PM takes aim at gender identity toilet sign
Prime Minister Scott Morrison could be excused a little crankiness after his heavy itinerary of jetsetting and world-leader pleasantries.
But it wasn’t China, or Labor, or the state of the global economy getting the PM’s goat on Thursday, rather a dunny sign in a Canberra office building.
Morrison has hit out at a literal sign of the times in the Barton offices of his own Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, which invites staff to ‘‘please use the bathroom that best fits your gender identity’’.
‘‘You don’t need to do this stuff,’’ Morrison told 2GB’s Ben Fordham on Thursday afternoon.
‘‘It’s just political correctness over the top. It’s just not necessary. I’ve got a clear view about this and I’m sure this will be sorted.’’
Toiletgate began with a tweet from the visiting Nine News political editor Chris Uhlmann, which predictably set off an online firestorm.
Morrison told Fordham he’d already spoken to incoming PM&C boss Phil Gaetjens about the sign and predicted it would not last long.
‘‘Honestly, this is why we call it the Canberra bubble,’’ the Prime Minister said.
‘‘It’s ridiculous. It’ll be sorted out. I’ve had a chat to the incoming head of Prime Minister and Cabinet, who’s putting his feet under the desk on Monday . . . I think people can work out which room to use.’’
The prime minister’s intervention was slammed by Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese, who tweeted: ‘‘The PM doesn’t have a plan to deal with cost of living going up, living standards going down and wages going nowhere – but he has a plan to deal with this bathroom sign in an office building.
‘‘How is anyone meant to take this bloke seriously?’’
The department refused to comment on whether any staff members had requested gender identity optional rest rooms.
However, its website proclaims it has a ‘‘range of strategies and initiatives to embed diversity and inclusion’’, which includes the LGBTIQ+ Network.
It also states it is a proud member of the Diversity Council of Australia, the Australian Network on Disability and Pride in Diversity.
Federal Vice President of the Liberal Party Teena McQueen took a slightly more measured tone with Fordham.
‘‘I think it’s something [outgoing head] Martin Parkinson brought in and look, my experience in Canberra, each go to their assigned bathroom,’’ she said. ‘‘But look I have nothing against it, but again I think it’s a bit of overkill.’’ – Nine
Hundreds of workers at Hudson Valley and at nearby La Belle Farm feed about 350,000 birds each year in a process that fattens the bird’s liver up to 10 times its normal size.
On a summer day, thousands of baby ducklings scamper through a spacious Hudson Valley barn — a giant, moving wave of fluffy yellow feathers. The force-feeding begins when the ducks are fully grown, about 12 weeks after they’re born. They’re fed every eight hours for three weeks, and then the birds are slaughtered.
To perform the feeding, a worker inserts a 15cm plastic tube into the duck’s beak, squirting a soft mix of corn, soybeans and water to the top of the throat. Each feeding takes about six seconds.
Humans would gag at having a tube stuck down their throat, but birds don’t have that reflex, Henley said. He notes that the process mimics something that happens in the wild, when ducks and geese overeat to store up extra nutrition for their long annual migration.
‘‘In observing the behaviour of our animals, we see no sign of stress or discomfort,’’ Henley said.
Opponents of the practice strenuously disagree and say the force-feeding is barbaric.
‘‘We are torturing an animal in order to alter it into a diseased state, so we can satisfy our addiction to taste,’’ Dr Andrew Kaplan, a veterinarian, told a City Council hearing in June. –AP