THERE NOW APPEARS TO BE NO ‘SAFE SPACE’ FROM GENDER DEBATES
PULL up in the main street of any rural town and you may be lucky enough to find a stall manned by the Country Women’s Association. One bite of their light-as-air jam and cream scones with the most refreshing cup of tea and a few kind words and you’ll be immersed in a moment of calm and agenda-free Aussie decency.
The CWA is reliable. Inclusive. Respectful. They focus on the important stuff in life.
But it is with weary inevitability that the CWA, too, is now in the sights of the noisy minority intent on “genderfying” anything they can get their hands on.
In New South Wales, as the Gold Coast Bulletin reported, a group of so-called progressives put forward a handful of
motions at the CWA’s annual state conference, including a campaign to make gender neutral uniforms compulsory in NSW public schools.
The nonsense was led by Sydney City Branch president Elizabeth Nash who said her branch believed a uniform for kids should “provide girls and boys with equal access to a full range of school activities.”
But in a rare 2018 victory for common sense, the proposal was defeated.
The CWA’s Wellington branch secretary Phillipa Smith injected a note of sanity when she said: “It’s political correctness gone mad.”
But it raises the inevitable
question: are we now at the level where there is not a single space “safe” from gender debate? On its website, the Sydney branch champions itself as “challenging the CWA stereotype.”
My question is, if they set themselves up to “challenge the CWA stereotype”, why didn’t they just set up their own political group, rather than try to interfere with the traditions and cultures of a much-loved Australian organisation?
It’s outrageous to assume the CWA has a culture and an image that needs changing.
What charitable organisation is next on the cultural warriors’ hit list? Perhaps St Vincent de Paul (Vinnies) – by using the name of a man, albeit a saint, is not as “gender neutral” as it should be?
Or The Red Cross, celebrating a 104th birthday this year? No doubt some individual will eventually take issue with the colour red (a symbol of violence) or the use of a cross (it has religious connotations).
It’s a conveyor belt to nowhere.
There are plenty of progressive agitating outfits to join for those who so wish. Let’s cherish our authentic community groups and charities while we still have them.