabled person, there are days I don't want to leave the house.

I wish I could say I don't care what society thinks or assumes about me and my body. But the truth is, when my body is judged, ostracised, othered - I do care. Some days I have to really push myself.

It could be a question from a stranger: "What happened?" Taken aback by my body.

Or the daily comments.

"You're such a special girl."

"If I were you I don't think I'd want to live."

Or, "I don't see your disability."

People think it's helpful to ask why I don't get plastic surgery, "to fix your face".

As if surgery would fix the issue of not belonging.

I've had people thrust cameras and phones in my face to take photos and videos which I then hear them snigger about. As a child, I even had one stranger approach me in the schoolyard, sobbing, wailing and touching my face. Stricken with grief. A grief I did not share.

I've had teachers refuse me access in classrooms from the time I was a tiny tot in kindy all the way through to adult education. We live in a society designed with the expectation that people are able, neurotypical. Most people never consider how those of us with disability, chronic illness or neurodiversity interact with the world around us.

Perhaps it's not unrelated that according to the most recent data, discrimination on the grounds of disability topped the list in terms of complaints made to the Australian Human Rights Commission - above that of racism and sexism. These complaints, which can be difficult to lodge, are the tip of an iceberg.

Yet if I drop the word 'ableism'? Silence. People who easily name racism and sexism do not seem to see the human rights issues that underscore ableism. So that silence is problematic.

Writer Ellen Fraser-Barbour with Inka, her guide dog.(
Link Disability Magazine: Jo-Anna Robinson
)

What is ableism?

It is the favouring of able neurotypical people, and the exclusion and devaluation of people who are disabled and neurodivergent.

Ableism may not be intentional (in the same way that racism or sexism may not be intentional) but that doesn't mean it's not harmful.

Take the many media stories that often use words that communicate the underlying message we are a "burden" on society.

Think of all of the buildings, spaces, places, events (and so on) that were often designed without consideration of the needs of people with disability. Often we are the afterthought - or not thought of at all.

People don't question the beliefs and attitudes that relegate people with disability as lesser and inferior. Ableism is rife in our community, and all too easy to excuse.

Instead of naming ableism for what it is, instances of discrimination are often shrugged off, swept under the rug or laughed off, with no or few apologies.

I'd like to think of myself as an advocate: strong, full of pride, mostly unflappable.

The truth is everyone has a limit.

There are times when the cost of self and systemic advocacy is high, and done at the expense of both my physical and emotional health.

There are times I go home after a really rough day, week or month of advocacy and inaccessibility and am completely broken, consumed by these subtle and overt messages of not belonging.

I am powerless and grief stricken. I am not grieving about my body, though - I am grieving about how society treats me and my peers.

Too often, when instances of discrimination are reported in the media, the actions are excused as insignificant or "a mistake".

In one instance I was splashed across several media outlets after reporting a restaurant owner who had refused to allow me inside because of my guide dog.

Pride in the face of exclusion

Despite relentless talk of "inclusion", many people with disabilities repeatedly find ourselves all dressed up with nowhere to go, writes Stella Young.

Read more

I found people were quick to defend the character of the restaurant owners, talking about what a wonderful "family" they were. These restaurant owners were given time on radio to speak about how devastated they were, that it wasn't "their fault", and how hurt they were to receive public complaints.

At the time I received an incredible amount of abuse and judgement from thousands of people across Australia who thought I was "overreacting" "over-sensitive" and a "disabled person whinging again".

"The world doesn't revolve around her", "if she's disabled how can she even feed herself", and on it went.

The media spurred a response, allowing for the public to have an active discussion about discrimination. But for me it was exhausting.

The alternative is not much easier.

It took me seven months to do a "reconciliation" through the Australian Human Rights Commission. And this really only works if there are direct and overt forms of discrimination. The idea of making a complaint through an anti-discrimination or human rights commission, which can take months for little gain, seems unfeasible when discrimination is an everyday occurrence as a disabled person. You can't take every case of discrimination through the Human Rights Commission.

Equally, there are occasions when I am in a constant state of adrenaline and fight, anticipating or predicting the next dilemma and already fighting a war when someone says my access needs are too expensive, too complicated, too much of a burden.

I then chronically ruminate over what I should have or could have done differently. This is the impact of ableism.

I know it is not helpful to internalise ableism - but the social experience of not 'fitting' compounds mental health.

If you or anyone you know needs help:

'Helpful advice'

I am often given advice from others on how to help myself.

"Change your tone." "Be assertive." "Stop being aggressive." "You need to be softer and gentler." "You need to fight for your rights and pave the way for all disabled people." "Stop being an attention seeker." "Don't be too critical, we're all learning." And so on.

If this is advice you have given to someone dealing with discrimination, think carefully about where you are placing the onus.

Are you "coaching" me, or are you coaching the community? It is not always helpful to give advice on "reporting" and ways to "advocate" instead of critiquing society and the ways it oppresses.

As a society, we often critique those who are repeatedly, historically, systematically marginalised and harmed. It's often implied that our reactions and emotional responses are irrational, wrong, too extreme.

When your child asks about someone's disability

It's not enough to teach children manners, respect and kindness. As adults, when we feel confronted by someone who has a disability, we need to check our own judgements.

Read more

What you can do

Please do not label your peers as attention seekers, over-sensitive, over-reactive, difficult, aggressive people. For every story told, for every instance we speak up ... there are a million more we never talk about.

As a bystander, please do not remain silent or passive in the face of ableism. Name it when you see it. Call it out. Question it. Recognise ableism as a human rights issue equally as pervasive as racism, sexism and other "isms".

I'd like to hear the community name ableism and talk about the lack of accountability and action from people, from businesses, institutions, systems and government.

I'd like to hear people owning their privilege and considering it "everyone's work" to tackle ableism. I'd like to hear discussion about what it takes for us to value and recognise disabled people as humans worth valuing, as citizens - our peers, family, lovers, colleagues, friends.

Name and recognise how pervasive and unchecked ableism is in our community. How normalised ableism is. It does not matter if ableism is intentional or not, or how subtle it is. Those actions and words communicate that we are third-class citizens, and that devalues, oppresses and harms.

Listen. Reflect. Name it. Call it ableism.
Ellen Fraser-Barbour is a young disability and human rights advocate. She has an interest in preventing harm and discrimination and improving social justice. She is currently a PhD candidate at Flinders University and is a member of the Health Performance Council, where she is leading a project exploring experiences of people with disability in the healthcare system.
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What I wish you knew about ableism - ABC Everyday

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As a disabled person, there are days I don't want to leave the house. I wish I could say I don't care what society thinks or assumes about me and my body. But the truth is, when my body is judged, ostracised, othered - I do care.

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Respectful Relationships - Gender violence

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Respectful Relationships - Gender violence

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The social change we need to prevent gender-based violence can be supported by schools taking a whole of school approach to respectful relationships education.

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Respectful relationships education | Preventing violence against women

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Watch the video ► Just like other major social and health issues, such as smoking and drink driving, gender-based violence can be prevented by working across the whole population in many ways. This work needs to involve using different strategies to address key drivers and stop violence before it starts.

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Grace Tame on the promotion of Christian Porter

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Grace Tame on the promotion of Christian Porter

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Grace Tame gives her opinion on the message that Morrison is giving the country with his promotion of Christian Porter as the leader of the House of Representatives while Dutton is in lockdown. Showing that actions speak louder than words and betray what he really thinks about the safety of women in Australia.

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Opinion

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Prime Minister Scott Morrison has just overseen Christian Porter's assuming of the role of acting leader of the House of Representatives. Amid a burgeoning, pre-eminent mass awakening to the endemic issue of sexual abuse, this decision marks a proverbial slap in the face of our entire nation.

