GregB this is going to sound harsh, but if I was your friend and still a virgin (horrors!) I would never tell you because I could not bear your pity. Surely if we embrace that it’s OK to have sex ‘before marriage’ (or whatever) then it’s also OK to not have sex? Let’s not keep attaching shame to it (or the lack of it). It seems mean to think of them as ‘sad’. And also ‘wilting lettuce leaves’. I can’t imagine what you blokes say about other blokes who are virgins!! Merciless!

I must be hopelessly old fashioned. I just do not see why women cannot enjoy sex, enjoy life, and be thoroughly satisfied with their careers, be loving and thoughtful people, without having the imprimateur of a marriage certificate. Why should it take a man to validate a woman’s perception of herself and/or the community’s perception of her?

Wow Tony – sharks eh? They’re the critters which sit near the top of the food chain aren’t they? What about the bottom dwellers? And since when have you been concerned about anthropogenic pollution? Do you know the difference between a VOC and a sock?

Perhaps you should dismiss your speech writer because in the same month as your Victorian address the media reported that the NSW Liberal Party had got their hands on some damning evidence:

“Air pollution in Sydney dramatically worsened last year with one in 10 days officially failing air quality standards.

.”A “poor air quality” day is declared when the Regional Air Quality Index is 100 or greater.

“The figures showed high pollution days, which breached national standards, were increasing.

“The health costs of air pollution in the Sydney basin are well over $4 billion,” says Opposition climate change and environmental sustainability spokeswoman, Catherine Cusack!”

And I understand that a total ban on fishing remains at Homebush Bay because of dioxin contamination, and a ban on commercial fishing in the rest of the Sydney Harbour and its tributaries, including the Parramatta River where industrial chromium VI is feeding the fish.

Hey Tony - what about the 22,000 tonnes of hexachlorobenzene, which has been languishing in 55,000 rusting drums and under car parks at Botany for over twenty years – a terrorists’ paradise since all ttempts by Orica to flog it off for destruction to some other hapless nation have failed.

Well Tony your spin is not so different to Dennis Jenkins’s hubris. Jenkins claims that fossil fuels do no harm so why is he tearing around the nation trying to flog off nuclear to the unwitting public and who’s paying his expenses? Anyhow Jenkins won’t be any loss will he since he’s lost pre-selection twice (Yellowcake Johnny stuck his beak into state affairs the first time ) and there’s heaps more grim reapers in your party to carry on the hubris.

Tsk tsk!

all I was saying is that TA’s comment on virginity, male or female, is likely to resonate well with the majority of parents. Firstly, I am not a parent but I can imagine that if I had a daughter, I would like her to try and make sure ‘the first time’ was atleast memorable. do you NOT agree????? or are you from Nimbin???

and, where exactly in the article is TA saying that he “owns” his daughters? I am sorry if your background has been what it is, but leave your personal insults out of this forum. I hope your grandaughters have less of a chip on their shoulder than you do!

“…And it looks like goosedetector has your number most deluded mama…”

Of course he does.

I now have my own personal stalker.

I look forward to the snappy repartee you both bring to the conversation.

You are much too smart for me.

Its a bit of coalition thing nugget.

And it looks like goosedetector has your number most deluded mama.

THE DUKE - Oh yes, and you’d appreciate some man assuring you, that his daughter is good value because he’s made sure she’s a virgin, and therefore you can ‘train’ her to suit you? [Edit - please refrain from insulting other commenters] If he made assertions on behalf of both sexes I may take another look at him, but to reinforce the archaic practice of men owning their daughter’s sexuality and their ‘divine’ role to hand ‘it/her’ over to another man of whom he approves is sick - really sick! Men owning women - god, haven’t we moved forward from this 50’s/60’s view?

I hope that at least one of his daughters sees through his revolting ‘plan’ and tells him to get lost? What’s the next step Tony? Fathers saving the sheets after the wedding night to prove that their daughters were ‘good girls’? Of course, if her husband rapes her, we all know that it’s not really rape is it? I mean, he has rights doesn’t he?

You blokes? Fair dinkum! How were you brought up? I shudder to think. Please stay away from my grand-daughters -[edit]

You’d think that at this stage in our evolution exercise, you could at least pretend to be intelligent, insightful and just human beings? Tell me, how many of you would swap tomorrow and be a woman in this world as it is - to be ‘sold’ to the highest(most deserving to her father) bidder? I feel disgusted and frustrated! After all these years, we still have men like Abbott, THE DUKE and others! No wonder I feel like chaining my young grand-daughters to my anke?

Ask Abbott what he got up to while he was a Uni student?

“His poor daughters they now have to go out in to the world and face their peers.”

Knowing their Catholic father has… values.

What sort of world do you live in, mysay?

I think you have clearly taken the bait on the ‘mad monk’ but if you listen carefully, he makes alot of sense (as the polls are now starting to indicate) and would not be stupid enough to commit political assasination by airing hard core catholic values that do not resonate with todays society. As he said, he is not one to preach given his background.

Oh yeah, I am well under 40 and I can tell you that the Liberal vote is alive and well within this demographic, perhaps getting stronger now that KR has turned out to be a bit of a let down.. In terms of the “scrapheap”, I remember saying the same thing about the ALP in the early noughties.

It is deluded fools like you who will prove to be a bigger baggage to the right than even tony rosary.