DESTROY THE JOINT

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (15:45): I rise to address the topic of Destroy the Joint—that is #destroythejoint, for those of you who have heard it before. I certainly had not heard of the term when last August 2012 it took over the Twittersphere of Australia. I had been offline for a few hours and I came back to see 'Destroy the Joint' everywhere on my feed. My friends were all 'destroying the joint' by going to buy milk at the local deli. They were destroying the joint in many ways.

I asked the Twittersphere, 'What on earth is this Destroy the Joint all about?' to which Brad Chilcott of Welcome to Australia replied, 'Tammy, it's women like you.' So of course I have followed Destroy the Joint very keenly ever since. For those who are not aware and who do not occupy Twitter like I do, Destroy the Joint started as a response to some comments made by radio announcer Alan Jones.

He was referring to moneys that had been allocated in the federal budget to Pacific women's leadership and decision-making to enhance their ability to engage in democracies in the Asia-Pacific region. He criticised the statement that had been made by the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, in support of this scheme, where she had said, 'We know that societies only reach their full potential if women are politically participating,' with the response, 'Women are destroying the joint: Christine Nixon in Melbourne, Clover Moore here—honestly.'

Women, and men, who took offence at those words started #destroythejoint. Jane Caro started it off with, 'Got time on my hands tonight so thought I'd spend it coming up with new ways of destroying the joint, being a woman and all. Ideas welcome.' Almost 12 months on, Destroy the Joint is still going strong—and little wonder. Since then we have had Alan Jones telling a gathering of Young Liberals that Prime Minister Gillard's father had died of shame. In response, Destroy the Joint supporters, along with the Sack Alan Jones movement, mobilised to put pressure on Jones's advertisers to withdraw their sponsorship of his program. It worked. Indeed, they even took his Mercedes car away.

We have had John Laws' despicable questioning of a 14-year-old rape victim, the gang rape and killing of an Indian student, Jyoti Singh Pandey, and Telstra's insistence on payment for providing a silent phone number to a woman taking refuge from a violent partner being part of the activities and responses of Destroy the Joint. I have to say, after this last week in Australian media and culture, I think there is no greater need than for destroying the joint.

My old boss, Natasha Stott Despoja, used to quote a female politician she had met in Canada, who said when she was asked; 'What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?' 'Well, it is actually these sorts of places that precisely need nice girls.' I perhaps would be a little bit more activist than that, but when we have 'menugate' where the Prime Minister is referred to on a menu as having 'small breasts, huge thighs and a big red box', when you have the Socceroos coach remarking to his team after a game that women should shut up in public, when you have Grace Collier saying that the Prime Minister should not be showing her cleavage, this is clearly an environment that yes, does need nice girls, but it also needs to destroy the joint.

I believe that the misogyny speech was a turning point in politics in Australia in many ways, but I am actually critical of the Prime Minister's use of the term 'misogyny' in response to a motion about Peter Slipper on the very same day that she withdrew support for single parents and the parenting payment. I believe that is an act of misogyny; I believe that is what we should be focusing on when we talk about misogyny.

However, it is bigger than simply politics, as I say. It is media, sport and other culture, and members cannot have failed to notice two other events in this past week; one was where footage of Nigella Lawson was shown in, potentially, a domestic violence situation. I condemn 3AW and 'Dee Dee' Dunleavy for calling on people to boycott Nigella Lawson unless she left her husband, but so shines a good deed in a weary world. I commend Lieutenant-General David Morrison, who has single-handedly reminded us that most men are decent when he said, 'When you see misogyny, do not walk by in the armed forces.'