Less than two years ago, the twice-convicted paedophile who abused me and others before me was awarded a doctorate by the University of Tasmania, despite breaking the student code of conduct and being charged and jailed a second time for producing child exploitation material during his PhD tenure.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has overseen Christian Porter's elevation to Acting leader of the House of Representatives. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

In light of my own experience, it's hard to process how an accused rapist - albeit one who will never face prosecution - could be offered one of the highest positions of power in the country by none other than our nation's leader himself.

Christian Porter has been accused of raping a woman in 1988. Last year, his alleged victim died by suicide. He has denied the accusation.

But it isn't just Porter's character that's in question here, it's the morality of our current leadership.

Outside of Parliament, positions of public trust are governed by codes of conduct that stipulate one must be a "fit and proper" person in order to occupy them, such as in the case of doctors who are bound by the Hippocratic oath. Furthermore, their adequacy - in terms of both knowledge and ethics - is repeatedly challenged and updated through mandated continuing professional development.

Australian of the Year Grace Tame says Porter's elevation is a slap in the face for survivors of sexual abuse. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

In Parliament, however, no such requirements exist. It is the Prime Minister who sets the standards and maintains them by appointing cabinet ministers at his or her discretion.

Given the seriousness of the allegations against Porter, the bare minimum test of his fitness to hold ministerial office would be an independent inquiry. How damning it is that the government refused to allow for one.

If the Prime Minister's recent rhetoric about wanting to support assault survivors and protect women's safety was indeed true, he would surely go to any lengths possible to ensure there was not an accused rapist amongst his own staff. Clearly, it has been nothing but lip service. His actions speak volumes that drown out his every word.

And now, not only has Porter been permitted to remain in office, he's been temporarily elevated. His are circumstances steeped in the protective privileges of a patriarchal Parliament.

There is no way this decision was accidental. It is a transparently deliberate, definitive statement that reeks of abuse of power and a blatant disregard of the people.

Last week I had what I thought was a productive meeting with the federal government, and now this has happened.

Sexual abuse is an issue of human rights and should therefore transcend all divides; political and otherwise. And yet, by his actions our Prime Minister has proven he is of a different mind. He is determined to associate his party with outmoded, oppressive cultures and attitudes.

I'm not party-political, but I call out injustice where I see it, and in this instance, it is damn-near blinding.

Typically, one of the things the leader of the House does is shut down debate. The role is embedded with the power to enforce silence; the power to suppress truth. How powerfully ironic.

Demonstrative actions at the apex of influence - such as the elevation of Porter -have a dangerously permissive effect on future corruption whilst simultaneously stifling progress. They send an intimidating message of chilling apathy.

In particular, this appointment is an insult to all survivors, and indeed the whole country. It reinforces the idea that accused predators are too often protected, feeding into the already crippling fear of victims and bystanders. It is an act of emboldening perpetrators.

My heart breaks at the thought of survivors still living in silence, looking to our leaders for hope.
Grace Tame is a survivor of child sexual abuse and the 2021 Australian Of The Year. The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day's most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Crisis support is available from Lifeline on 13 11 14. Sign up here.

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Porter's elevation betrays PM's chilling apathy towards survivors

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Opinion Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Prime Minister Scott Morrison has just overseen Christian Porter's assuming of the role of acting leader of the House of Representatives. Amid a burgeoning, pre-eminent mass awakening to the endemic issue of sexual abuse, this decision marks a proverbial slap in the face of our entire nation.

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Gender, race and disability= justice system for indigenous women

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Gender, race and disability= justice system for indigenous women

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Aboriginal women only make up between 2% and 3% of the Australian female population. But the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women entering prison has soared from 21% of all women prisoners in 1996, to a record high of 35% in 2014. In the past year, the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women prisoners has increased again by 6% - a higher growth rate than for other women, and for Aboriginal men.

The Indigenous Australians with Mental Health Disorders and Cognitive Disability in the Criminal Justice System (IAMHDCD) project, which draws on a vast dataset of 2731 people who have been in prison in NSW, shows just how badly the system has failed Aboriginal women.

We tracked this group's contact with police, courts, legal aid, juvenile justice and adult corrections, government housing, disability, hospitals and community services. We found that Aboriginal women with mental and cognitive disabilities were the most disadvantaged of those in our study, and the situation is worsening.

A grim picture

Aboriginal women in the group we studied were 3.7 times more likely than non-Aboriginal women to have been in out-of-home care as children.

Our data showed that Aboriginal women with mental and cognitive disabilities had their first police contact at a younger age and had a significantly higher number of police contacts across their lives than non-Aboriginal women.

Over their lifetimes, Aboriginal women have significantly higher numbers of convictions, with Aboriginal women in the group we studied having, on average, 23 convictions over their lifetime compared to 15.2 for non-Aboriginal women.

We found Aboriginal women were 2.4 times more likely than non-Aboriginal women to have been in custody as juveniles. Aboriginal women also had, on average, 8.5 remand episodes over their lifetime; non-Aboriginal women had, on average, 5.4 remand episodes over their lifetime.

Aboriginal women in the group had been in adult prison an average of ten times over their lifetime, compared with their non-Aboriginal counterparts who averaged six prison terms.

Compared to Aboriginal men and non-Aboriginal women, Aboriginal women have more complex needs. That means poorer mental health and well-being, as well as cognitive impairment, including intellectual disability and acquired brain injury. They are also more likely to have multiple disabilities and health problems.

Our data showed that Aboriginal women are 2.2 times more likely than non-Aboriginal women to be homeless at some point in their life. They were likely to have moved more often than their non-Aboriginal peers but lived in a smaller number of towns and suburbs.

Aboriginal women in our study were recorded by police as victims of crime an average of 23 times in their lives. For non-Aboriginal women, the number of reports as victims of crime was 16.

Seeing it first hand

Data is one thing. But it was only by interviewing Aboriginal women, hearing their stories and seeing the human impacts that we were able to get a better grip on why these patterns were emerging.

The interviewees shared a lot of knowledge with us about their lives and their experiences. Most of the Aboriginal women interviewed had multiple and complex support needs, and had been in prison, were at risk of going to prison, or were already in prison.

One Aboriginal woman who was imprisoned in the Northern Territory, far from her country and family support, had such an extreme intellectual disability that she had no awareness of her earliest release date. She had very little capacity to access disability support services after release into the community.

Another Aboriginal woman who had mental illness and cognitive disability had been remanded in a NSW prison for more than 12 months. While in custody, she was being cared for by an older Aboriginal woman prisoner suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by violence, and mental and emotional abuse from intimate partners.

A younger Aboriginal woman in her mid-20s who had been diagnosed with brain damage from inhaling petrol as a teenager had been detained as a juvenile and imprisoned as an adult four times.

It is clear these Aboriginal women's needs are not being met by any human service system; they are landing in the criminal justice system because of serious policy and service gaps.

Getting worse

Australia has a poor record when it comes to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and their contact with criminal justice systems.

We've had a few reviews, like the 1985 NSW Women in Prison Task Force and the NT's Addressing the Needs of Female Offenders in Prison: Policy and Action Plan 2007-2012. Five of the 339 recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody National Report referred to Aboriginal women.

These reviews have highlighted areas in need of improvement to better respond to the needs of Aboriginal women. These include police relations, access to Aboriginal Legal Services, courts and sentencing, bail applications, services provided in prison, access to probation and parole and post release care, as well as Aboriginal women-driven research.

Early intervention and diversion into holistic, therapeutic, culturally responsive, community-based support, case management support services, housing support and disability support pensions could help break the cycle of imprisonment for many of these women.
This is the second in a series of articles by this research team. Click here to read more on the Indigenous Australians with Mental Health Disorders and Cognitive Disability in the Criminal Justice System (IAMHDCD) Project.

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How Aboriginal women with disabilities are set on a path into the criminal justice system

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Aboriginal women only make up between 2% and 3% of the Australian female population. But the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women entering prison has soared from 21% of all women prisoners in 1996, to a record high of 35% in 2014.

