Australian of the Year David Morrison says religious discrimination 'without a doubt' alive and well
By Lucy Sweeney
Updated about 6 hours ago

David Morrison

PHOTO: Australian of the Year David Morrison says the Muslim community comes in for unfair commentary. (Supplied: National Australia Day Council)

Australian of the Year David Morrison says religious discrimination is "without a doubt" alive and well, pointing to the Islamic community as the subject of particularly unfair commentary and calling for Australians to understand the challenges they face. =d>

The morning after he received the top Australia Day award at a ceremony in Canberra for his work in striving for gender equality, the former Army chief told ABC News Breakfast that Australia should not allow discrimination of any kind.

[size=8]"We hold people back in this country for the most peculiar of reasons — their gender or the god they believe in or the colour of their skin or sexual orientation," he said.[/size] =d>

"It's not how we should progress."

Lieutenant General Morrison, who retired last year after 36 years with the Army, said the Islamic community in particular was facing significant challenges in Australia.

"Without doubt there has been a great focus on the Islamic community; a lot of the commentary I think has been very unfair," General Morrison said.

[size=8]"I think we need to listen to the men and women of Islamic faith who are part of Australia's society.[/size] =d>

"We need to understand the challenges they face.

"We need to see where the rest of Australia can work with them.

"And, of course, there are issues within the Islamic community that only they can solve, but that's OK."

General Morrison made headlines in 2013 when he ordered soldiers to "get out" of the military if they could not respect women as equals, after it was revealed dozens of members were involved in the distribution of hundreds of sexually explicit emails.

The inside story of 2016 Australian of the Year David Morrison, and the women he says opened his eyes and changed his thinking.
He described his mood in that video as one of deep concern and anger.

"There were people who had been made victims and I was concerned for them. Beyond that, I was deeply concerned about the reputation of this great national institution, the Australian Army," he said this morning.

"I was starting to become increasingly angry about the fact that the institution and the culture was denying people — women, but others as well — the opportunity to reach their potential.

[size=8]"I came to understand that the bars that we were asking women in our Army to jump were much higher than the hurdles that I was ever asked to jump as David Morrison, Anglo-Saxon male working my way through my career."[/size] =d>

General Morrison said he would focus on three areas over the next year: domestic violence, diversity and the gender pay gap and the republican movement.

He threw his support behind the latter at the Canberra ceremony on Monday night, saying it was time start the conversation about an Australian head of state.

"It is time, I think, to at least revisit the question so that we can stand both free and fully independent amongst the community of nations."

The Australian of the Year title will give Gen Morrison the platform to try to change the rules, with the former Army chief hoping to use his year to promote workplace diversity and equality. [size=8]“The rules that we live by have largely been written by white Anglo-Saxon men,[/size]” Gen Morrison told AAP.

[size=8]“And the beneficiaries are, surprise surprise, white Anglo-Saxon men.”[/size] Gen Morrison, the ACT’s finalist, retired as chief of army in May last year and took up his role as chair of the Diversity Council Australia, which advises business on diversity in the workplace.

Advance Australia Where?

SADLY the Australian Of The Year award has lost all meaning to millions of Australians.

It’s become a disconnected politically correct tool existing only for one purpose - to advance progressive grand standers and social causes, instead of reflecting the best in quiet achievers, the real heroes of our country.

The Australian Of The Year award has become a caricature, a parody, an exercise in hypocrisy, diminishing its own worth. It used to mean something.

Instead of rewarding the best of us, the Aussie gong is now a means for promotion of social engineers and fringe attention seekers who don’t practice what they preach.

Politicians will jump on board to be seen to be hip, but someone should tell them hipsters are a laughing stock to most of us. People without self identity, who leap onto the latest cause - or fad - to be accepted by, or popular to, other empty shells.

While real Australians go about their lives, serving their community, getting kids to school, heading to work, producing, creating, serving, fixing, building, manufacturing, inventing, caring, life saving, fire fighting, volunteering, transporting, loading, packing, mowing, cleaning, selling, buying, cooking, painting, welding, trimming, lifting, accounting, measuring, grading, driving, drilling, hammering, joining, engineering, drafting, in short, living in a real Australian society with meaning and purpose…we have an empty underclass fixated with themselves.

