The author writes: "I wouldn't say I feel sorry for Liberal Senator David Bushby but I can understand what happened to him. Mr Bushby was probably the last person in the room to comprehend what he was doing."

I have never hear of Senator David Bushby and have no idea of what he did. The author should have included that information in his article.

I knew there’d be an article on this profoundly important subject on OLO this morning. I just knew it. This is afterall one of the most significant things to happen in Australian politics! ( :>|

I wonder how many general thread applications Graham has or will receive on this subject, which will now presumably be knocked back given the presence of this article!

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Hwaaw, what am I doing writing a post on this ridiculous subject? Must’av been bored outta me skull the smorning!

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OK, down to the matter at hand….

Senator David Bushby is not guilty of any wrongdoing whatsoever!

His so-called cat call was hardly offensive, or at least not seriously so. Penny Wong could have and should have chosen to ignore it. Her preceding comments were pretty strong and her reaction after it was also strong and really, just unnecessary. If she hadn’t have reacted, the media wouldn’t have bothered with it at all either.

Come on, this is just part of the everyday banter in our political circles. The whole standard could certainly do with improvement, but for as long as we have a pretty poor standard, it makes NO sense to pull out snippets like this and make a huge hoo haa out of it.

One cannot even say that Senator Wong was being precious with her reaction.

It was Politics,The silly game that Politician play to impress no one else other than themselves.

When did this senator Bushby do Wong ? I've never heard of him.

Come on Geoff, I don't think that particular senator is sufficiently sensitive to even notice a cattle prod, set on high, applied to her posterior.

How can Bushby be denigrated for the simple act of describing the lady perfectly, with out using even a single word.

Think of the amount of money we pay these people.

If a company executive on the same pay level were to behave like these people - either of them - you would fire them without a second thought.

The one for being so childish, in a business situation. It should be embarrassing to even have to acknowledge his existence. Imagine being asked to do business with such an idiot. You'd run a mile.

The other for being so completely unable to handle a perfectly harmless interjection with professionalism, but instead disintegrating rapidly into the victim status where our lesser-talented public servants do so love to spend their time. Pathetic.

The scariest thing of all is that we will continue to fork out our hard-earned money to support these waste-of-space individuals, for an eternity. Which is utterly scandalous.

Pericles,
Just think of the ex Prime Ministers, they cost us over a hundred million over 25 years. Why do we allow this madness to continue ? Is there any way we, the people, could demand a referendum before the next election ?
No one on the public purse should be on more than twice the average wage. Imagine how well an infrastructure we could have & quite possibly a very green one at that. No need for that arrogant Dill's new tax.

I'm with Pericles and individual on this.

Even Latham picks up around $70k a year and look what a rocket scientist he turned out to be.

The immaturity on display by all sides is astounding.

I had only vaguely heard about the 'meow' sound made by Senator Bushby when Penny Wong was addressing parliament, so I looked it up today :

http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2011/06/03/235001_tasmania-news.html

It seems like a typical day in Parliament to me, with all sides trying to rile the others.

Penny Wong is a strong, independent, very intelligent woman, and is thus a threat to many of the weak males in Parliament.

"She said she was surprised the incident had caused such a fuss, but refused to back away from challenging sexist language in politics.
"Sometimes you need to name what's happening, whether it's 'making an honest woman' of the prime minister or 'when it comes to Julia no doesn't really mean no'," Senator Wong said, singling out comments Mr Abbott has made in the past."

Penny is right to comment on the current sexist language used so often by the politicians in the Liberal Party, with their Abbott being the most notorious for this gutter politics.

"Just think of the ex Prime Ministers, they cost us over a hundred million over 25 years"

Looks like it pays well:) Maybe I should run for MP.........mmmmmm

LEA:)

This sounds like it was written by Fractelle. Anyone who disagreed with her and said anything the least bit unkind was apparently depriving her of her right to make decisions too.

Looks like it pays well:) Maybe I should run for MP.........mmmmmm
Quantumleap,
All you have to do is praise Labor no matter how much crap they throw at you, then join the Public Service & use the Peter Principle for promotion & presto, you'll get a great pension too.
If you have an ounce of integrity join the coalition & if you you have 2 ounces of integrity go into small business.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/mincer-jibe-bit-of-humour-gillard/story-e6frf7l6-1111118946193

"Ms Gillard took aim at father-of-four Mr Pyne, the Opposition's education spokesman and MP for an Adelaide seat, in parliament yesterday.

He was just beginning extra duties as manager of Opposition business, a senior post involving parliamentary tactics.

Rising to interrupt Ms Gillard with a point of order during Question Time, the Education Minister laid into him.

"I must admit that I did want to see the member for Warringah (Tony Abbott) making a comeback,'' she said.

"In a choice between macho and mincing, I would have gone for macho myself.''

The Hansard of the exchange recorded the word as "mixing'', but witnesses to the outburst had no doubt the word was mincing.

Ms Gillard continued: "And obviously the Leader of the Opposition (Malcolm Turnbull), faced with the choice of a doberman or poodle, has gone for the poodle.

"Presumably he prefers Abba to Cold Chisel, because that is the kind of thing we see on display.''"

And when it comes to attacks on women anybody know any good Bronywn Bisbop or Amanda Vanstone jokes?

R0bert

has gone for the poodle.
RObert,
Well at least poodles are looked after unlike some mangy scrapyard mongrels.

I agree Robert, those comments of Julia were nasty.
I wonder what most men think of Christopher Pines though?

I think we can be secure in the knowledge that there is much more sledging in Parliament against women by men, that vice versa, given that there are far more men in parliament than there are women.

Maybe that is the problem... : )

Suzie I suspect that it would be a view that would be shared by a lot of others.

I posted because some seemed to be trying to imply that it was a Liberal thing or a targetting of women rather than a tendancy by most to use whatever they can find to try and hurt opponents.

I doubt Julia's comments about Pyne were any worse than a lot of what passes for parlimentary debate just as the meow was not out of character. It's proved useful when taken out of context for more political point scoring but that's about as far as it goes.

Neither the Libs or Labor or the supporters of either side are blameless in this.

R0bert

I totally agree Robert.
All members of Parliament will use whatever it takes to get their point across, and to score political points against the other side.

I have to admit that the next election is looming as a real dilemma for me... which one is worse than the other : )

I agree with both Suze and R0bert's expression of the school yard tactics used in politics. I freely admit I do tend to find the Libs more strident than Labor (though no side is without blame) however, I think this is more a result of the attack dog style leadership of Abbott.

If the present adversarial system remains, even a 50/50 representation of men and women won't make that much difference. We need a more pluralist, collaborative style of politics, rather than dog-fights.

I haven't voted for either side for many years now - I look at the Independents and the Greens in my local region. Taking care with my preferences.

On topic, Senator Wong was well within her rights to take Bushby to task, I would also defend any Lib minister from similar behaviour by a Labor minister. It's all pathetic and simply adds to the disconnect between politics and public confidence in our leaders.

which one is worse than the other
suzeonline,
That's just so typical for a Labor voter. You have the evidence that Gillard/Labor can't manage & you're throwing Tony Abbott/Coalition into the same basket yet you haven't seen them do anything.
You've given two proven failures your support so isn't it time you gave the other the benefit of the doubt ?