Meanwhile, in the Australian election …

[TheSandgroper]

www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-15/trans-women-in-sport-politicised-and-weaponised/100989438

No mention of just saying “TWAW” being all that is needed. No mention of invasion of the change rooms.

I could go on.

Oh dear. And Katherine is campaigning against Zali Steggall? I imagine the optics with some misstatements will not play out well in Warringah.

Yes, biased reporting though not unexpected. The lack of clarity about the issues and what is being fought for is rife in this article. It also makes much of the legislature going through in the USA to create sympathy in an audience sensitive to that tactic.

I can see they have either lost part of what would have been expected on the ‘sex offender’ statement, or Katherine did. It should have been ‘in UK prison’. I think it was also sadly going to be hard for any one with an online presence established discussing women’s and children’s rights around this issue as Katherine does, to enter into politics.

The focus of the rest of the article is denying the science though and very much focused on using the ‘only a few so let them play’ tactic. I wonder if Zali Steggall would be supportive if she was still competing and there was a young male champion who moved into the female slalom category. But maybe she would.

And there is more.
www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-14/election-liberal-warringah-candidate-katherine-deves-trans-video/100993532

I don’t get it. They picked her knowing her stance so should be backing her strongly. Or they should have “cleaned her face” before the election was called.

It seems a huge mistake to have put her against zali Steggal, it may be no chance of winning anyway. But not sure I’d vote for her against Zali! I also would be shocked if anyone would win anywhere with women’s sex based rights as their main platform, it doesn’t seem a very politically savvy move overall.

Meanwhile, there are the Greens. David Crowe asked the question.
www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-13/election-greens-morrison-transgender-rights-are-non-negotiable/100989016

The ABC seems to be very blatant with their position on this particular issue. It is really coming across unbalanced. I think they are treating this like climate change, environmental issues and sexual orientation. The thing is, this issue is not as clear cut as those issues. Yet the ABC has effectively led the way in this issue with the way both as been included in its domestically produced content.

I would say that the worst has come out from Katherine’s social media. It has been been very biasedly reported. If Katherine can articulate her views on this as she normally does, I think she still has a chance. She is normally very clear and concise but also fair from the little I have seen.

I also suspect Zali has the privilege of being able to react to this with some expedient dishonesty as she will never have to cope with losing her Olympic dream to a male but can now say she would have welcomed it.

Let’s remember it is Warringah, the electorate did elect Abbott after all.

It. Not both.

I'm in the UK but goodness me, how the Australian Greens love hyperbole every bit as much as ours do. Lives will be at risk if males aren't allowed to compete in women's sporting events? And Bandt links 'trans rights' to equal marriage. No surprise there.

I think a major problem is that she was forced to delete all her social media due to the threats she was receiving and now there’s no way for her to put any of these comments into context. She has had trans activists screenshooting her social media and releasing them to journalists to destroy her career.

Zali Steggall is blocking anyone who asks her about women’s sport or single sex spaces. She’s funded by an activist group, Get Up, that will not tolerate any dissent from self ID into women’s spaces.

The attacks she’s been getting the last few days have been terrible and unrelenting. Article after article, threats in Twitter to burn her to death. I think the goal is to drive her out of public life and send a warning to anyone woman who tries to campaign on these issues that they’ll get the same treatment.

GlorianaCervixia

Thanks for the update. That all makes sense and I can imagine that Katherine’s social media has been screen shot since she started speaking out.

I forgot Zali was supported by Get Up.

@GlorianaCervixia

Yes, everything @Helleofabore said.

I hesitate to think about the threats she has received in the last week. But, the Liberal party should have prepared for it. Do they like Zali where she is? Is Katharine Deves just a token?

It’s not my seat otherwise I would be voting for Katharine and I am not inTasmania or I would be voting for Senator Clare Chandler.

Hanging in there
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10723545/Scott-Morrison-defends-Warringah-candidate-Katherine-Deves-heated-press-conference.html

That Daily Mail article is interesting. Scott Morrison is obviously leaving her in place and supporting her, despite the fact that sections of the press are pushing for her crucifixion (figuratively, not literally, obviously).

Perhaps Scott thinks it is time this door is blown wide open and her stance tested with the voting population.

Can anyone with knowledge of the situation in Australia throw more light on this, with regard to whether this is a closely contested seat, or just a strange sideshow?

It used to be a safe Liberal seat held by the former PM, Tony Abbott. It’s now held by an independent, Zali Steggall, who is very unlikely to lose. She has a big margin. It’s a wealthy area - economic conservatives who care about climate change and voted yes on same sex marriage.