The rest of us actually have to be productive to make a quid. We create, we make, we fix, we serve, we do.

The underclass believes its purpose is to be ‘progressive’, to fiddle with ’social’ issues, Their purpose in life is to ‘seem’ to be advancing.

As they produce nothing they make stuff up trying to make it look like they’re actually doing something. We have whole government departments and agencies funded by your taxes devoted to inventing lots of nothing. It might even be excusable if we were swimming in surplus but we’re not.

The latest charade is the Australia Day Council’s most recent example - the 2016 Australian Of The Year recipient, David Morrison, the former Chief of the Army (June 2011 until retirement in May 2015).

I’m sure David Morrison means well, trying his best to be all things to all people - well most people.

During his time, Morrison admitted, the army became notorious for its systematic culture of sexual abuse and misconduct.

Instead of dealing with it properly from within, using the proper criminal and military resources at Defence’s disposal, Morrison decided to read a speech written by someone else, record it and upload it online.

Morrison judged that the inner conflicts and disciplinary measures required to deal with misconduct within the army was everyone else’s business.

It was an orchestrated PR assault launched with military precision to get him and the army off the hook, after another public report of soldiers sharing offensive and private material online. Morrison, the man at the top was under pressure to be seen to do something. More seeming.

Morrison’s video, demanded that anyone who wanted to treat women unequally should get out of the army. The video, which went viral, made Morrison a hero.

The personas have done a complete 180 from the days of far right anti-climate change rhetoric to this modern extremist left SJW agenda :lol:

Master baiter for sure.

-PB

Australian of the Year has become a joke.

Then we had the transgender one cry that the choice was wrong and weak cos he's a straight white male. I could just see Randy Marsh getting outraged at this. :lol:

Awards like this are always going to have their critics. Almost everyone has an opinion on who is more deserving so you can't please everyone.

Australian of the year should be given to people who have dedicated their whole lives to a noble cause....ie volunteers, meals on wheels workers....not some fly by nighter who gained fame overnight by posting a video rant online

Awards like this are always going to have their critics. Almost everyone has an opinion on who is more deserving so you can't please everyone.

[size=7]Australia’s shameful bamboo ceiling: Australian of the Year David Morrison pushing for more Asian people in top jobs[/size]
JANUARY 29, 2016
12:35PM

Australian of the Year David Morrison has begun to fight for progress in an issue that puts Australian businesses to shame. Picture: Gary Ramage
Liz Burkenews.com.au

NEWLY minted Australian of the Year David Morrison made clear three areas he wanted to push for progress when accepting the honour earlier this week.

But the former Chief of Army has revealed to news.com.au a less publicised pursuit he plans to use his platform for.
Continuing Rosie Batty’s fight against domestic violence is a priority for retired Lieutenant General Morrison, as is severing our national ties to Britain’s monarchy and continuing to battle for gender equality and chip away at the glass ceiling.
But Mr Morrison has another diversity issue in his sights — another barrier to professional advancements with its own catchy and confrontingly fitting label — the “bamboo ceiling”.

It’s the Asian equivalent of the invisible glass ceiling that has kept women out of positions of power for so long. The fact such a term exists is proof in itself of systemic racism that’s stopping Asian Australians from advancing to top jobs, and according to Gen Morrison, it’s something corporate Australia needs to face up to.

While people with Asian ethnic origin make up close to 10 per cent of all Australians, they account for less than two per cent of senior executive position in ASX 200 companies.

And when you look at the figures, Gen Morrison says, it’s not only racist, but bad business.
“When you think about the fact that seven out of Australia’s top 10 export markets are in Asia, it constitutes about 66 per cent of our total market, that more than 50 per cent of the
world’s population and its consumer demand is $10m a year, all I’m saying as the Australian of the Year is, hey, we can do better,” he told news.com.au.

