Let's face it, the award has just become a political platform to show what values the government of the day is showing off. I can't tell whether giving all of the awards to women is because there were no men who were worthy of it this year, or if it's yet another point scoring platform for Abbott to try to appease the media and show he's "still not a misogynist".
Some of the people being awarded AotY I disagree with, particularly Rosie Batty. Now, I'm sorry that she lost her son to a violent ex-husband, it's certainly a terrible thing to have happen, but going on to speak out about Domestic Violence claiming "it's mostly a male thing" (it's actually about a 60:40 male to female split) as though she's the first one to do it when that's ALL we're hearing about.
Currently we have white ribbon day, run by an organization that basically takes money to publicize itself we've got all of those signs and billboards up stating "To violence against women, XXX says no" and whenever a woman or child is murdered by her ex-partner we are reminded about it for years to come, yet no one remembers Xian Peng whose ex killed him by chopping off his penis back in 2011. Her name is Jian Chen and she was only sentenced to 3 years jail and is now a free woman! No more reports about her now being free because she's served her time and is entitled to get on with her life. No one is appealing her release because, clearly, she didn't really mean to drug, torture and mutilate him resulting in his death.
Coming back to my original point, being a victim and coming back from it to tell about it and hopefully make the world a better place is one thing, but it doesn't mean you should be awarded Australian of the Year. What about that guy who DIED in the Lindt cafe wrestling the gunman whilst others fled? Shouldn't he be getting an award posthumously? Isn't his bravery the sort of fighting spirit we want to inspire in the next generation of young men? No, apparently only two men were in the running: a gay rights activist and a disability campaigner. Clearly gay rights and disability campaigns are out and Domestic Violence campaigns are flavour of the
Interesting to note that Gill Hicks, a survivor of the London bombings, missed out on an award for the work she's doing trying to unify society (with the people whose religion the bombers belonged) whereas Rosie Batty is seeking to go on the attack against the group (men) with whom the perpetrator of her pain belongs. Seems like a similar situation, but I doubt that Gill Hicks would have been up for AotY had she been trying to single out Muslims in the same way Rosie Batty is trying to single out men.
By all means what happened to Rosie Batty was terrible, but I don't think being a survivor of a terrible situation warrants an award. If so, where are the awards for all of the Holocaust survivors or the survivors of the Gulags in Russia?
My biggest complain still stands, however, that the selection committee for the Awards clearly had a gender bias because I have no doubt that there was AT LEAST ONE man deserving of an award (outside of the pathetic list of nominees!), but clearly gender quotas are more important than recognizing any male achievement. If the selection panel was made up of mostly Chinese people and awarded all of the awards to ONLY Chinese people, then maybe SOMEONE would take note. These newspapers may claim the awards as a victory for feminism, but let's face it, the awards have benefited those who usual benefit most from feminism: white women.
As a side note, perhaps men should take a break from doing anything significant for a while, since it's looking less and less likely that anything you do will be acknowledged for it!
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