FROM WOKE, ACT

“FOR FAR TOO long male aggression has corrupted our armed forces, it’s time for a change.”

These are the words said to lead off a new Australian Federal Government White Paper on the culture of the Australian Defence Force. The leaked document is purported to be a call for a complete overhaul of the “activities and traditions of the military, both at home and abroad to counter the culture of armed aggression that has poisoned the military”. One line is said to state: “Violence is at the core of their culture, and this cannot be allowed to continue”.

The White Paper is presently doing the rounds among Government support groups, including sympathetic cross-benchers.

“We’ve just got to get away from this whole violence thing,” says Bruce Muttonhed, a Labor contributor to the debate. “It’s disgusting. We’re sending our soldiers out trained to be violent. And then they use force wherever they go. In this day and age, there is no room for this kind of behavior. It’s gotta stop.”

Sympathetic Green Party activist Livilla Mastyrbite told a private meeting of Labor, Teal and Green activists, that “if the Government doesn’t eliminate the culture of male aggression in the armed forces, then someone, somewhere is going to get hurt.”

It is expected that the White Paper will lead to legislation but no one in the Government would say whether in this Parliament or the next.