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First Nations women and girls actions and benchmarks - from Indigenous Australian women and girls

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First Nations women and girls actions and benchmarks - from Indigenous Australian women and girls

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The Report calls for the urgent establishment of a National Action Plan, an advisory body and targets and benchmarks for women and girls to lead in all areas of life.

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A landmark report on Australia's First Nations women and girls has been released, with an ambitious, female-led plan for structural reform.

Wiyi Yani U Thangani-(Women's Voices)-Securing Our Rights, Securing Our Future Report 2020 is a comprehensive, whole-of-life document and the result of over a hundred engagements with thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls of all ages in remote, very remote, regional and urban communities.

The Report calls for the urgent establishment of a National Action Plan, an advisory body and targets and benchmarks for women and girls to lead in all areas of life.

"What we have here today, is not a report for the shelves; it's a call to action. It's a strengths-based message for all Australians to see, to hear, to learn of the remarkable resilience and capabilities of our women and girls, who have the solutions but lack a seat at the table," said Commissioner Oscar.

"The voices of our women and girls are on every page of this Report. This is their Report.

"When my team and I embarked on this journey, we had no set agenda, no imposed framework.

"We gave Indigenous women and girls the space to say what they wanted, to share their ideas, without fear or favour. That's exactly what they did. My team and I have been moved by the sheer resilience of our First Nations women and girls, who despite ongoing disadvantage across all areas of life, continue to hold their communities and families together."

Press conference details
Thursday 10 December
Media to arrive 0830 for 0845 start
Nyoongar Patrol Outreach Service, 35-37 Gladstone St, Perth WA 6000

"To our First Nations women and girls; you have been heard and you will make a difference. And now, it's time to put these recommendations into action, with the second stage of Wiyi Yani U Thangani, " said Ms Oscar.

The Report includes principles to guide change, seven overarching recommendations and a series of priority actions to enable communities to thrive and overcome profound disadvantage.

Wiyi Yani U Thangani has been supported by a multi-year partnership with National Indigenous Australians Agency. It is the first national engagement project of its kind since the Women's Business Report in 1986.

The Report includes principles to guide change, seven overarching recommendations and a series of priority actions to enable communities to thrive and overcome profound disadvantage.

MEDIA CONTACT: Sarah Bamford
(02) 9284 9700
media@humanrights.gov.au

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Landmark report - First Nations women and girls

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A landmark report on Australia's First Nations women and girls has been released, with an ambitious, female-led plan for structural reform. Wiyi Yani U Thangani-(Women's Voices)-Securing Our Rights, Securing Our Future Report 2020 is a comprehensive, whole-of-life document and the result of over a hundred engagements with thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls of all ages in remote, very remote, regional and urban communities.

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This is an article that looks at why we need to consider the effects of intersectionality during an event such as a pandemic to understand the multiplying and devastating effects for marginalised people.

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Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Laboratory of Social Policies, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

Covid-19 has been a disrupting event in contemporary social life but is far from being a great equaliser. Preliminary studies have put in evidence how different social groups faced a differentiated risk of contagion and coped differently with the various consequences of the emergency. Evidence shows how minorities and migrants face disproportionally higher risks of contagion than the white upper and middle class, and how vulnerable communities are more exposed to deaths and the rapid spread of the virus. At the same time, societies are coping with social distancing measures and their disruptive social and economic consequences, which have a more significant impact on the most vulnerable segments of societies: women, children, low-income classes and ethnic minorities. This article argues that an intersectional framework allows an understanding of what is occurring in the current pandemic, both in terms of its social determinants and social consequences. To open the black box of inequality, intersectional scholars analyze the intersections of multiple structures of inequalities (such as gender, age, class, ethnicity), which have a multiplying effect when disadvantaged positions intersect in the same individual. Covid-19 is a clear example of an intersectional phenomenon: the impact of individual and community exposure to Covid-19 is the results of multiple and interrelating structures of inequality. Up to now, research in social sciences has underestimated the role of intersectionality in analyzing the social and economic consequences of this pandemic.

Introduction

Covid-19 is not a great equaliser ( Alfani, 2020; Berkhout and Richardson, 2020; Fisher et al., 2020; Galasso, 2020; Lokot and Bathia, 2020). Like other more recent pandemics such as the Spanish flu in 1918 or HIV in the '80s, the virus spread more easily among the vulnerable population. Furthermore, the economic consequences of social distancing measures are leading to an increase of inequalities compared to pre-pandemic times ( Alfani, 2020; Haase, 2020; Montenovo et al., 2020; Ryan and El Ayadi, 2020) and interact with pre-existing inequalities along dimensions such as gender, age, socio-economic conditions, geography ( Eaves and Al-Hindi, 2020). However, the current debate on the effects of Covid-19 has not sufficiently considered how the intersections between existing structures of inequalities affect the impact of Covid-19 on societies. In this paper, I argue that these studies have forgotten the relevance that possible intersections might have in determining the social effects of this pandemic.

The relationship between Covid-19 and the inequality structure occurs along two dimensions: how current inequality structures affect the spread of the infection and how its containment measures affect the existing systems of inequality ( Holst et al., 2020). The debate about the social determinants of health is long-standing in sociology: it focuses on how education, socio-economic conditions and the environment in which people live affect their health ( Scambler, 2019; Burton et al., 2020; Joseph, 2020). Covid-19 is a social disease ( Trout and Kleinman, 2020): the likelihood of getting infected is influenced by economic inequalities. The virus is more likely to hit harder among those who have a concurrent illness, live in over-crowded housing or lack regular access to health services ( Burton et al., 2020; Holst et al., 2020; Horton, 2020). Furthermore, Covid-19 distribution is also correlated with the vulnerability of the communities ( Fisher et al., 2020; Hatef et al., 2020). When ethnically segregated, the spread of Covid-19 in a community is greater ( Joseph, 2020). In the debate about social determinants of health, the need for an intersectional approach has long been recognized ( Lopez and Gadsen, 2016).

But Covid-19 is not only a medical issue but a "social disaster" as well ( Connell, 2020). The social distancing necessary to avoid the spread of the virus determines its social impact. These measures affect societies in three manners: 1). exposing existing vulnerabilities, 2). reinforcing current inequalities, 3). amplifying social differences in the future because of scarring effects ( Haase, 2020). Thus, the scope of this review is to argue that an intersectional analytical framework is necessary to grasp the full social consequences of Covid-19.

Exploring the Social Impact of Covid-19 Pandemics Under an Intersectional Perspective

The unprecedented measures taken for coping with Covid-19 have disrupted the labor market, with most recent ILO estimations indicating that 93% of the world's workers experienced some sort of workplace closures. Shuts down have implied a relevant loss in working hours (8.8% compared to 2019), growing inactivity and unemployment rates, with a decline of 8.3% in labor income globally (source: ILO Monitor, seventh Edition, January 2021). The following sections review the empirical evidence emerging from on-going research conducted worldwide on the social consequences of Covid-19 social distancing measures.

Shutdown Sectors

Measures of social distancing caused the closures of non-essential working activities with consequent massive layoffs and furloughs. Activities involving frequent interpersonal contacts suffered more prolonged closures and could not easily turn to telework. Given its characteristics, the crisis has been defined a "pink recession" as it affected especially sectors in which women are the majority of employees, with gendered effects in terms of job loss and reduction of working hours ( Matthewman and Huppatz, 2020).

