Culture

Eddie McGuire, Andrew Bolt And Mark Latham Win Big At The Ernie Awards For Sexist Remarks

So many worthy winners.

by Tom Clift  24 September 2016

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It was a competitive field at the Ernie awards this year, with hundreds of deserving nominees. Nevertheless, when it came time to hand out the trophies for the most sexist remarks of 2016, the cream ended up rising to the top.

For joking on live radio that he’d like to drown AFL journalist Caroline Wilson, Collingwood president Eddie McGuire won the Ernie for sexism in sport, otherwise known as ‘The Warney’.

How An Independent Journalist Brought Eddie McGuire’s Sexist Comments To Account

Mark Latham emerged victorious in the political category for remarks made in January after he accused domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty of “demonising men” and “causing more harm than good.” Latham was also awarded ‘The Clinton’ for repeat offending, because hey, that kind of consistency deserves to be recognised.

Andrew Bolt won the media Ernie for remarks he made about the filming of Recognition: Yes or No, an ABC documentary in which he co-starred alongside Indigenous MP Linda Burney. “It was tricky because she is gorgeous and she’s a woman and it’s very difficult for a white male to debate an Aboriginal woman and not be seen as a bully or mean,” said Bolt.

Burney was present at the Ernie ceremony on Thursday night, and later told the ABC that Bolt’s comments “certainly got a response from the women in here tonight.

Rolf Harris was a deserving recipient of this year’s celebrity Ernie. The disgraced entertainer won for his song ‘Gutter Girls’, which he wrote from his prison cell and features the charming lyrics “sleeping in the daytime, lying every night. She’s scheming, screaming bloody rape and she’s got you in her sight.”

Pauline Hanson won ‘The Elaine’, awarded for remarks by a woman “least helpful to the sisterhood”, after she accused women of making “frivolous claims” in family court.

At the end of the night, the Gold Ernie was awarded jointly to the NSW Department of Education, for their policy that experienced teachers who take time off to raise children return to work on a graduate’s salary, and Melbourne barrister Ben Mallick, who claimed that a women who was allegedly sexually assaulted by a taxi driver could have avoided the attack “by sitting in the back seat.”

According to a statement on the Ernie Awards website, “at the beginning of each year we fear that no one will say anything terrible during the year so we won’t be able to have an Ernies. We are never let down.”