Staff in the Australian Governor General s office may be asked to discuss their race, religion, appearance and drug during a privilege walk .
The bureaucrats have been signed up to do bizarre activity which may require them to identify how privileged they are, but it has been criticised by previous participants as being too personal.
The exercise will require staff to step forward or backwards depending on their answers to prompts such as whether their parents have been arrested or addicted to drugs.
The training is run by Charles Sturt University (CSU), with over 330 staff at the Australian institute completing the exercise in 2019 and offering mixed feedback, reported The Daily Telegraph.
AANA Code of Ethics updates targeting sexism and stereotypes launch today
February 1, 2021 11:25
The updates to the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) Code of Ethics and Practice note come into effect today, with the industry facing stricter regulations around the depiction of harmful gender stereotypes, body parts not relevant to products being advertised, and overtly sexual images.
The changes were revealed in September last year following a year-long review. The AANA received 160 submissions from members of the public on what they thought was acceptable to appear in advertising, which, together with research from Ipsos, found that Australians were largely concerned with the sexual appeal, nudity and violence in advertising which reinforced negative gender stereotyping.
The honour is unlikely to be revoked.
Amid a similar controversy last year, the council said the threshold for stripping someone of their award was a court conviction or misleading material given during the nomination process.
There were vocal - but ultimately unsuccessful - calls last year to strip awards from both men s rights activist Bettina Arndt and journalist Mike Carlton.
“The council recognises that the law prescribes behaviours, and expressions, which are abhorrent to society and therefore uses law as the threshold for termination and cancellation,” council chair Shane Stone said.
Meanwhile, medical professor Caroline de Costa has become the latest to pledge to return her Australia Day honour in protest at the decision to award Ms Court.
In this episode, senior journalist Jacqueline Maley and Good Weekend editor Katrina Strickland discuss Jacqueline’s cover story about the Australian honours system and criticism that it’s too politicised, too weighted towards the wealthy, too pale, male and stale.
Former ABC journalist Kerry O Brien rejects Australia Day honour in protest over Margaret Court award.
Renowned journalist Kerry O Brien has rejected his Australia Day award, saying the decision to give former tennis great Margaret Court the country s highest honour is deeply insensitive and divisive .
Margaret Court has been vocal about her views against LGBTQ+ relationships
She is being elevated from an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) to a Companion (AC)
Kerry O Brien s decision comes in support of a Canberra doctor who handed back her 2016 honour
The former host of the ABC s Four Corners and 7.30 programs wrote to the Governor-General s secretary Paul Singer on Sunday knocking back his appointment as an Officer (AO) of the Order of Australia the second-highest honour.