Uni guidebook is a woke joke: Minister

A UNIVERSITY guidebook instructing teaching staff to refer to a mother as a “birthing parent” has been blasted by federal Education Minister Alan Tudge as “woke rubbish” undermining public confidence in universities.

Mr Tudge told The Daily Telegraph he referred to himself as a “proud father” and not a “non-gestational” parent, as recommended by the authors of the Australian National University’s Gender Institute guidebook.

“I would never use such a term to describe myself and nor would 99 per cent of Australians,” Mr Tudge said.

“This is woke rubbish and has the effect of undermining public confidence in our universities. We have great universities who do world class research and educate thousands of students. This should rightly remain their focus.”

His comments come after Western Sydney University midwifery professor Hannah Dahlen called for an end to the push to eliminate women and mothers from the English language.

“The concern I have as a feminist, as a midwife … is we still haven’t got gender equality so why are we eliminating the women’s voice,” she said.

“Rather than subsuming women into an invisible status, why don’t we find out what is important to every person and take an individual approach?”

She said inclusivity would be better achieved without dictates instructing people to refrain from using the term “mother’’ or “breastfeeding’'.

An ANU spokesman said the book was not official policy but created by academics.