From The Age:
FEDERAL sports minister Kate Lundy has hit out at the discrimination that resulted in Australia’s women Olympic basketballers flying to London in economy class, while the men travelled in business class.
After The Age revealed the Opals flew premium economy to London, Senator Lundy and Sex Discrimination Commissioner Liz Broderick called for the inequity to be rectified.
Further investigation reveals the Opals are not alone in being treated as second-class citizens. National women’s soccer and cricket teams are flown economy, while their male counterparts’ teams travel in business. This is despite the fact that, in basketball and soccer, the women’s teams have much higher international rankings.
This probably sounds a lot worse than it actually is. I suspect that you’ll find that the women’s sports either can’t afford to send their teams business class or have chosen to spend the money on something else.
What’ll happen is that men’s team will end up having to fly economy, not that women’s team get upgraded.
Sounds reasonable.
I mean, women’s sport is generally to a 3rd rate under 15s standard and mostly unwatchable if not for short skirts, so why would they get the rewards of those in a genuine open and therefore male dominated high standard competition with a limited travel budget to allocate?
Alfonso
20 Jul 12 at 9:12 am
What’ll then happen is that we’ll lose all our best players.
Elite athletes earning multi million dollers per year don’t ‘do cattle class’.
Rabz
20 Jul 12 at 9:12 am
Gosh but life is unfair when you’re at the taxpayer’s trough.
Swimming teams all fly economy and that is how it should be for all the other sports.
Suck it up, girls.
Gab
20 Jul 12 at 9:15 am
Elite athletes earning multi millions dollars per year can pay for their own bloody business class travel instead of sponging off the taxpayers.
grumpy
20 Jul 12 at 9:16 am
the men’s teams flying economy, how terribly sad for them, don’t know they would cope.
candy
20 Jul 12 at 9:17 am
Correctomundo, Grumps.
But you’ve forgotten what taxpayers are for…
Rabz
20 Jul 12 at 9:21 am
So what did sports minister Kate Lundy actually say?
TerjeP
20 Jul 12 at 9:25 am
The only quote from the article is:-
Seems like a storm in a tea cup to me. She made the right call which is that it is up to the AOC. She flagged what she thought which is that they should get equal treatment. I’m sure that would be the initial reaction from most people. It sounds like the blokes travel a better class because at some point they bargained for it. There is no reason the woman shouldn’t also try and bargain for something similar. But like Lundy said it is up to the AOC. If the women have a good bargaining position they will succeed. If I was them I’d use the equal treatment tactic also. Bargaining often entails an appeal to fairness.
TerjeP
20 Jul 12 at 9:33 am
It’s karmic payback for the inequities of tennis, where the men play five sets and the ladies only three for equivalent prize money…
Cold-Hands
20 Jul 12 at 9:37 am
How about the wild guess that the mens teams tend to be much larger human beings than the women and folding them into pretzels for a 20 hour flight isn’t the bst way to move them to a competition site?
Zatara
20 Jul 12 at 9:40 am
Maybe… they could pay for the seat upgrade themselves? Argh, that’s just crazy talk…
ar
20 Jul 12 at 9:41 am
Female basketballer Cambadge is 6’8″…
ar
20 Jul 12 at 9:42 am
How about the individuals pay for upgrades themselves, as they do in the swim teams?
Gab
20 Jul 12 at 9:43 am
Andrew Gaze was quoted on the radio this morning saying the men’s group chose business class and while the women’s preferred to spend their dosh on more training camps, etc. throughout the year.
The women at least have chosen premium economy. Presumably they need the leg room but are less fussed about the service. I’m wondering if the blokes are more insistent about sitting up the front of the plane…
Steve D
20 Jul 12 at 9:53 am
Why do we need a sex discrimination commissioner?
What a waste of money. And why is it that such roles are always filled by women? Isn’t that discrimination?
Rococo Liberal
20 Jul 12 at 10:05 am
Out of curiosity, how are The Rollers and Gliders going to travel?
Naed
20 Jul 12 at 10:15 am
It’ll be a good day when these so called sports persons acknowledge that they are only enjoying their cosseted lives courtesy of the taxpayer.
All you hear is thanks to the AIS, their parents, the gibmint et al. Not a peep in appreciation of the long suffering tax payer.
I long to see the back of this four yearly stupidity.
Phil E Steyn
20 Jul 12 at 10:21 am
As long as the teams are getting the same funding for the Olympics and its just a result of them having different priorities then I don’t see a problem. Though if anything because the women’s team has performed much better than the men’s team they should perhaps be getting relatively speaking a bit more.
Chris
20 Jul 12 at 10:22 am
They of course have no chance of winning the gold medal.
They’re losers anyway.
C.L.
20 Jul 12 at 10:24 am
Women’s cricket and soccer cost the taxpayer millions.
Cricket is actually profitable and pays its own way.
p.s Anyone checked out this chick who plays for the Opals? She’s 6’8″.
Infidel Tiger
20 Jul 12 at 10:30 am
Channel Nine NRL (and Olympics swim) caller Ray Warren is travelling to England on a ship.
C.L.
20 Jul 12 at 10:32 am
As found in the journal of record, the Australian Women’s Weekly
Cold-Hands
20 Jul 12 at 10:40 am
I saw a doco on the Cambage last night.
She emerged as quite a likable person.
Rabz
20 Jul 12 at 10:44 am
Female discrimination, eh? Ms Lundy should read Ms Scutt’s piece.
Apparently it’s all because women have c..ts.
cohenite
20 Jul 12 at 10:50 am
The reason is of course purely contractual. All athletes get economy class but some of the men have negotiated through their associations and get upgrades.
Alan Moran
20 Jul 12 at 11:00 am
So does this Scutt idiot want to make saying the word c**t a hate crime?