“This can be as much about enhancing corporate capability as well as being more inclusive.”
The proportion of Asian talent advancing into senior executive positions is way out of line with their representation in the

Australian community. Picture: Diversity Council Australia
The proportion of Asian talent advancing into senior executive positions is way out of line with their representation in the

Australian community. Picture: Diversity Council Australia
Research released by the Diversity Council of Australia, of which Gen Morrison is chair, showed even among the most diversity-conscious employers, only 4.9 of senior executive positions were filled by Asian born Australians despite them accounting for 9.3 per cent of the nation’s labour force.
While Asian people were overrepresented in entry level positions, the numbers thinned out further up the management chain.

Close to a third (30 per cent) of Asian talent intended to leave their employer in the next year, the 2014 report found. One in four of those intending to resign cited negative cultural diversity as an influence on their decision.
Though it’s become a leading selection criterion in progressive companies, the consideration of candidates “cultural fit” in an organisation or position was found to be culturally biased as it results in existing leaders falling into the trap of “unconsciously promoting in their own image”.

Only 18 per cent of Asian talent felt their workplace was free of cultural diversity biases and stereotypes, and many reported they often felt stereotypes and had incorrect assumptions made about their background, leadership capability, English proficiency and age.

Much like his well documented exposure to gender inequality with female soldiers opening his eyes to the difficulties women face in male-dominated institutions, Gen Morrison conceded he was not aware of the challenges Asian Australians faced in the corporate world.
“I’ve said I didn’t see the issues at the tender age of 55 around gender, and being shown that was definitely the first big step,” he said.

“But once you start the journey, you start to see aspects of who we are, or what opportunities we’re exploring or not, and the Asian, the bamboo ceiling issue, is another one to look at.”

While Jenny Taing has overcome diversity barriers, she’s witnessed young women with the exact same qualifications and background discouraged from advancing their careers.

While Jenny Taing has overcome diversity barriers, she’s witnessed young women with the exact same qualifications and background discouraged from advancing their careers.Source:Supplied

Melbourne lawyer Jenny Taing is well acquainted with the bamboo ceiling, and among the less than two per cent who have managed to break through it.

Her Vietnamese-Cambodian family arrived in Australia as refugees, and becoming the first in her family to receive a tertiary education was the beginning of a lifetime of firsts for Jenny.

As she progressed through her career she would be the youngest to be promoted to senior positions, the first person under 25 to be appointed to a state board in Victoria, and has frequently found herself the only Asian person, and the only woman, in meetings and boardrooms.

Now a senior lawyer at ASIC, and sitting on the corporate board of the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (the youngest to hold the position), she’s also put her hand up to fight for diversity and become a mentor to young Asian women.
Although she’s overcome it, Ms Taing says she has witnessed and experienced the corporate culture that’s holding back young woman and men, just like her.

“I’ve had a lot of success in my own legal and my non-executive director career, but if you look at the boardrooms, and I do when I’m in them, there are hardly any people with Asian cultural backgrounds. Considering the amount of work Australian businesses do in Asia, it’s ridiculous” she tells news.com.au.

Ms Taing said as a young Asian woman, dealing with both the glass ceiling and the cultural ceiling, was a “double whammy”. She’s witnessed her colleagues and fellow students left behind by not being supported in conquering those challenges.
“There’s a lack of role models who are female and Asian. There are very, very few. The legal professional particularly is quite conservative,” she says.
“You’ve got graduates coming out, quite a significant amount do come from an Asian origin background, yet when you look at partners in businesses, that’s not reflected, so there’s clearly an issue. There’s certainly a gap, people are sort of falling out, not progressing to the top. If we’re going to change the culture, leaders need to be champions of that.”

“When people hear about diversity, their minds immediately go to gender. I’m sure you’ve heard of the glass ceiling and gender diversity, but diversity also concerns race, disability, sexual orientation to name a few, but until people experience those issue themselves or are directed towards a conversation, it can be difficult to grasp or have less urgency,” he said.
“Despite people of Asian background being celebrated as a model minority the top students in the HSC, the students who perform well at university, you’ll find people of diverse Asian backgrounds are represented, but this doesn’t follow through to the top levels.

