On the Defence The times have given us many occasions to wince at powerful men’s choice of words when addressing the culture of rape and sexual assault in the organisations they head. So it was when Prime Minister Scott Morrison pulled out the “as a father of daughters” line (something he apparently needed his wife to remind him of) and so it is with Defence Force chief Angus Campbell advocating that trainees avoid the “four As” so as not to become “prey” to sexual predators.

The As he cited are “alcohol”, “out after midnight”, “alone” and (Jesus Christ) “attractive”.

Far from backing down from an idea so outdated and embarrassing it makes you want to squirm yourself out of existence, Campbell told Harley Dennett of The Canberra Times ($) (via a defence spokesperson) that he stood by what he said because, after all, the entire class he was addressing fell into the “risk factor” of being “young and attractive”. Oh cool. That’s fine then, for sure.

Mark his words Yesterday Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan had the unmitigated cheek to send an email asking his supporters to chip in money to help air an ad spreading his “positive” message.

Apart from the fact that it was shortly after a press conference in which he mooted keeping the WA border guarded by police after the pandemic ostensibly to help keep meth out of the state — some almost certainly unconstitutional nonsense he’s since backed down from — it may prove the WA Liberals have a point when they say a one-party state isn’t great for democracy. And we’re not sure recipients are really going to see the urgency of donating to a campaign against a party that conceded defeat two weeks out from the election.

ABC watch Earlier this year it was revealed the ABC was having to audit the pay of nearly 2000 employees either subject to buyouts (paid a set rate that doesn’t take into account overtime or penalties, a system that always works) or under band one, the ABC’s lowest pay grade.

Yesterday Aunty’s people and culture chief sent an email to those affected offering, essentially, that the update is there’s no update: “Although we are making good progress, we still expect that it will be several months before we finalise the review.” But we did note the odd auto-generated signature, offering us an ad for the show Aftertaste.

We feel like maybe a group of employees you’ve probably underpaid is one audience who probably don’t need to be reminded of ABC’s wonderful autumn schedule?

South of the border A tipster got in touch to tell us the, shall we say, distinctive approach to COVID monitoring at the Adelaide airport. After lining up, providing ID and being crossed off a list — a bit like voting (minus having to talk to someone from the Democratic Labor Party while you wait) — you are handed, in this, the year of our Lord 2021, a raffle ticket.

This quite literally future-proof item was to act as your passport on the way out, the papers to be brandished at any authority figure who asked. As our tipster left, “There was some burly chap in a high vis and so I showed it to him. He seemed to think that was nice!”