The Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter Hartcher attacked as a “sick fetish” Tony Abbott’s view that he found the burka “a fairly confronting form of attire”. Let’s be clear about what Abbott said: “Frankly, I wish it was not worn but we are a free country, we are a free society, and it is not the business of government to tell people what they should or should not wear.”
Michelle Grattan said the Prime Minister was “probably not making a feminist point in saying he feels confronted”. How does she know? As a husband and a father of three daughters, he may well see the confronting side of forcing women to wear a full face and body veil.
There was also the predictable descent into moral relativism by the usual suspects from Greens leader Christine Milne to deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek, who at times struggles to move beyond puerile student politics. How confronting are Abbott’s Speedos, they said. As if choosing to wear Speedos in the surf is as confronting as a garment imposed on millions of women to signify their second-class status.
Bill Shorten said the Prime Minister should have kept his personal opinion to himself. On the contrary, it is refreshing to hear a politician — a PM — express a genuinely held opinion instead of the constant diet of indigestible blancmange. The Opposition Leader could learn something here. We may not all agree with Abbott, but when politics is full of politicians unable or unwilling to express genuine convictions, we will all be the poorer for it.
janeta@bigpond.net.au
Veil thrown over informed burka debate
Janet Albrechtsen
