
Issue No 35		15 October 1999

Piers Watch

Piers on the Women's Dinner

By Naomi Steer - Labor Council executive officer

When will Piers dare to come out of his cave. While he accuses Labor Council of going back to the Dark Ages for daring to organise a Women's Dinner , Piers can only be described as positively pterodactyl for his report of the dinner in the Telegraph this week.


	Michael Costa & Naomi Steer at the Labor Council's Womens' Dinner

My immediate response to Piers outraged call to me about the dinner was YAWN YAWN. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: "Yes its true Piers .We are holding a Women's Dinner of which the majority attendees will be surprise surprise..... Women.!"

Clever Peers springs his trap.. "Ha but (....and here it comes folks) isn't that discriminatory -I'm sure you would be the first to object if men organised a men only function.".:

Really Piers you disappoint me. I hoped for something more original ,cutting, perhaps a little humour..Could it be that even you are bored in raising this hoary old chestnut.? Must I really go over this again.? Unfortunately it appears I have to..

"But Piers nearly every other dinner I go to is a men's dinner."

I start listing off the many functions I go to or know of where women either are not represented or in the minority. How many women attend the HR Nicholls Society dinners(but lets face it however how many of us would want to).Because of course while men continue to hold the most powerful positions in politics, the corporate world and yes in the union movement ,lunches, dinners,, meetings ,conferences are organised by men for men and around men's issues.

Piers response is pretty limp, "But they don't call them Men's dinners."

Silly me .I should have realised that what we are talking about is semantics not about what happens in the real world.

And what happens in the real world is that unless women organise together, network and agitate then there is no way that issues effecting women will ever get on the social, political, .industrial or business agendas.

Women across the political spectrum know this which is why as I pointed out to Piers there are so many organisations out there organising women only functions. These include the National Council of Women, .the Federation of Business and Professional Women, the YWCA, the Country Women's Association (of which my grandmother was a founding member), and shock horror even the Liberal party. Funny that none of these get a serve in Piers column. Can I assume that its only women in trade unions that Piers has a problem with?

Piers if you want to talk about real discrimination lets look at the recent disgraceful funding cuts to women's organisations climaxing in the recent defunding of a number of women's organisations including the Girl Guides Association in favour of the Lone Fathers Association.! Lets look at the number of mothers forced out of the workforce because of childcare cuts. Lets look at the growing gap between men and women's earning under the Howard/Rieth industrial agenda.

Having said all of this you may be surprised that I agree with Piers on one point. Yes Piers ,Michael Costa's attendance at the dinner was probably tokenistic. But gee isn't it nice that we are talking about the token man and not the token woman for once. Maybe we are making progress after all.

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Issue 35 contents

Interview: Strategic Responses
NSW Police Association president Mark Burgess has worked in the coal mines and the waterfront - now heï¿½s the public face of NSW police

Republic: Negative Campaigning
If the Republic fails, one of the main complaints which should be leveled against the ARM is its refusal to play dirty.

Unions: Interpreter smooths the way for Kosovar Refugees
ï¿½The people really appreciate what Australia has done for them but they still want to go home," said Ariana Biba, a HREA member who has been worked recently as an interpreter assisting newly arrived refugees from Kosovo.

Education: Count Yorga's Evil Plot
NTEU president Carolyn Allport looks at Kemp's brazen attack on univestities and warns the battle is not won yet.

Safety: Death in the Snowy
Beyond the engineering achievements of the Snowy Mountains Scheme, there is the tragic story of those workers killed or seriously injured in the construction of the project.

International: Why Is the WTO So Anti-Labour?
Driving the cost of labour down appears to be the main priority of the World Trade Organisation

History: The Importance of Tradition
Historical documents bring us into closer contact with the past and its concerns as this 1945 extract from the NSW Nurses Association journal, The Lamp, shows.

Review: McLibel - The Mice That Roared
This documentary is the classic tale of the little guys against the system, a battle for the right to dissent.

Satire: Government Privatises Numbers
Prime Minister John Howard released a new policy on numerals yesterday, to bring them in in line with the Liberal Party's plan to privatise ï¿½Pretty much everything before we lose office.ï¿½

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