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Importing rhetoric from the right in the UK and US, conservative politicians in Australia for years stoked exaggerated moral panic about a ‘free speech crisis’…
Universities struggle to understand why the government doesn’t love them.
Since COVID, universities have lost billions of dollars and shed over 17,000 staff. The government excluded them from Jobseeker, which threatened their viability for teaching and research.
Universities train everyone from primary teachers to corporate bankers. Until recently, universities were the country’s third largest exporter. Their research underpins economic innovation and COVID recovery.
So why has the government been letting them suffer?
It may be as simple, journalist George Megalogenis argued in the most recent Quarterly Essay, as a harsh dating maxim. The government is just not that into them.
On the one hand, left feminists love to hurl tedious tantrums and screech that more women should be recognised in the Order of Australia awards on the Queen’s birthday list.
On the other, they want to approve each and every woman who’s selected. Margaret Court and Bettina Arndt should not, they insist, have ever been considered. It’s only acceptable for left-wing frightbats to be given the nod, certainly not conservative women; deemed the wrong type of women.
And so, we find ourselves stranded on Groundhog Day this long weekend, while left-wing toddlers spit their dummies over Australia’s highest honours.