Mike's Minute: My take on the c-word debate

First, a small update on what I said yesterday on pay equity.  My gut says it won't damage the Government.  Don’t get me wrong – if I was the opposition I would be prosecuting this as hard as I could, the way they are, because they have a genuine issue and ongoing issue, at least until the Budget, that they quite rightly believe is there for the taking in terms of points, headlines, and moral high ground.  I don’t think that ultimately is true. But I fully get they think it is.  The tide turned yesterday though in Question Time. Not because Brooke van Velden dropped the c-word.  Watching it live, it was quite the moment. Question Time has become dour, there is limited talent on display, and the Speaker is cantankerous and ruins the fun.  But yesterday was alive with frisson. Brooke van Veldon's mic drop moment was pointing out that Jan Tinetti, the questioner, a former Woman's minister, a woman who railed against misogyny, was using misogyny by quoting a misogynistic article, authored by a woman to make her point.  That led to applause and rightly so.  It further exposed the Labour Party, and in fact most of the opposition benches, as frauds who are arguing the pay equity issue using bogus material and fake facts.  The more this is debated the more hope you have that a wider grouping of us will tune in and get into the detail, because it is in the detail the truth lies. The equity laws, or rules, were a shambles and being milked by unions.  But the tide turned because there seems genuine anger within the Government over what Andrea Vance was allowed to do.  When I say allowed, I assume she is edited and therefore cleared.  The odd thing for me is I struggle to get upset at being attacked.  Being a public figure, you are open for this sort of stuff, and I have received more than most. It's water off a duck's back, especially from an angsty journalist.  But van Veldon, Collins and, as Vance calls them, the "hype squad" seem genuinely outraged and it is that outrage that turned, or at least will turn, the dial.  If they argue on fact, and the other side argue on emotion using lies, bogus material, and foul language, they will eventually lose.  Hence the dent so many thought was coming for the Government will never arrive. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.