Adams-Prassl et al. (2020) shows that sectors such as arts and entertainment, education, food, accommodation and retail suffered in all countries considered in their study (United Kingdom, United States and Germany). The same occurred in Australia ( Churchill, 2020) and Italy ( Galasso, 2020). These are sectors in which women are over-represented, leading to a higher impact on their individual income ( Alon et al., 2020). Blundell et al. (2020) demonstrated that in United Kingdom women, young and low-paid workers are those that suffered the most from the lockdown. In Italy, Galasso (2020) observed adverse effects on blue collars, low-educated workers and low-income services workers as well. Social distancing implied more significant job losses among ethnic minorities in the United States, especially Hispanics ( Béland et al., 2020; Montenovo et al., 2020). Layoffs in the United States exacerbated pre-existing forms of parental status and gender inequality in employment, with a consistent fatherhood premium ( Dias et al., 2020). Thus, mothers more than father were more likely to exit the labor force during the pandemics and, significantly, mothers of the youngest children reduced their working hours five times more than fathers ( Collins et al., 2020). The 80% of job loss in Europe occurred among temporary workers, with youth employment significantly affected; the sharpest decrease occurred in elementary occupations (−10%) and sales (−8%) ( Eurostat, 2020). Blundell et al. (2020) also observed a more substantial reduction in earnings for low-income workers and self-employed workers. In the global South, informal work has been significantly affected by job loss, affecting disproportionally the least well-off ( Fisher et al., 2020). As such, the shutdown affected mostly vulnerable and disadvantaged workers: in general, families that were already in a condition of economic insecurity and working precariousness suffered the most from the shutdowns.

In conclusion, the more fragile workers were more likely to stop working and to suffer immediate income loss from the social distancing measures that affected mostly low-skilled services sectors ( Blundell et al., 2020; Galasso, 2020). The variance in job losses in terms of demographic characteristics depends on the sorting between different sectors ( Montenovo et al., 2020): the affected sectors showed a predominance of youth, minorities, women and low-skilled workers, usually employed with temporary contracts or in precarious working conditions, including solo self-employment.

Key workers vs. Teleworking

Even during stricter restrictions, the majority of workers continued their working activities. In a study from Eurofond (2020), about half of the labor force worked at least once from home during the first months of the Covid-19 pandemics. However, working conditions were highly differentiated between those who could reorganize their work entirely at home and those who had to continue working in their usual workplace. Class divides clearly marked this separation.

The expansion of teleworking following the COVID-19 outbreak is strongly skewed toward high-paid and high-skilled white-collar employment ( European Commission, 2020; Sostero et al., 2020). Galasso and Foucalt (2020), analyzing data from surveys covering several 12 OECD countries, demonstrated that college graduates and white collars were overwhelmingly working from home. Apart from belonging to the most privileged strata of labor markets, those who could telework were less likely to lose their jobs during pandemics ( Adams-Prassl et al., 2020; Montenovo et al., 2020) and to suffer from their economic consequences ( Béland et al., 2020). Teleworking sectors are those in which gender divides are lower. Still, women were more likely to reduce their working hours when teleworking due to the increasing burden of unpaid work with lockdown schools and the lack of help from primary networks following self-isolation ( Hipp and Bünning, 2020).

Conversely, key workers belong to essential sectors such as health care, supermarkets and cleaning, and could rarely access teleworking. They are usually poorly paid with less welfare protection than other categories ( Horton, 2020). Although they were not exposed to unemployment, key workers faced a higher risk of Covid-19 exposure ( Montenovo et al., 2020), with consequent high proportions of contagion and deaths among them ( van Barneveld et al., 2020). Essential sectors are disproportionally populated by low-skilled women and ethnic minorities, usually employed with precarious working conditions and low pay. More than 50% of those who continue working in place despite restrictions belong to the lowest educated groups in the United Kingdom ( Blundell et al., 2020). Despite their essential role and the general appreciation that healthcare workers received during the pandemics, frontline workers could not capitalize on the pandemics for improving their job conditions or increasing its monetary value.

In conclusion, the capacity of teleworking reinforces pre-existing labor market inequalities. High-skilled and high-paid workers were more likely to preserve their jobs and to work safely through lockdowns, avoiding income loss. On the contrary, key frontline workers, mostly active in service and care jobs, are disproportionally low paid and more exposed to contagion. Sorting among the two groups of workers depends on education and earnings, with the most shielded group belonging to the highest classes.

School Closures

After decades of externalization, pandemics have increased the internalization of care for dependent family members, especially children ( Hupkau and Pentrongolo, 2020). School closures implied a deeper involvement of families, both in care and education; and many couples have to concentrate work and home schooling in the same (domestic) space ( Craig, 2020). Social distancing also precluded support from primary networks, such as friends, neighbors or grandparents ( Blaskó et al., 2020). The care burden was particularly heavy for single parents ( van Barneveld et al., 2020). Not surprisingly, most of these additional care hours have been carried out by women.

School closures affected children and youth disproportionally, with a systematic and more profound impact on young from low socio-economic backgrounds ( ILO, 2020). The impossibility to go to school has meant the incapacity to secure food, health, access to services for the lowest-income households ( Blundell et al., 2020; Fisher et al., 2020), and widened educational inequalities among children of different socio-economic backgrounds ( Reimer et al., 2020). Increase in children's inequality occurred primarily when students were taught online ( Reimer et al., 2020). In fact, digital inequalities strongly affected the capacity of families to cope with online teaching ( Auriemma and Iannaccone, 2020; Puckett and Rafalow, 2020): families with lower socio-economic backgrounds had more difficulties in buying adequate instruments to support home schooling or to have sufficient space for study at home ( Auriemma and Iannaccone, 2020; Blundell et al., 2020; Reimer et al., 2020). Better-off families are more likely to have both parents accessing teleworking, increasing the family's capacity to cope with home schooling thanks to a more equal distribution of unpaid care ( Craig, 2020; Del Boca et al., 2020; Hipp and Bünning, 2020). They have better houses with wider spaces and more capacity to face unexpected expenses, such as the devices needed for home schooling ( Blundell et al., 2020).

Furthermore, data from live surveys in Italy ( Del Boca et al., 2020), Spain ( Bonal and González, 2020), Germany, Ireland and United Kingdom ( Dietrich et al., 2020) show that not all the parents looked after children in the same way: mothers holding a degree and their partner spent more time on children's education, even controlling for working arrangements. All preliminary evidence shows that schooling disruptions are likely to affect students' cognitive development and educational attainment with 65% of young reporting lesser learning outcomes since pandemics ( ILO 2020), but with differentiated effects depending on classes. Educational inequalities are more pronounced in the Global South: families with children accessing private education have been further advantaged since public schools could not provide even basic online teaching ( Fisher et al., 2020).

In conclusion, the social consequences of school closures again affected the most vulnerable populations: children and young, especially if they belong to low socio-economic backgrounds or live in the Global South, might experience persisting scarring effects that might compromise their educational attainment in the future. At the same time, families were particularly stressed, with additional care burden distributed unevenly among genders.

Home Confinement

Self-isolation imposed generally on the population implied a renovated relevance of housing in terms of accessing sufficient and secure space. Houses have suddenly become the space in which people work, study and spend their free time with the consequences of exacerbating inequalities between those who can access sufficient space for all family members and those who cannot ( Auriemma and Iannaccone, 2020). Socially excluded populations, such as homeless, refugees or those who have fragile access to housing have been significantly affected by home confinement for their chronic lack of secure access to housing. Especially for undocumented migrants, their undeclared conditions implied a higher likelihood of losing their jobs when home confinement took place. Usually, they were excluded from income support schemes or housing protection measures, leaving them particularly exposed to insecurity and poverty ( Guadagno, 2020).

Furthermore, home confinement and school closure have also implied an increase of gender-based violence, since women and children were locked up with their persecutors without the capacity to evade or to ask for help ( Evans et al., 2020; Fisher et al., 2020). Data from the US showed an increase of up to 30% of reports on intimate violence ( Eaves and Al-Hindi, 2020), a trend confirmed in China ( Sacco et al., 2020). In other countries, the number of reports dramatically fell, as happened in Italy ( Sacco et al., 2020), because of the impossibility for women to ask for help outside the family. Additionally, financial insecurity might force victims to stay with their abuser ( OECD, 2020). Domestic violence is a phenomenon that cuts across all levels of income, education and occupation; however, empirical evidence on the Covid-19 effects on domestic violence are too preliminary to argue if they tend to concentrate among families of lower socio-economic background.

