Carrie Bickmore is one of thousands of women – and men – around the country left gobsmacked by John Laws’ “sexist” comments made on The Project on Monday night.
During an interview with Steve Price about the release of his new book, Laws told his fellow radio broadcaster that he still demands female employees wear skirts in his office.
Listen: Brexit. Not Leg-sit.
“I can … they all wear skirts,” Laws said to Price’s insistence that “you can’t do that anymore”.
“He who pays the piper calls the tune.”
Laws describing loving women as one of his “great downfalls in life”.
“I love to talk to them, I’d much rather talk to them than a bunch of blokes and I love them to look feminine.
“And to me a skirt on a beautiful body is a very, very feminine thing.”
After pressing Laws on what he would do if the Equal Opportunity Commission pressed him (tell them to “get stuffed”) Price pressed on with the interview.
Back in the studio, Price discussed the interview with co-hosts Pete Helliar, Waleed Aly and a visibly annoyed Carrie Bickmore.
"Just as well it was you not me doing that interview because there was a bit in the middle there that I reckon may have gone slightly differently, as I sit here freely wearing my pants," Bickmore said.
The comments sparked backlash from viewers on social media and commentators including Shelly Horton.
"This is not just sexist, it's demeaning, it's revolting... [John Laws] should be taken off the airwaves," Horton said on The Today Show Tuesday morning.
Were you outraged by Laws' comments or not surprised?
Top Comments
I once did Prac at a Brisbane Catholic School that demanded female staff wear skirts on or below the knee. This still happens.
Ooh the outrage! What strange times we now live in. No wolf whistles allowed, no compliments allowed because it's 'objectifying' women, what a dull old world it's become.
John Laws goes too far but feminists go too far the other way, always searching for imagined insults and whatever the other outrage of the day may be, because there always is something they can complain about, never fear.