The Fair Work Commission’s deputy president, Gerard Boyce, came under fire from other members of the Commission and feminist agitators for having around 20 figurines on display in his office, some of which were based on female anime characters that the agitators claimed were “scantily clad”. This resulted in a Senate Estimates hearing where Boyce was reproached for having the figurines, resulting in him removing all of the figurines from his office.
Australian outfit ABC.net.au is reporting that Fair Work Commission’s general manager Bernadette O’Neill escalated the complaint from staffers in Boyce’s office who complained about the figurines.
They didn’t exactly say what franchises or anime the figurines came from, but apparently none of them were nude figurines, just “scantily clad”.
[Update 3/7/2020:] According to The Australian, Boyce had figurines of Jared Leto’s Joker from Suicide Squad, along with a figurine of Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn dressed in the short-shorts and fishnets. He reportedly also had a figure of Scarlett Johansson in the flesh-colored bodysuit she wore in Ghost In The Shell.
Boyce also had a security camera in the office, but it, too, was removed following the complaints. The article explains…
“Senate Estimates heard concerns were raised internally at the commission and both the figurines and camera were removed.
“Ms O’Neill said she had not seen the figurines in person because she worked in Melbourne, but she had seen a photo.
“When asked about who had raised concerns, Ms O’Neill said both Mr Boyce’s peers and senior staff had voiced concerns directly with him on a number of occasions.”
Even though Boyce removed the figurines and the camera, it wasn’t enough.
The article goes on to explain how Senator Deborah O’Neill took it as a personal mission to get to the bottom of the figurines appointment in order to “stand up for women”, with the article explaining…
‘I am here to stand up for women in the workplace who should not be exposed to this kind of gross intimidation,’ Senator O’Neill said when Liberal senator James McGrath cautioned about her line of questioning.”
Susan Westin, the ComCare chief executive, stated that she was going to lodge a WHS concern regarding the matter and that ComCare’s general manager of regulatory operations, Justin Napier, would have an inspector appointed to investigating the matter.
According to Labor Senator Tony Sheldon…“This is a horrendous breach of workplace standards at any workplace. The commissioners are responsible and liable for providing a safe workplace, to find a commissioner at Fair Work putting his own staff under surveillance is an appalling abuse of their responsibilities.”
Well look at that… tax payer money hard at work in the never-ending maze of bureaucracy to investigate anime figurines sitting on a desk.
However, the larger arc to this story is that this isn’t an isolated case. Australian MPs have been going gung-ho for the censorship and banning of anime and manga in recent times as well as revisiting porn ID measures for the internet. This cracking down on the Fair Work Commission’s deputy president is just a small piece of a much larger puritan crackdown taking place in the land down under.
(Thanks for the news tip Ebicentre)