In conclusion, the adverse effects of home confinement were not evenly distributed across social groups. The preliminary empirical evidence shows the higher vulnerability of women and children, and socially excluded populations compared to the better-off families, both in terms of access to adequate housing and safe environment for study and living. Domestic violence has been on the rise for the incapacity of women to escape their persecutors during home confinement measures.

The Intersectional Pandemic Effects

The intersectional theory has gained increased success over recent years in women's studies for its capacity to go beyond a simple binary approach to gender inequalities. In fact, intersectionality considers what occurs when multiple axes of inequalities enter in relation, so that gender should always be seen in interactive and complex relations with other factors, such as ethnicity, class, age, etc. ( Berkhout and Richardson, 2020; Eaves and Al-Hindi, 2020; Ryan and El Ayadi, 2020). Under this perspective, these structures of inequalities are "crosscutting and mutually reinforcing systems of domination and subordination", which "may construct multiple, uneven and contradictory social patterns" ( Anthias 2005, 36-37). They are interrelated but different systems of inequality. Thus, people hold positions that may be conflicting with each other-such as for black middle-class women, who are privileged for their belonging to the middle class but discriminated for their being women and blacks.

As seen in the previous section (§ Exploring the Social Impact of Covid-19 Pandemics Under an Intersectional Perspective Section), pandemics' direct and indirect social consequences impacted differentially on individuals belonging to different social groups. Each of the phenomenon considered (the closure of non-essential sectors, teleworkers and key workers, school closures and home confinement) had an impact differentiated by gender, class, age, ethnic background (etc.), while these structures of inequalities were mutually reinforcing each other at the intersections. For example, we can consider the case of a single mother working in an essential sector coping with the care and education of her children in the total absence of help from public services and primary networks. Her vulnerability does not merely emerge from the fact that she is female but from the contemporaneous presence of other disadvantaged conditions (being a single mother and a key worker) that magnify her vulnerability facing an adverse event (the social distancing due to pandemics).

Each social group we have identified as particularly vulnerable to the pandemic (women, young, children, ethnic minorities) is not a uniform group ( Berkhout and Richardson, 2020): women differ among each other for their socio-economic conditions, if they have a partner that can support the increased burden of unpaid work determined by school closure, if they belong to vulnerable communities or have access to adequate housing. And this happens for all the other groups considered: data showed that almost three quarters of youth suffered from an interruption in their education, but for those belonging to low socio-economic classes this situation will probably imply a scarring effect in future educational attainment and, consequently, in their future capacity to secure their living on the labor market ( ILO, 2020).

Focusing on only one axis of inequality at a time impedes grasping the real reach of the pandemic effect and its unequal distribution across social groups in society. Applying an intersectional approach to Covid-19 implies using a fractal analytical approach to the complexity of reality, as shown in Figure 1: independently of which axis of inequality we consider as first, the inclusion of the others generates a tree of multiple inequalities in which the focus lies at the intersections, not at the single analytical dimension. In each intersection, the experience of Covid-19 and the relative vulnerability changes.

FIGURE 1. The figure represents in a simplified way the logical reasoning behind applying an intersectional approach to a social phenomenon, such as Covid-19.

Measures of containment did not equally affect economic sectors, nor countries: each government decided which measure to implement, in certain cases lengthy interruptions in school provisions and longer duration of home confinement, while in others only lighter restrictions in the activities considered at highest risk of interpersonal contacts. The social and economic effects of the pandemics depended not only on the individual characteristics of the person but on the type of policy response to it, with certain countries-such as Southern Europe-more exposed than others ( Moreira et al., 2020). As Wenham et al. (2020) reported, only 16 countries have enforced social protection measures that make explicit reference to women, overlooking the fact that the worst economic consequences of this crisis are likely to affect women. Quite rarely women or ethnic minorities were included in the political and technical committees that managed the emergency, and parliament's voicing capacity was significantly undermined by the need to make rapid decisions ( Blaskó et al., 2020; OECD, 2020; United Nations, 2020). The lack of an intersectional lens in assuming decisions to fight the emergency might drive away governments in their capacity to tackle the social consequences of Covid-19 effectively.

Future research with an intersectional perspective is required to understand the complexity of the current situation and tailor policy responses to cope with this complexity. The empirical evidence provided in this article has confirmed the stances of those authors that call for intersectionality in analyzing the effects of Covid-19 ( Bowleg, 2020; Eaves and Al-Hindi, 2020; Ryan and El Ayadi, 2020; Wenham et al., 2020). Up to now, data have been just collected without sufficiently considering how the different structures of inequality intersect. Using an intersectional approach underlines the difference in the impact of pandemics between individuals and social groups, and helps in designing policy responses that mitigate, instead of increase, the potential unequal effect of this pandemic.

Author Contributions

The author confirms being the sole contributor of this work and has approved it for publication.

Conflict of Interest

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Andrea Bellini for reading a preliminary version of this text.

References

Bowleg, L. (2020). We're not all in this together: on COVID-19, intersectionality, and Structural Inequality. Am. J. Public Health 100, 917.

Galasso, V., and Foucault, M.. (2020). 'Working during COVID-19: Cross-country evidence from real-time survey data', OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers No. 246. doi:10.3386/w27359

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The Covid-19 Pandemics: why Intersectionality Matters

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Covid-19 has been a disrupting event in contemporary social life but is far from being a great equaliser. Preliminary studies have put in evidence how different social groups faced a differentiated risk of contagion and coped differently with the various consequences of the emergency.

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Grace Tame criticism of Christian Porter's role as Leader of the House

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Grace Tame criticism of Christian Porter's role as Leader of the House

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Grace Tame speaks about Christian Porter’s temporary role as Leader of the House | 7.30

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Values of the government towards women on show. Privilege and power used as a weapon to silence and threaten?

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Values of the government towards women on show. Privilege and power used as a weapon to silence and threaten?

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Taken from twitter https://twitter.com/ByClare/status/1423507435038248961https://twitter.com/ByClare/status/1423507435038248961

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Why do so many incompetent men become leaders?

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Why do so many incompetent men become leaders?

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Question should not be why aren't more women leaders, but why are so many incompetent men leaders?

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If we want to improve the competence level of people in leadership positions, we need to improve our own competence for judging and selecting them, especially when they are men, says organizational psychologist Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic.
Have you ever worked with people who are not as good as they think?
This finding won't come as a surprise to most of us, but statistically, these people are more likely to be male than female. That's right - men are typically more deceived about their talents than women are. And they are also more likely to succeed in their careers. That's because one of the best ways to fool other people into thinking you're better than you actually are is to fool yourself first.

I'm an organizational psychologist, and I use science and technology to predict and understand human behavior at work. One of the areas that fascinates me is the relationship between gender, personality and leadership and more specifically, how gender and personality shape our choices of leaders and how those leaders then impact organizations. Discussions of gender tend to focus on the under-representation of women in leadership, which, sadly, is more or less universal.

But a bigger problem is the fact that most leaders are incompetent. Indeed, whether in business or politics, incompetent leaders have negative effects on their followers and subordinates, causing low levels of engagement, trust and productivity and high levels of burnout and stress. Just google "my boss is" to see what most people think of their managers (and maybe, just maybe, you'll feel a bit better about your manager). You'll see words like "crazy," "abusive," "unbearable," "toxic," and other words that are too rude to repeat.
So, the main question we should be asking is not why there aren't any more women leaders, but why do so many incompetent men become leaders?
My research suggests there are three main reasons, and the first is our inability to distinguish between confidence and competence. Across cultures and countries, we tend to assume that confident people have more potential for leadership, but in any area of talent, including leadership, there is very little overlap between confidence (how good people think they are at something) and competence (how good they actually are at something).

