South Australia: a good place to be a boy

‘So you see,’ Adelaide said to her father who was one of those jaded apolitical they’re-all-the-bloody-same types. ‘An Opposition doesn’t need to be a negative nay-sayer.’ She cut the article out ready to send to the federal opposition this afternoon. ‘Look at the South Australian Opposition. If this isn’t a positive policy announcement I don’t know what it is.’

Her father sniffed. He looked at the clipped article. He nodded and his eyebrows lifted as he read.

‘They’re right,’ Adelaide said. ‘It’s definitely time to ‘rebalance the agenda’. Isobel Redmond is spot on the money. It’s gone too far.’

Adelaide herself had too often found herself in the embarrassing position of getting a job purely because of her breasts just because she was a woman. Isobel Redmond was right. It was demeaning.

‘And it got worse once I had kids,’ Adelaide said. ‘Remember? All those jobs that fell out of the sky and into my lap once the kids went back to school.’ Her father nodded. He winced. It had been a terribly demeaning time for them all.

‘Men are reluctant to seek assistance, have difficulties juggling work commitments and family life, and forty percent of men over 40 have serious health problems.’ Adelaide read through the rationale behind the policy published on the website. She couldn't argue with any of that. And with only a little experience, Adelaide could see that classrooms certainly didn’t suit everyone.

She folded the newspaper clipping, slipped it into an envelope. And there was no better way to address those problems than to redirect the money away from women, thought Adelaide.