“This goes to the heart of the question of why organisations don’t promote the best talent. If they don’t, they won’t do as well as they should and our society misses out because people won’t fulfil their potential.
“It’s encouraging to see David Morrison raise these issues in the national conversation in the few days that he’s been Australian of the Year and it does highlight why this is an issue for monitory groups,” he said.
Dr Soutphommasane has advocated for companies to record ethnicity or cultural background of employees, and encouraged business to see a potential business case for cultural diversity.
“Until you get better data it’s going to be hard to see a shift in culture. That’s one reason why gender diversity has improved because there’s been that collection of data and there hasn’t been in ethnic or cultural diversity,” he said.

While he does find the lack of representation of Asian Australians in top jobs concerning, Gen Morrison says he’s optimistic about the issue, and hopes he can make a difference by drawing attention to it.
“There is so much opportunity and it doesn’t come about by talking about it, it comes about by action,” he says.
“Things are becoming better for women in Australia, but I don’t think there would be too many women who would say that we’ve come far enough at this stage. (The bamboo ceiling) is another one to look at. We clearly have a long way to go so we need to look at what are the possibilities we need to put in place to make it happen.”

Yeah I was going to post something along those lines. The OAMs seem to fit that criteria a lot better.

Awarding it to someone that campaigns for the issues that Morrison has been, I fully support but there are no doubt a lot of people that have dedicated their lives to this that deserve to be put in the spotlight.

Well said. =d>

Bamboo ceiling is a big problem in Australia :)


http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/careers/australias-shameful-bamboo-ceiling-australian-of-the-year-david-morrison-pushing-for-more-asian-people-in-top-jobs/news-story/f94f5c949111bca2679e40355cd0a976

All he does is talk. :roll:

He's a thought leader :)

"Oh look at me....I can think":roll:

Rip Ricey :)

How many of you actually know Dave Morrison? I do, quite well. I was part of his Operations staff when he was a brigade commander and he tapped me for the same job when he became land commander (Forces Command). I like him, and used to respect him, but his tenure as chief of army was disastrous. By the end of his time he was truly despised among the rank and file and most officers outside his immediate circle. He did a terrible job, allowing service conditions to be eroded and capability to be undermined solely so he could focus on his pet political issues. Speaking at the UN and cuddling up to Angelina Jolie were priorities, his duty was not. He repeatedly threw individuals and the interests of the army under the bus for his own personal gain, not all of those issues are yet published knowledge.

I copped a lot of shit from my peers because I was known to be one of his favourites, at first I tried to defend him because I believed he would do a good job but by the end his performance was indefensible. Every time he opens his mouth I now cringe and wonder what happened to the man I knew.

Edited by crusader: 30/1/2016 03:29:19 PM

How many of you actually know Dave Morrison? I do, quite well. I was part of his Operations staff when he was a brigade commander and he tapped me for the same job when he became land commander (Forces Command). I like him, and used to respect him, but his tenure as chief of army was disastrous. By the end of his time he was truly despised among the rank and file and most officers outside his immediate circle. He did a terrible job, allowing service conditions to be eroded and capability to be undermined solely so he could focus on his pet political issues. Speaking at the UN and cuddling up to Angelina Jolie were priorities, his duty was not. He repeatedly threw individuals and the interests of the army under the bus for his own personal gain, not all of those issues are yet published knowledge.

I copped a lot of shit from my peers because I was known to be one of his favourites, at first I tried to defend him because I believed he would do a good job but by the end his performance was indefensible. Every time he opens his mouth I now cringe and wonder what happened to the man I knew.

People should go public with this shit. Go one strike one day to protest his awarding of Australian of the Year, let the public know what the army really thinks of him. It might prompt future recipients to be awarded the honour on merit rather than political stance. The whole thing is a farce and am Im embarressed the highest honour in the country has been hijacked by those using it to push their politcial agendas.

Jacqui Lambie is having a field day with this and the Jedi council cover up and scapegoating. She isn't the sharpest tool in the shed but expect a lot of damaging material to come from her on this issue. The media seem to have overlooked the fact that Lambie was a Military Policewoman, a very small organisation, and that she would know almost every person involved in the investigation. The MPs are not happy that their work was used in this manner and they will provide her with every detail in this sordid affair.