The second reason is our love of charismatic individuals, particularly since the explosion of mass media in the 1960s. But this has been turbocharged by the recent digital age. We appear to want leaders who are charming and entertaining, but as most of us know, there is a big difference between an effective leader and being a stand-up comedian. In fact, the best leaders are humble rather than charismatic, to the point of being boring.

That's why they're rarely featured in blockbuster movies. For example, imagine a movie on Angela Merkel - she wakes up, has breakfast with her husband, goes to meetings well-prepared, lets other people talk without interrupting them, makes rational decisions, and there are no scandals about her. In contrast, there is a surplus of captivating biopics on charismatic leaders with a fascinating dark side, who end up ruining countries and organizations.

The third and final reason for the rise of incompetent men is our inability to resist the allure of narcissistic individuals - people with grandiose visions that tap into our own narcissism. We've always admired famous people, but our admiration for people who admire themselves or are famous for just being famous has been rising for decades. At this rate, future generations will look back at Kim and Kanye and say, "Whoa! Weren't they modest?"

Much of the popular advice that focuses on helping people become leaders nurtures and promotes a narcissistic mindset: "Love yourself, no matter what", "Don't worry about what people think of you" or "If you think you're great, you are." Unfortunately, this creates a surplus of leaders who are unaware of their limitations and unjustifiably pleased with themselves. They see leadership as an entitlement and they lack empathy and self-control, so they end up acting without integrity and indulging in reckless risks. In contrast, the best leaders keep their narcissism in check. They care a lot about other people, including what they think of them, and they spend a great deal of time worrying about their reputation, which is why there are very few scandals about them.
So, how do we stop incompetent men from becoming leaders?
The first solution is to follow the signs and look for the qualities that actually make people better leaders. There is a pathological mismatch between the attributes that seduce us in a leader and those that are needed to be an effective leader. If we want to improve the performance of our leaders, we should focus on the right traits. Instead of falling for people who are confident, narcissistic and charismatic, we should promote people because of competence, humility and integrity. Incidentally, this would also lead to a higher proportion of female than male leaders - large-scale scientific studies show that women score higher than men on measures of competence, humility and integrity. But the point is that we would significantly improve the quality of our leaders.

The second solution is to distrust our instincts. Most of us love our intuition, but most people are just not as intuitive as they think. In that sense, intuition is a bit like a sense of humor. Ninety percent of people think they have a fantastic sense of humor. Yet how many people are actually funny? A much lower percentage. One implication is to focus less on the impressions people make during job or media interviews, which are just an invitation to project our own biases and prejudices. Even when we have good intentions, it is not easy to overcome this. For example, unconscious bias training will rarely help you ignore that the person in front of you is white, female or attractive. In fact, the more you try to suppress certain thoughts from your mind, the more prominent and present they become.

If we want to improve the quality of our leaders and help more women get to leadership positions, the last thing we should do is lower our standards when we select women. This means we shouldn't ask women to behave more like incompetent men - for example, asking them to lean in when they don't have the talent to back it up or to spend more time on self-promotion or advancing their own personal interests. It also means not ruling out men because they lack the traditional masculine features that match our flawed archetypes of leadership.

To the extent that we can do these things, we will end up with better leaders. However, progress starts with each and every one of us. If we want to improve the competence level of our leaders, we should first improve our own competence for judging and selecting leaders, especially when they are men.
This piece was adapted from a TEDxUniversityofNevada Talk. Watch it now:

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Why do so many incompetent men become leaders? And what can we do about it?

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Have you ever worked with people who are not as good as they think? This finding won't come as a surprise to most of us, but statistically, these people are more likely to be male than female. That's right - men are typically more deceived about their talents than women are.

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Experiences of female Australian politicians and the strategies they have needed to use to have their ideas heard and represented - the good and bad.

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Female politicians tend to think of themselves as politicians first, women second, and they occupy all points of the opinionated universe.

As I spoke to women MPs across different generations and the spectrum of political belief to make the ABC's Ms Represented, I was prepared for them to disagree with each other.

But what shocked me the most about making the series was the one experience almost all of them had.

In fact, this particular point was made by so many of the women, and in such identical terms, it was almost comedic. We found footage of SA's Dame Nancy Buttfield (Liberal, elected to the Senate in 1955) describing this particular experience in exactly the same terms as Sarah Hanson-Young, elected more than half a century later and for a much more progressive party.

"Of course it's happened to me," says Labor's Penny Wong.

"It's probably happened to you!" says former Speaker Bronwyn Bishop.

Let's leave it to Julie Bishop - the most senior woman in the history of the federal Liberal party - to describe.

Ms Bishop is the most recent woman in Australia to serve as the lone woman in the federal Cabinet. While Prime Minister Tony Abbott's deputy leader in 2013, she was appointed Foreign Minister of Australia in a Cabinet consisting of her and 18 male colleagues.

She joined pioneers like the late Dame Margaret Guilfoyle and the late Susan Ryan, who between them racked up many years as the sole female in the Fraser and Hawke cabinets of the 1970s and 1980s.

Ms Bishop calls the phenomenon "gender deafness".

"It happens if you're the only woman in a room and you come up with an idea or you say something," she says. "So often, there's no response. And then the next person speaks. And then the next one actually appropriates your idea. And then all the men around the table nod and say, 'What a good idea'. And you'd be there, 'Didn't I say that? Did no one hear me?'."

'Gender deafness' affects many female politicians

Many women said they discussed the "gender deafness" experience with colleagues. Australia's first female prime minister Julia Gillard said reference to the phenomenon was "out of all of the experiences I talked to women about, one that always gets the heads nodding".

"Research shows that even though men don't think they do, they actually take a disproportionate amount of the talking time" she says. "If you've got a meeting of five people, it's not until four of those people are women that women will get a fair share of the talking time. Or, put another way, if there is more than one bloke then they're going to dominate the time available for the discussion."

Ms Gillard proposes one way around the impasse: women backing each other in vocally, when there are more than one in the room.

"Of course, you know, once you're conscious of that, once you know it, and it's something that I've known over many, many years ... we can back each other up. And even if you don't agree with the idea, at least do the woman in the room the courtesy of saying, 'Well, as Annabel just said', once it's become clear that an idea is becoming overlooked from a woman."

In interviews for Ms Represented, women nominated various tactics they had used to make themselves heard in meetings in which they were the minority.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.

Former MPs recount the worst comments made about them while they were in Parliament

And they have strategies to cope

Bronwyn Bishop's preferred technique? "Name it. You've got to claim it! I'm so pleased you agree with me!"

Several, including Senator Wong, endorsed Ms Gillard's suggestion of women banding together to draw attention to each other's contributions, even the ones with which they personally disagreed.

There's a more depressing, if quicker option; women from the Nationals, Liberals, Labor and Greens all acknowledged that one way to get a policy idea up and running was to "make the bloke think it was his idea".

"Predict what he's going to say ... maybe let it flop," says Hanson-Young. "Go outside, pitch him something else. He'll come in and sell it. It's his idea, and you all agree."

Former Liberal senator Amanda Vanstone, typically, has thought outside the box.

"There's another way to handle it if you're in a room with lots of men, which most women in parliament generally would be, and that's to express sort of exasperation at one point after a bloke has spoken and say, 'Oh my God, there's far too much testosterone in this room', she says.

"And, for some reason, they all go and start thinking about their equipment. And, that means you've got about 15 seconds where they're looking, 'Oh, what did she say that for? What? What? What?' And you can start saying what you want to say. You've got the floor.

"A distraction! Make them think about something they like to think about and then you can get in there."

It is shocking that women from such different backgrounds and generations could so unanimously describe the experience of finding themselves inaudible in meetings. I'd heard of the phenomenon before but to hear it articulated so readily and unprompted by nearly every interviewee was surprising.

And the techniques and tactics they had all developed to get around this obstacle sounded tiring: yet another bundle in a mental load that already involves carefully choosing clothes that won't make you look too loud or too slutty or too silly, and choosing a tone of voice that won't make you sound too bossy or too angry or too ambitious.

