Men Under Attack in Woke Victoria

Premier of Victoria, Jacinta Allan, has been premier for about eight months. Natalie Hutchins is the Minister for Women. Do you think there is a Minister for Men? Of course not, don’t be stupid! Only half the population need a dedicated minister, even though according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, males are around three times more likely to die by suicide than females, almost seven men every day. Even though the vast majority (93%) of workers killed from work‑related activities are men, over twelve times more likely to die at work than women. Even though most victims of homicide in Australia (69%) are male according to the most recent homicide report by the Australian Institute of Criminology, compared to 30% female (1% was indeterminate). Actually, it’s one of the safest times to be alive for females in Australia based on historical numbers. But No, despite the statistics, Victoria doesn’t need a Minister for Men.

Ms Vicki Ward, the Minister for Prevention of Family Violence. Can you guess who’s responsible for most of that family violence? That’s right, men! Kat Theophanous is the Parliamentary Secretary for Women’s Health. Do you think there’s one for men’s health? Nah, men don’t need to worry about their health in Victoria. They even have a Minster for Equality, Harriet Shing, you know, to make sure everyone’s being treated equally in society.

The Cabinet of Victoria consists of 22 members in total. 15 members are female, while only seven are male, outnumbered more than two-to-one. I don’t think the Minister for Equality is doing her job.

But just when you thought this can’t get any worse, the Premier decides to release a statement demonising men even further. This was released a couple of days ago, 28 May. “I am announcing several changes to Parliamentary Secretary responsibilities. Tim Richardson will become Parliamentary Secretary for Men’s Behaviour Change, continuing the Allan Labor Government’s priority to make Victoria a safer place for women and children and work to end the tragedy of deaths of Victorian women at the hands of men.”

Secretary for Men’s Behaviour Change? This makes it sound like there’s something wrong with men, something that needs fixing, whereas women need protecting from evil men. This is the most extreme form of identity politics that I have ever seen. Although they want you to think the opposite, let’s not mince words here, men are under political attack in Victoria.

But why are they doing it? Obviously the overwhelming majority of men don’t support violence against women, or violence full stop for that matter! Most of us are loving husbands, partners and fathers. But there must be some statistics backing up the Premier’s position? Well, if you look at the most recent homicide report, Incidents of intimate partner homicide by victim sex, then yes, women are over-represented, 89% to 11%. But this is only one type of very specific homicide. Noting that this is the equal third lowest number of intimate partner homicide incidents perpetrated against females ever recorded. Plus this doesn’t take away from the fact that almost 70% of all homicide victims are male.

The Allan Government’s sweeping generalisation about men as perpetrators is just blatantly wrong and unfair. It’s just an absurd piece of identity and victimhood politics.

Imagine if it was any other group. For example, in the most recent homicide report, Homicide offenders by Indigenous status, we can see Indigenous males have a homicide rate of 17.13 compared to non-Indigenous males 1.39, that’s more than 12 times the rate! If you look at Indigenous females, it’s even worse, 17.5 times the rate of non-Indigenous females. Actually, Indigenous females commit homicide at a rate almost two-and-a-half times that of non-Indigenous males. I’m not trying to target Indigenous people here, but the Victorian Government are clearly trying to target men, when most of us are perfectly law-abiding, peace-loving individuals who world never think of harming a woman, or anybody else for that matter.

Based on these statistics, they could rightfully have a Secretary for Indigenous Behaviour Change. Imagine the outcry if they did that, but in terms of whose committing the most violence, us innocent men are being scapegoated. And it’s just not fair.

And just one more statistic. This is the Australia Institute of Family Studies, Intimate partner violence in the LGBT community. They found that lesbian women were more likely than gay men to report having been in an abusive same-sex relationship (41% vs 28%). This shows you that women can certainly be violent.

In my opinion, Victoria is becoming some kind of political dystopian nightmare. The Government are creating a war between men and women for no good reason. This won’t end well. When the government pit one group of Victorians against the rest, this is just going to end in disaster. Men are bad? Or is the Allan Government bad?

MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn