In Australia, the disgusting Defence Minister (you know, the one who couldn't figure out how to do an elbow properly) blasted some members of the Army because on IDAHOBIT Day, they held a morning tea where they dressed in Rainbow colours. That disgusting individual said that the defence forces would be, "pursuing a woke, leftist agenda." One of the equally disgusting things said by an Australian, was by Alf Garland, who said that in war, you want the bloke beside you to tell you where the enemy is and have your back, not tell you he loves you.

I don't care if someone tells me that I'm woke because I vehemently disagree with both those individuals, but I want to say this. The role of the Defence Minister is to ensure that there is adequate funding for the Defence Forces in peacetime, and in wartime, not to micromanage the Army, Navy or Air Force. Secondly, there have been MANY and I mean, MANY, LGBTIQA people who have either lived a heterosexual facade, or a lonely life, who have put their lives on the line for their country.

I remember a journalist, when it came to one of these matters, interviewing an Australian World War Two veteran, who was gay, who had a Japanese partner (male) and he wanted to get a spouse card for his partner. The journalist told him that it was ironic that he, as a Pacific Theatre War Veteran, had a Japanese partner, and I thought, "Not really. I mean, in 1952, then Australian Immigration Minister, Harold Holt, allowed the Japanese War Brides of Australian servicemen to enter, exempt from the Dictation test, and that was 7 years after the war, not 58!

It's one thing to go back and say that some of Enid Blyton's work has to be rewritten, or Roald Dahl's work, or to change the language. I know it may not be quite the same, but I remember learning The Sloop John B at school, and it was changed from, "Well, the First Mate, He got Drunk, Broke in the Captain's Trunk, Constable had to come and take him away," to, "Well, the First Mate, He got sad, Feelin' Awfully Bad, The constable had to come and take him away." Even in Year Five, most of us knew what drunk meant! But it's quite another to say, "Oh, you can't read that book."

One thing we have to remember is that, if we take Hamlet as an example, there weren't a lot of POCs in Denmark at the time it was written. And, yes, it's fine to lament the fact that there aren't any POCs in Pride and Prejudice or other works of the time, but there might not have been very many at the time that those books were written. And, to take To Kill A Mockingbird as another example, the language, no matter how offensive, it gives an insight into the attitudes of the time. Let's not forget, Tom Robinson was unjustly accused of rape, and was convicted on account of the fact that he was a POC.