Politics

NSW’s Health Minister Accused Of Misogyny After Answering Question About Face Masks Like A Baby

"In response to a reasonable question on masks, he mocks her looks, her weight, calls her stupid, tells her to be quiet. Women know what this feels like in our guts, don’t we?"

by Rachael Conaghan  7 August 2020
brad hazzard

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Days without a female politician having to put up with sexist shit: zero.

This time NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard is the one being slammed after making “misogynistic, disrespectful” comments about the NSW Opposition Leader’s appearance — all because she dared to ask him a question about face masks.

Hazzard also called Jodi McKay “stupid”, a “goose”, a “pork chop”, compared her to a naughty schoolkid, and told her to “be quiet” as she calmly repeated herself.

McKay’s simple question came after an interview Hazzard did on 2GB, where he told Ben Fordham (who replaced Alan Jones in June) that if masks were made mandatory in NSW there would be a massive demand which “diminishes the number of masks that are available”.

In Question Time yesterday McKay followed on from that by asking whether NSW had enough face masks.

Given that the Australian Medical Association is now urging NSW residents to wear masks in public at all times, it’s a valid question.

But rather than answer it, Hazzard responded by attacking her looks, her weight, and her intelligence. The standard of debate in this country, I tell ya.

“She’s a goose, don’t worry about her … I heard the leader of the Opposition, the temporary leader of the Opposition, actually being a complete pork chop out there today. Quite stupid,” Hazzard said.

“The question is do we or don’t we have enough face masks?” McKay replied calmly.

“You certainly need one,” he shot back.

Now, it’s not unusual to see a politician try to dodge a question — they make an art out of avoiding accountability.

But the NSW Health Minister’s display yesterday was particularly pathetic, and he’s since been rightly slammed for the sexist way he handled the simple question.

“Oh for heavens sake, you wouldn’t fit into — anyway no, I’ll be nice,” he trailed off at one point.

A few minutes later he said, “If I was sitting next to someone like you on the bus I would definitely have a mask on”.

Later on he commented about McKay being “very frustrating and very annoying”, to which the Speaker interrupted to say: “Minister for Health, you can also be that”.

Eventually Hazzard said NSW had a “ton of masks”, which still doesn’t answer the question.

This morning McKay and Hazzard both appeared on 2GB where McKay eventually got an apology, but not before she was accused of being “misleading”.

“I was tired and I was frustrated and I shouldn’t have responded the way I did and I’m sorry for doing that to you Jodi and generally,” Hazzard said.

Today McKay held a press conference where she said she did not think the attack was gendered.

“I’ve never found Minister Hazzard to target women, that’s not him,” she said.

“I don’t think the attack that he launched on me is in any way related to my gender and I think I’ll just let people judge for themselves the behaviour exhibited by the Health Minister yesterday,” she said.

“I think when you ask a serious question like that you want an answer in the middle of a pandemic … I think it was conduct unbefitting of a minister.”