How many male MPs could report arming themselves with a similar suite of techniques for deployment in the event that they speak at a meeting and no-one hears them?

Hidden traps set only for women MPs

The old observation that Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, only backwards and in high heels, is highly pertinent to politics.

Female politicians do everything that male politicians do, only with a heightened and constant sense of hidden traps that exist only for them. Don't reach for power, lest you appear ambitious or grabby. Wait to be drafted. Don't raise your voice, you'll sound shrill. Don't get emotional, you'll look crazy. Careful when you pick your jacket for the day.

Obviously, every parliament in Australia was up and running with its own masculine rhythms before women started to arrive. What is interesting is the extent to which women have internalised the work of insulating the place from the culture shock of their own arrival.

Take Enid Lyons, the first woman elected to the House of Representatives. In her "maiden speech", she makes it clear to her male colleagues (by way of a reassuring domestic image) that she won't be making them feel uncomfortable.

Enid Lyons, the first female MP in the Australian Parliament, in 1950

"I know that many honorable members have viewed the advent of women to the legislative halls with something approaching alarm," she told the chamber in September 29, 1943.

"They have feared, I have no doubt, the somewhat too vigorous use of a new broom. I wish to reassure them. I hold very sound views on brooms, and sweeping. Although I quite realise that a new broom is a very useful adjunct to the work of the housewife, I also know that it undoubtedly is very unpopular in the broom cupboard and this particular new broom knows that she has a very great deal to learn from the occupants of I dare not say this particular cupboard.

"At all events she hopes to conduct herself with sufficient modesty and sufficient sense of her lack of knowledge at least to earn the desire of honorable members to give her whatever help they may be able to give."

When Joan Child - interviewed upon her election to the House of Representatives as its only woman in 1974 - was asked how determined she was, she replied: "Very."

When the TV interviewer pressed her - "When you say you're determined, how determined do you think you can appear to be?" - her answer changed.

"At this stage not too determined," she said, carefully. "It looks like being aggressive and that's a male characteristic at the moment."

Joan Child, the first female speaker of the House of Representatives.

Women, entering the parliaments of Australia over the past 100 years since Edith Cowan was the first, have observed carefully the assumptions that any man makes when he enters politics: that he is entitled to be heard, that he is allowed to be ambitious, that if he has children, nobody will question him about who's looking after them while he's in Canberra, it being assumed that his wife will be taking care of all that.

Those assumptions are not available in the same unthinking way to women.

When I asked Ros Kelly - the first woman to answer questions as a minister on the floor of the House of Representatives - what men most took for granted in politics, she replied: "The right to be ambitious."

And many women interviewed for Ms Represented remarked that ambition was counted as a positive for male politicians, but a negative for female ones.

Julia Gillard, the first woman to be prime minister - having challenged for the leadership of her party like many men had done before her - notes that in some quarters she was never forgiven this act of political ambition, in which she stopped being a supportive deputy and instead put herself forward for the top job.

The art of speaking out and toughing it out

But let's return to this question of audibility.

Having established that many women share the identical experience of navigating situations in which they speak and are literally not heard, can we be at all surprised that they choose not to speak sometimes when what they have to say is dangerous or confronting?

In February this year, the political world was turned upside down when young Coalition staffer Brittany Higgins disclosed her alleged rape in a Cabinet minister's office the previous year.

Ms Higgins says she did not tell police at the time because she felt it would cause political embarrassment and trouble for the Liberal Party, which at the time was on the cusp of a tricky election.

And it's easy to assume that her reticence was due at least in part to her junior status: a young woman without much clout, intimidated by the power structure above her and the stakes at hand.

Ms Higgins, of course, has since demonstrated herself to be made of some pretty stern stuff. But what is interesting is that unwillingness to report or complain about varying degrees of sexist treatment or harassment is absolutely not contained to junior or powerless women.

Julia Gillard says she chose not to mention or confront the sexist treatment of her early in her term as the nation's first female prime minister because she assumed the "novelty" of her gender would wear off.

The footage of the then-PM in 2013 politely fending off an insistent line of questioning from radio host Howard Sattler on the topic of whether her partner was gay is - viewed today - terribly uncomfortably. Would trashy rumours have been put so disrespectfully to a male prime minister?

Ms Gillard says she didn't want to get stuck in an oxygen-sapping exchange about gender at the time, because she had too much else she wanted to talk about.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who for months ignored male senators catcalling her in the chamber with the names of men she was suggested to have been sleeping with, did so because she didn't want them to have the satisfaction of knowing they'd rattled her.

The "tough it out" policy has been adopted by women of all stripes over history, and is not to be confused with fear or a lack of agency or power.

Bronwyn Bishop has no time for women "whingeing"; she says the only answer is to outperform those who mistreat you.

"I think it's a disaster for people to play the victim, women in particular," says Amanda Vanstone.

"Because as soon as you say, 'I'm a victim', you know, 'You've picked on me, you've been nasty to me, because I'm a woman', they've won. You've just given it away."

Ms Gillard abandoned the technique spectacularly, however, with her "misogyny speech", and Senator Hanson-Young eventually took on one tormentor through the courts, having concluded that the Senate itself did not protect her against workplace harassment, and that her silence wasn't doing anything to make the problem go away.

The gender issue can get political

Realistically, no woman goes into politics in order to talk about herself or the treatment she encounters. Like all politicians, the female ones have a limited stock of political capital, and few are keen to expend it chiefly on gender issues.

There is a particular complication for women on the conservative side of politics, because the government's "women's problem" is now a partisan debating point. Labor - partly because of its historic success in achieving gender near-parity in its own ranks thanks to the preselection quota system it adopted in 1994 - has effectively colonised the issue.

Liberal women who speak out about sexism in their own party now face not only the risks that all women weigh up (Will I be believed, will this affect my career, will stories be spread about me, will this be what I'm remembered for) but also the risk that they'll be accused of traitorship to their own party.

Former Liberal MP Julia Banks and Ms Bishop have both faced accusations of betraying their party, and Ms Banks' criticism of her own colleagues was quickly followed by a whisper campaign alleging that she was a workplace bully. Similar allegations against Cabinet Minister Karen Andrews emerged days after she declared she'd "had a gutful" of the sexist culture in Parliament.

One Liberal MP told me that "collectively as conservative women we have traditionally sucked it up because we realise we don't fit the prevailing commentariat gender narrative".

She said that she and her colleagues preferred to work behind the scenes rather than seeking headlines, pointing to the steady erosion of the gender pay gap pre-COVID.

It's true that women on the left of politics are much more open to discussing gender on camera. Of the invitations issued to participate in filmed interviews for Ms Represented, all of the polite refusals came from women of conservative or National Party background.

Pauline Hanson also did not consent to an interview - despite numerous approaches.

Sarah Hanson-Young says that Labor women don't make matters any easier for their conservative colleagues.

"I think it's very difficult for women in the Liberal Party to stand up because if they do, they're used by their political opponents. There are political points to be made, you know, across the board," she says.

"This is politics. I'm not naive about that, of course. But I guess I've put up with this sh*t for a long time ... I am an Australian woman in the Australian Parliament, and there are some issues that we actually have to be better with each other on. And we could all do a bit better at not just taking political points when a woman on the other side is the subject of attack or is, you know, down on her luck."
You can watch episode two of Ms Represented tonight at 8pm on ABCTV and iview, where you can also stream all four episodes. The Ms Represented podcast, featuring Annabel Crabb and Steph Tisdell, is available to download where you get your podcasts.

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I spoke to women from all political parties. What shocked me was the one common experience most of them had

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I spoke to women MPs across different generations and political belief and was prepared for them to disagree with each other. But what shocked me most was the one experience almost all of them had in common, writes Annabel Crabb.

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New Rules for politician & staffers, including sexual harassment training.

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New Rules for politician & staffers, including sexual harassment training.