There is a lot of interest because it was previously a safe Liberal seat and Scott Morrison personally intervened to select Kath Deves.

I also know that area pretty well. If Katherine can hang in there, and get her message across in a way that is balanced and like Claire Chandler’s approach she may have a chance at making a dent. I am not sure she could win given one week down and the witch hunt against her with 5 weeks (?) to go, but she would take some air out of Zali’s sails.

That electorate and the ones around it are very loyal and ‘blue ribbon’ liberal seats in the past. You have that one being ex Abbott, Bradfield next door to the south (ex premier Barry O’farrell lived in that electorate), Bennelong next door to the south was John Howard’s seat. Mackellar on the western border was Bronwyn Bishop’s seat for over 20 years. Those are all still Liberal seats.

That Warringah area will have some voters who are ‘being kind’ but if they are taken through the issues will make informed choices. Zali got in partly because people were voting against Abbott but also because it is Zali and she seems a good candidate (I left before last election so don’t know if she has performed well).

However, Katherine is a very new candidate and frankly the worst has been brought out. If Morrison is standing firm, he must also be standing firm on defence of women’s rights.

Albo was once my MP and he is a hard worker, but his partner was Carmel Tebbutt who I always associated as being ‘woke’ since she was my senior in my local government at the time I was in that area. So, where Albo stands on the strengthening of women’s and girl’s sex based rights, I don’t know.

I would expect to see Katherine fight back, she has mettle and I really think that area will support her if she can cut through. (Although it is the one electorate out of those mentioned that may be more likely to be ‘kind’. On account of the friends and people I know who live there.)

she was senior in my local government at the time that should be.

Albo doesn’t want to take the election to the woke issues, he thinks (quite reasonably) that the cost of living, supporting those struggling, and anti corruption and climate change are all major needs and doesn’t want to head to ideological battlegrounds less fixable with good policy.
I suspect he would personally be supportive of women’s concerns here if they were brought to his attention but politically it’s quite possible he can’t really be, not sure.

Totally confused why Katherine Deveny is being so strongly supported by Morrison, it’s hardly like he’s a big supporter of women. It does make me feel like there is a sizeable gap in my political understanding - is she particularly savvy in other areas that would make her a dream candidate?

He senses an opportunity to wedge Labor but they're refusing to take the bait so far.

I think Morrison is seeing Australian women begin to spool up in political anger as has happened here in the UK and is getting ahead of the curve.

The Libs have always been on the lookout for young female candidates. I knew one who got in and was given a portfolio very early in her career. And another who was asked. Those two had legal backgrounds which Katherine does too. Didn’t put that together til now.

I should add, the Labor heartland is socially conservative. As an example, the electorates that voted against same-sex marriage in the plebiscite were Labor ones. So, Albo knows that if he went full TWAW he would be in danger of losing those electorates to the LNP.

ABC Insiders. The Minister for Women is actually the Minister for Sensitivity. Absolute no support for Katharine Deves.

Andrew Probyn explained quite clearly why Katharine was picked and it wasn’t to win Warringah.

Samantha Maiden of News Corp is totally woke.

@TheSandgroper could you explain your posts a bit more? I don’t follow.

The ABC's political show Insiders - journalist Samantha Maiden misrepresents Kath Deves as arguing that "hairy men in dresses will turn up on the netball fields" while the male panellists snicker.

twitter.com/InsidersABC/status/1515476776612679680?s=20&t=nklI517EEzqipLVZ4RX0_g

I think that, sadly, Deves has possibly jumped the gun a bit in Australia. She’s almost campaigning on what she can see has happened in the U.K. and the USA and it hasn’t happened over here yet, so she’s getting a lot of stick and “TWAW” and “be kind” because people over here just aren’t aware yet of what happens when men can just identify themselves into women’s spaces.
It has happened a bit in sport but basically we’re probably where the U.K. was 3-4 years ago, there hasn’t been the push for trans rights and so sadly Deves is coming across as a little unhinged and as if she’s going on about a “non issue”.
Those of us who follow this issue from overseas can see why she’s saying what she’s saying but she’s getting a lot of push back from the handmaids (who don’t even know they’re handmaids!).

Gloriana that clip was depressing.

Has Samantha not actually seen Mouncey? She literally described a Mouncey example but with netball.

She has shown that she has no knowledge of the topic. They are really using the ‘only a few’ tactic because they seem to be too lazy to do the research.