Report into Australian Defence Force Academy released
The report into the ADFA cadet program by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick was handed down yesterday. The report was commissioned by the Federal Defence Minister Stephen Smith after a female cadet was secretly filmed over Skype during an act of consensual sex. Other complaints arose at the time, some stretching back years, and the Minister requested a report into the culture at the Academy. Ms Broderick found the Academy was a ‘safe and rewarding place’ for most women, most of the time. “We heard that most women have a positive experience at ADFA … however the review also found widespread low level sexual harassment, inadequate residential supervision, particularly of first-year midshipmen and cadets, and cumbersome complaints processes,” she said. About 74 per cent of women had experienced these types of sexual or gender harassment, alongside 30 per cent of male cadets.
Liberal Senator Ian MacDonald, while debating the carbon tax legislation, called the left-wing activist group GetUp ‘the Hitler Youth Wing of the Greens political movement’. He was later rebuffed by Liberal colleague Josh Frydenburg, who is Jewish, said: “while robust political debate is part of a vibrant democracy, however, the use of Nazi analogies to make political points is inappropriate and offensive.” GetUp national director Simon Sheikh wrote to the Senate asking for an apology, saying the comments were made with ‘a weight of hate and ignorance’.
Top Comments
Here we go again. Sexual harrassment is swept under the rug and excused as something that happens everywhere.
I have been in a majority male workforce for over three years and I have never, ever been sexually harrassed. To dismiss the report and say it's the kind of thing that happens everywhere so we should just ignore it, is disgusting. Let it happen to you and then maybe you won't be so quick to brush it aside.
The only way to eradicate the problem of sexual harrassment, sexual abuse, and rape it to bring it out in the open, talk about it, question why it exists and attempt to eradicate it. I honestly can't believe there are comments on this thread by women who are brushing aside a human rights abuse as something we should ignore. Is that really the way Australia would like to treat it's women? "Ohhh that's just normal stuff that happens everywhere so don't report it or question it."
You should be ashamed of yourselves.
I am currently reading the broderick report at the moment and this quote ha really struck me " not wanting to be singled out because one is female is a strong element ( of the female culture at ADFA) women, especially army women, tend to adopt the wider male culture to such a degree that they can also appear misogynist "
This tallys with my experience - both as a cadet and now in the legal profession. It also explains why the vast majority of harrassment is never reported.
"Oppression Fighter"
Its easy to say things should be done in a particular way but its not always realistic in practice depending on the situation. This is the Army - I don't think this can be emphasized enough. Its not just about being in a "male dominated environment" - which in itself is a sexist insinuation. There are some job roles where one is required to really toughen up as a female or a male because of the work environment - This job essentially revolves around violence - toward postive outcomes. It requires mental strength and perseverance most of us don't have. Every cadet - male and female who goes in at the start doesn't find it easy.. they can be made fun of as rookies and sometimes in a sexual manner.
I don't condone rape - on women and men, but the fact that an increasing number of women like yourself cry foul at Every sniff of an opportunity that a particular gesture or act would legally fall under the category of sexually inappropriate or suggestive in such a difficult environment is a lost cause. The military is approached from the perspective of any other "career job" which ofcourse it is not in almost every way one looks at it. IF Every single association is examined in the defense force - be it between men and women, men and other men, and indeed women and other women, it would (in some form) be deemed to be sexually inappropriate, suggestive, discriminative and even racist - It comes down to a work environment that can't really be compared to any other work environment - realistically speaking.
Further, it doesn't help that Some women are joining the army for the wrong reasons. This job is not about self-fulfilment or feeling better about oneself - This is about violence toward a positive cause. It is a challenging environment and arguably wouldn't be as effective if it weren't.
photo caption "Duraden wins The Melbourne Cup" - typo, Dunaden*
Thanks Alyssa, fixed x