WELCOME SUE FERGUSON - GENDER COUNSELLOR

I am please to read statements by the Gender Counsellor of the Australian High Commission Sue Ferguson. Her statements in the media today seem to be professional and not alarmist.

I met Sue some years ago and took every afternoon for a fortnight at her apartment teaching her Tok Pisin. Her response was smooth and elegant. I am sure that she has never forgotten the extensive range of patterns. I am a top teacher. She was a top student.

My relationship with the Australian High Commission has not been sweet as the result of harrassment by rogue paedophile officers working in the HIV/AIDS response. I hope that this will now change.

I urge Sue to support the message of FAMILY, RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES. Once that happens we can all seriously focus on gender violence. 

Some years ago the Seventh Day Adventist family officer Pr Simon Vetali reported that 66% of women suffer violence at the hands of men. At the same time, 44% of men suffer violence at the hands of women. It is the same for same-sex couples.

I am sure that violence to children has increased over that time with sexual abuse by family men and violence to small crying children disturbing their mothers during cards or bingo. 

Many mothers do not cook when the family comes come. They prefer to start cooking at 9.00pm after they finish their games, betelnut, marijuana, beer and homebrew. 

Then their hungry husbands bash them. And the drunken wives go to the police and Medecin Sans Frontieres to become yet another statistic of gender violence. She will still cook the food at 9.00am and still have a hungry family.