What a fascist bitch.
Okay maybe she doesn’t. What’s her point? Some men are mean? It wouldn’t be misogynistic if women stopped being precious about it.
“Don’t say ‘cock’, it’s misandrist”…ridiculous.
.
20 Jul 12 at 11:07 am
Seems that very few commentators, including Sinclair, have come out of this without egg on their face: certainly not the Age reporter, the Labor politician or the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, and certainly not Basketball Australia. Too much mouth and not enough research. As best I can ascertain, both teams were funded by the AOC for “Premium Economy Fares”. Apparently, the men’s team used other funds to upgrade to Business while the women’s team did not. Whether the decision was made at the team administration level or by the players themselves is unclear.
Russell
20 Jul 12 at 11:27 am
Russell – don’t understand why I have egg on my face. I pointed to the story and suggested an explanation – as best I can see your explanation is similar to mine.
Sinclair Davidson
20 Jul 12 at 11:30 am
I would be more impressed if Kate Lundy was asking why taxpayers fund elite sportsmen or women in the first place. I won’t hold my breath.
Instead we have manufactured sexist outrage and no doubt increased taxpayer funding to allow those poor women to fly home business class.
H B Bear
20 Jul 12 at 11:35 am
Does the fact that the men are all over 10 feet tall have anything to do with it?
os
20 Jul 12 at 12:27 pm
Well there are always freight rates…
Zatara
20 Jul 12 at 12:44 pm
An easy solution ,let the Rich Elitist Celebrite Athaleets pay their own fares ,why should the Real Workers pay for their fun times?
Borisgodunov
20 Jul 12 at 12:46 pm
Since a few were found rorting the system years ago all diplomats going on Posting fly economy. So what, hey get there in the same time and deserve no more.
Mother G
20 Jul 12 at 12:55 pm
A good rule for long distance flights is if you are getting off the plane and going straight to work, you fly business. If you are going to ‘rest up’ in the hotel, and go to work the next day, you fly cattle.
Peter Patton
20 Jul 12 at 12:59 pm
There was a push at a certain Sydney firm some years ago to abolish the vertical urinals in the men’s dunnies as their inclusion apparently discriminated against women.
The protest came to screeching halt when the Board offered to install them in the women’s restrooms as well.
The Old and Unimproved Dave
20 Jul 12 at 1:29 pm
In Sweden, it is a crime to leave the toilet seat up!
Peter Patton
20 Jul 12 at 1:36 pm
Indeed. Replace any reference to sport and make the piece refer to male and female public servants and we would all be in agreement. Let them all fly cattle class!
Abu Chowdah
20 Jul 12 at 2:01 pm
‘all diplomats going on Posting fly economy’
According s. 5.25 of the current DFAT EA, most staff going overseas on short term missions are entitled to fly business class. Travel for long term postings is dealt with in a separate entitlement schedule that I can’t find on-line, but I would be extraordinarily surprised if heads of mission or any other senior diplos would consent to travelling economy to a posting.
Des Deskperson
20 Jul 12 at 2:46 pm
I’m tipping nasty scenes if John Steffensen is turned right at the boarding gate.
Big Jim
20 Jul 12 at 3:05 pm
It is a storm in a tea-cup. Both teams received equal funding and both team have autonomy on how they spend their budget. The men’s team decided to use more of their budget on the flights. If the players are upset I suggest they take it up with Team Management. It also wouldn’t surprise me if the men chipped in some of their own dosh to afford an upgrade, an option open to every flyer.
It appears Kate Lundy has made a fool of herself.
Randy
20 Jul 12 at 3:30 pm
No they don’t. They all go business class. DFAT officers only ever travel business class, no matter how junior.
Samuel J
20 Jul 12 at 4:12 pm
This is a ridiculous ‘story’. Actually, it f@#king embarrassing.
dover_beach
20 Jul 12 at 4:41 pm
Not true. Regional fares are all economy, last I heard.
Abu Chowdah
20 Jul 12 at 4:42 pm
Sam, Abu, under the DFAT EA, its basically economy: internal, business: international.
Of course, that’s only staff covered by the EA, which doesn’t include DFAT SES (one of the most ‘entitled’ groups in the APS) who would have separate arrangements in their individual employment agreements. I somehow can’t imagine a DFAT Band 2 flying economy to, e.g., Brisbane!
Des Deskperson
20 Jul 12 at 4:55 pm
SES flying bidness domestic is, indeed, a rort.
Abu Chowdah
20 Jul 12 at 5:06 pm
AFP fly economy international, but that was part of some WPB thing.
Abu Chowdah
20 Jul 12 at 5:07 pm
I can’t get excited about this.
You’d think if going to the Olympics was a peak life experience you’d spring for your own damn ticket.
Anne
20 Jul 12 at 6:54 pm
Interesting trivia: The US Olympic team receives no government funding.
dover_beach
20 Jul 12 at 6:58 pm
The trouble with a growing number of people, and feminist types in particular is that as soon as something bad or supposedly unfair happens it purely because they are women.
Can’t possibly be any other reason, you know like personal responsibility.
Someone said something bad about Julia, they’re picking on her because she’s a woman, woman sports people don’t get paid as much, that’s because she’s a women, someone gets asked to make the Coffee, that’s because she’s a woman….
Well no it’s not, it’s because she is the f’n secretary.
CraigS
20 Jul 12 at 8:36 pm
You would be safe from any penalties then Peter.
Splatacrobat
20 Jul 12 at 9:03 pm
Lundy is attending the Olympics. Is she travelling First class, Business, or Premium economy in solidarity with her sisters?
Splatacrobat
20 Jul 12 at 9:06 pm
the AOC would pass every dope test, the’re dopes!
johninoxley
21 Jul 12 at 10:38 pm