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A one-hour, face-to-face training session on sexual harassment for politicians will be mandatory for government ministers, while a "name and shame" list of non-attendees will be considered for other members.

An independent role will be established for parliamentary employees to make confidential complaints about politicians and other staff

Workplace health and safety training for politicians will be mandatory for ministers

After-hours security at Parliament House will be tightened

But there will be few other consequences for politicians outside the Cabinet who decide not to show.

The training is one of several recommendations the government has agreed to following a review of the parliamentary workplace ordered after former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins made public allegations she had been raped by a colleague in a minister's office at Parliament House.

Ms Foster's review found there had been 38 complaints related to the conduct of parliamentarians made by Parliament House staff since July 2017.

Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said all 10 recommendations made by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet's deputy secretary Stephanie Foster would be implemented.

Why 'name and shame' politicians who don't show for training?

One of the main recommendations Ms Foster made was to implement immediate training for all parliamentarians and their staff to "provide them with the tools to promote safe and respectful workplaces and to respond appropriately to instances of unacceptable behaviour".

The review also suggested Parliament "consider taking action to make training mandatory for all parliamentarians" and create a public register of who attended the training so anyone could see who had chosen not to.

Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet deputy secretary Stephanie Foster found political staffers had no safe way to complain about workplace incidents.(
ABC News: Tamara Penniket
)

But with little recourse to force parliamentarians outside the Coalition to take the training, the government would depend on a public register to encourage attendance.

"The Prime Minister has made it clear that his expectation is that all of his ministers will need to undertake that training, and that would be an expectation placed upon those where he can apply it," Senator Birmingham said.

"The ultimate consequence is to cease to be a minister. I trust that all will get on and undertake training as and when it's made available.

"But for the rest of the Parliament, it will be for the Parliament to consider exactly how that name-and-shame function may work, and for those who may refuse to do so."

Giving staffers a safe way to complain

Politicians can hire and fire whoever they like, with very little oversight.

While staffers are paid by the Department of Finance, which manages things like payroll, workplace health and safety complaints and counselling services, the review has found the system cannot handle serious incidents.

The system that feeds unhealthy power relationships

Brittany Higgins is not the first to describe a perilous workplace culture in Parliament House. It is a rather feudal system that can leave political staff - particularly women - vulnerable to bad treatment.

Ms Foster said the lack of independence had created a workplace where people did not report issues for fear of being labelled a "troublemaker".

"One of the challenges consistently highlighted in consultations is the perception that a serious incident will be 'swept under the rug' and that there are no clear consequences for parliamentarians who tolerate, or contribute to, serious incidents in the workplace," Ms Foster found.

The review proposed the creation of a "Serious Incident Team" that would have a presence in Parliament House.

The team would provide advice and support and try to resolve smaller incidents in a trauma-informed way.

If a parliamentarian did not want to engage in the review process if a complaint was made against them, a report would be provided to the presiding officers of Parliament, and Parliament could decide how to proceed.

That could put the issue on the public record and provide a big incentive to a politician to engage in the process.

The Serious Incident Team would engage independent experts if serious, but not criminal, allegations were made against an MP or senator, and could provide referrals to police if necessary.

It would make findings based on the balance of probabilities, which is used in civil trials and is a lower threshold to reach than the criminal standard of facts being proven beyond reasonable doubt.

Smaller workplace issues would still be handled by the Department of Finance.

Late nights at Parliament will be scrutinised

The government also agreed to tighten after-hours access to Parliament House, with reports of who entered overnight made available to senior staff and office managers, to deter non-work-related access.

Areas that are accessed after hours will also be subject to additional patrols.

The government has agreed to more patrols at Parliament House after hours and tighter rules for those who can come in.(
ABC Canberra: Michael Black
)

Ms Foster said there needed to be clearer directions for security staff and police officers when they were the first to identify a serious incident, such as when security found Ms Higgins naked and unconscious in Linda Reynolds's office.

What about other complaints made against politicians?

One unanswered question that may be addressed in the parliamentary culture review by sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins due later this year is how to respond to complaints made about politicians by people outside of Parliament House.

Ms Foster indicated that, pending the Jenkins review, historical reports and existing complaints should remain the responsibility of the Finance Department.

That means there would be no change to the handling of complaints such as those made against senior minister Christian Porter.

Mr Porter has always strongly denied the allegations, and the Prime Minister has defended him, saying the legal system presumes everyone is innocent until allegations are proven in court.

Scott Morrison has opposed an independent inquiry into the allegations, saying the matter has been closed by police.

The sex discrimination commissioner's review is due to be handed down by November this year.

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Ministers will be made to attend sexual harassment training, but little consequence for no-shows

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A one-hour, face-to-face training session on sexual harassment for politicians will be mandatory for government ministers, while a "name and shame" list of non-attendees will be considered for other members.

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80% is a huge percentage of people experiencing prejudice and discrimination. Makes me think of the single story and how stereotypes perpetuate hate and fear.

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A new report has found 80 per cent of Australian Muslims have experienced prejudice or discrimination.

Australia's Human Rights Commissioner Chin Tan wants national anti-racism campaigns and workplace programs

The Home Affairs Department said it was considering the conclusions of the report and would spend $63 million on social cohesion programs

Almost 65 per cent of survey respondents said they found Australian society welcoming

The overwhelming majority of those surveyed by the Australian Human Rights Commission said they had experienced unfavourable treatment based on religion, race or ethnicity.

Half of the respondents said they had experienced unfavourable treatment when dealing with law enforcement, while 48 per cent said they had experienced unfavourable treatment in the workplace or when seeking employment.

Australia's Human Rights Commissioner Chin Tan said the survey was conducted in the wake of the Christchurch attacks, to better understand Australian Muslims' experiences of hate and violence.

"The stories shared by Australian Muslim community members for this project have brought home to me that the undercurrents of religious discrimination, vilification and hate that manifested so horribly in the Christchurch attack are not an aberration," he said.

"They are consistent with the experiences of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hate that is routinely experienced in Australia."

Threatening phone calls at workplace

Restaurateur Hana Assafiri said her staff at the Morrocan Soup Bar in Melbourne received a threatening Islamophobic phone call after she appeared on ABC TV's Q+A program in the past few weeks.

Hana Assafiri said her staff received a threatening phone call after her recent TV appearance.

"Somebody phoned my workplace and said, 'is that your boss on the television? The one with the hair,'" she said.

"The women there didn't know what to say.

"And they [the caller] said, 'you f***ing Muslims tell her to shut the f*** up and go back to your f***ing Muslim home.'"

Islam wasn't one of the topics on the program on the night she appeared, but Ms Assafiri's religion and Middle Eastern heritage was still used against her.

"Why would you even associate disagreeing with what I have to say with being Muslim and sending me back to - I don't even know where 'back to this Islamic place' is, because this [Australia] is my home."

Calls for national action against racism

Mr Tan said it was time for Australia to adopt a national anti-racism framework, which would include national education campaigns and programs for employers to offer their staff.

"It's almost like crime," he said.

"Can we stop crime? No, but we can do our best to eliminate it and build a better society."

National Race Discrimination Commissioner Chin Tan said Australia needed an national anti-racism framework.(
Supplied: Human Rights Comission
)

The ABC asked Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs Minister Alex Hawke about the proposal and he referred enquiries to the Home Affairs Department.

A spokesperson for the department said the federal government would consider the commission's report and invest $63 million in social cohesion programs.

The report from the Human Rights Commission also said that 63 per cent of those surveyed found Australia was a welcoming society.

Ms Assafiri said witnessing the relationship between her loyal customers and the many migrant women she has employed at her restaurants meant that she generally agreed.

"Whenever you find yourself losing heart and frustrated by the reality of reports like this, all you have to do is come to work," she said.

"We have an extraordinary community who has an appetite for a better world."

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'Not an aberration': Eighty per cent of Australian Muslims experience discrimination, according to study

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A new report has found 80 per cent of Australian Muslims have experienced prejudice or discrimination.