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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-10-27 Daily Xml
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ERNIE AWARDS

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (15:55): In this house I have reported before about a publication that was launched in South Australia in 2008 called The Ernies book: 1000 terrible things Australian men have said about women, by Meredith Burgmann and Yvette Andrews. Sadly, the Ernie Awards continue because men (and women, sadly) do continue to say terrible things about women.

I feel embarrassed about this particular award that was given this year, particularly after the contribution from the member for Schubert who raised some very important issues in his community with regard to the bushfires and warnings, so I hope he will know that I am not associating anything that he has contributed with this particular award. I could barely believe that this had happened. Apparently, the Ernie Award for this year—and this is the golden award—was given to an evangelical church pastor who blamed the Victorian bushfire tragedy on the state's abortion laws as being somehow connected. This took out, as I said, very sadly, the annual top award for sexist comments.

The Ernies, which are now in their 17th year, bestow awards on those whose public utterings are regarded as the most sexist. There are also awards for positive comments that are made as well, and I will get to them in a minute. About 250 women gathered at a gala event at the New South Wales Parliament House in early October and the comments by Pastor Danny Nalliah, head of the Catch the Fire Ministries, won the top prize.

Ms Bedford interjecting:

The Hon. S.W. KEY: Also very badly named, as the member for Florey said. Shortly, after the February bushfires, the pastor is alleged to have said—and I can hardly believe this:

God's conditional protection has been removed from the nation of Australia, in particular Victoria, for approving the slaughter of innocent children in the womb.

It is a pretty astounding comment in itself. The second prize for the Silver Ernie was shared among several men, including shock jock Kyle Sandilands, as well as the New South Wales police force for exhibiting outstanding sexism. The police force came under fire from equality groups in September this year after reports that an employee was made to work overtime for every minute she spent expressing milk for her baby. Again, that is absolutely amazing. I am glad these awards do not reflect happenings in South Australia. I know that our police force would in no way support that action. The other award to Sandilands was well reported. He took out the Clinton repeat offender award. I might say he has had a number of claims made against him for his radio stunt that we sadly heard about with regard to the teenage girl who had revealed that she had been raped.

The Ernie Awards were named after a former New South Wales Labor Council president, Ernie Ecob, who was known for his sexist remarks. Although there were many, his most famous one was for his comment that women only wanted to be shearers for the sex. Again, I do not really understand that comment.

There have been some positive people nominated. For example, Michael Monaghan, Manly Sea Eagles rugby league captain, was quoted as saying that sexual assault is a cowardly act and also Adam Goodes, an AFL player, said his mum was his inspiration and, as a consequence, had taken her to the Brownlow Medal dinner. So the Ernies do try to acknowledge positive comments that have been made by men, in particular, with regard to women.

Time expired.

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