Frequent Australian political scandals highlight the chronic problems of social inequality
Recently, a series of scandals broke out in Australian politics.
From the Liberal Party staff member of the main political party of the Australian ruling coalition being accused of raping multiple women, to anonymous sources revealing to the media that there has been long-term obscenity in the Australian Parliament Building, a series of scandals have caused widespread dissatisfaction among Australians.
Analysts believe that these scandals are the epitome of systemic discrimination and social inequality in Australia, and there is still a long way to go to eliminate this deep-rooted discrimination and inequality.
On February 15 this year, Brittany Higgins, a former employee of the current Secretary of Defense Linda Reynolds, said that on the eve of the 2019 federal parliament elections, she was in the office of the minister in the Capitol by a member of the Liberal Party. Colleague raped.
Since then, four other victims have also filed similar complaints.
At the end of February, an anonymous letter revealed that an Australian ministerial official had committed a rape case more than 30 years ago.
Attorney General Christian Porter subsequently admitted that he was the rumored official, but denied committing the crime of rape.
Subsequently, an anonymous person broke the news that some congressional staff members have been committing obscene acts in the Capitol for a long time, and sharing pornographic pictures and videos through chat groups.
For political purposes, some staff members also regularly bring sex workers to Congress for the "entertainment" of members.
A series of scandals shocked Australian society.
On the one hand, the various unbearable acts that have been exposed have severely impacted the moral bottom line; on the other hand, the ineffectiveness of Morrison and many officials in dealing with related issues has been widely questioned, triggering Australian public opinion to reflect on the country's deep-rooted gender discrimination.
A wave of protests broke out in more than 40 cities in Australia. More than 100,000 people took to the streets to express their anger at gender violence and sexual harassment.
The protesters submitted a petition signed by tens of thousands of people to Congress, calling on Congress to take more responsibility for eliminating sex discrimination.
According to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics at the end of 2020, the income gap between different genders in Australia is 14%. In all age groups from their 30s to 60s, the employment participation rate of women is lower than that of men. The risk of threats such as invasion and personal assault is much higher than that of men.
In an interview with reporters, Chen Hong, director of the Australian Studies Center of East China Normal University, said that this series of scandals essentially reflects Australia's deep-rooted discrimination against women in history and culture.
Analysts believe that this series of scandals is a microcosm of the long-standing systemic discrimination and inequality in Australian society.
In addition to women, indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities are all victims of discrimination and social inequality.
Chen Hong said that the strong protests triggered by the scandal show that the Australian people have a long backlog of dissatisfaction with social inequality, but the contempt for women and the prejudice against ethnic minorities are deeply ingrained, and the road to equality in Australian society is still very long. Long.
(According to Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, March 28)