Ernie Awards

History

Description

Winners

Gold Ernie

• 1993: Joe de Bruyn, National Secretary, Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association: "All childcare subsidies should be removed and reallocated to women who stayed home to mind their children."
• 1994: Terry Griffiths, former New South Wales Liberal minister : "I honestly believe that my personal behaviour was in a family mode. They're like my own kids. I'm a toucher... I have a habit of touching people in that regard. I'm old fashioned."
• 1995: Justice John Gallop, Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court : "Our jails would be full if we locked up everyone who did this."
• 1996: Magistrate Ron Gething, Magistrates Court of Western Australia : "I don't think he was intimidating her, he was just being persistent. He was like a little puppy dog wagging its tail."
• 1997: Michael Knight, New South Wales state Minister for the Olympics : "Appointments are made on merit, not sex."
• 1998: Judge Nigel Clarke, District Court of Western Australia : "Indulgence is a pleasurable, curiosity-satisfying activity by an intelligent precocious girl."
• 1999: "Magistrate #1" : "Women cause a lot of problems by nagging, bitching and emotionally hurting men. Men cannot bitch back for hormonal reasons, and often have no recourse but violence."
• 2000: Nick Bideau, ex-coach and partner of Cathy Freeman: "I never turned away from Cathy... no matter how fat she was in 1997, and even in 1998."
• 2001: John Howard, Prime Minister: for saying that there was "no appropriate woman" for Governor-General.
• 2002: Archbishop George Pell, Catholic Archbishop of Sydney: "Abortion is a worse moral scandal than priests sexually abusing young people."
• 2003: Stellar Call Centre: for docking the pay of a pregnant woman for taking too many toilet breaks.
• 2004: Tooheys: for an advertisement stating "Boys, if you win you can have our sisters".
• 2005: Sheikh Feiz Mohammad, Islamic cleric: "A victim of rape every minute somewhere in the world. Why? No one to blame but herself. She displayed her beauty to the entire world...strapless, backless, sleeveless, nothing but satanic skirts, slit skirts, translucent blouses, miniskirts, tight jeans...to tease man and appeal to his carnal nature."
• 2006: P&O Cruises: for the advertising slogans "More Girls. More Sun. More Fun. There's nothing else a guy needs to know!" and "Seamen Wanted!"
• 2007: Bill Heffernan. New South Wales Liberal Senator: for saying that Julia Gillard was not qualified to lead the country because she is "deliberately barren", and later justifying it with "I won't walk away from that... so rude, crude and attractive as it was... if you're a leader, you've got to understand your community."
• 2008: John Molony: for calling on "beauty-disadvantaged women" to consider moving to the remote Australian mining town of Mount Isa in north-west Queensland where he is mayor. When local women retaliated he replied they were blaming him for his looks.
• 2009: Pastor Danny Nalliah: for blaming the Black Saturday bushfires on Victoria's abortion laws.
• 2010: Students of St. Paul's College, Sydney: for their "Define Statutory" group on Facebook.
• 2011: Herald Sun journalist Andrew Bolt: for saying: "Can the ADF afford this social engineering, in which gender becomes a qualification - and a fault line? What will this do to the tight mate-ship so critical to a fighting unit? Does a woman turn her male colleagues from warriors to escort?"
• 2012: 2GB radio broadcaster Alan Jones: for saying "Women are destroying the joint, Christine Nixon in Melbourne, Clover Moore here, honestly there is no chaff bag big enough for these people."
• 2013: Wesley College, University of Sydney students for distributing stubby holders bearing the words "It's not rape if it's my birthday."
• 2014: Christopher Pyne, for claiming that increases in uni fees won't disproportionately affect women because "women are well-represented amongst the teaching and nursing students. They will not be able to earn the high incomes that dentists and lawyers will earn".
• 2015: Football Federation Australia, for paying the Matildas an annual salary of $21,000 per year, which is below the minimum wage. The women receive $500 for each international game, while their male counterparts in the Socceroos receive $6,000.
• 2016: Barrister Ben Mallick, for defending a taxi driver accused of sexual assault saying, "the attack would not have happened if the woman had sat in the back seat" and the NSW Department of Education, for its policy that experienced teachers who take five years off to raise children should return to work on a graduate salary.
• 2017: Port Stephens mayor Bruce MacKenzie, for pleading guilty to assaulting his partner but still wanting a domestic violence shelter to be named after him.
• 2018: Cricket Australia for sacking a female employee, Angela Williamson after she campaigned for abortion reform on social media.
• 2019: Alan Jones for his on-air comments hoping Scott Morrison would get, "tough here with a few backhanders... She’s a clown, Jacinda Ardern… I just wonder whether Scott Morrison is going to be fully briefed to shove a sock down her throat".
• 2020: Jayson Westbury from the Australian Federation of Travel Agents, for his attack on Tracy Grimshaw.
• 2021: Senator Eric Abetz for comments allegedly made to Sue Hickey, Speaker of the Tasmanian House of Assembly. In March 2020, Hickey told the Tasmanian parliament that Abetz had commented on a rape allegation against Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter by saying "not to worry, the woman is dead and the law will protect him", and then, referring to the alleged rape of Liberal Party junior staffer Brittany Higgins by an unnamed colleague, "as for that Higgins girl, anybody who is so disgustingly drunk who would sleep with anybody, could have slept with one of our spies and put the security of our nation at risk". Abetz denies making these remarks.
• 2022: Journalist Paul Kelly, for declaring that "the women's movement won't decide the next election".

  Silver Ernie – Industrial

• 1994: Lance Jamieson, union official: for using his union-provided credit card at Sydney brothel A Touch of Class.
• 1995: Martin Ferguson, then president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, formerly Labor Minister for Resources, Energy and Tourism: for calling women unionists campaigning for paid maternity leave "hairy legged femocrats"; AWU-FIMEE union for offering members discounts for hiring striptease artists.
• 1996: Law Society of New South Wales
• 1997: Telstra
• 1998: HPM Industries: for sacking 20 male employees whose pay was being compared to their women coworkers on the eve of Industrial Relations Commission hearings on the matter.
• 1999: Steggles: for putting a woman on a roster she could not do because of her family, and opposing her case in court.
• 2000: Michael Costa
• 2001: John Elliott and Mark Mentha
• 2002: Dick Warburton
• 2003: Stellar Call Centre: for docking a pregnant woman $100 for going to the toilet too often.
• 2004: Australia Post: for telling female workers to lose weight if they wanted to attend the opening of a new branch, and for cutting the maternity leave of a woman whose baby was premature.
• 2005: Tara Anglican School for Girls
• 2006: P&O Cruises Australia: for an advertisement saying "Seamen wanted", an ad mentioned in the inquest of Dianne Brimble's death.
• 2007: Inghams: for using a breast awareness week slogan in advertising its chicken breast items.
• 2008: Professor Mark Wooden from the University of Melbourne: for telling a mostly-female audience at a National Press Club discussion "The pay equity gap has got a lot to do with the fact that women are not prepared to work longer hours."
• 2009: NSW Police for forcing an employee to work overtime for every minute she was breastfeeding her baby.
• 2010: Mark McInnes, former CEO of David Jones, and mining executive Clive Palmer.
• 2011: The Australian Defence Force Academy: for charging the woman who was filmed without her knowledge in the Skype sex scandal.
• 2012: David Farley, CEO of Australian Agricultural Company: for, when demonstrating a machine in an abattoir, stating, "it's designed for non-productive old cows. Julia Gillard's got to watch out."
• 2013: Wesley College, University of Sydney students for distributing stubby holders bearing the words "It's not rape if it's my birthday."
• 2014: Wicked Campers, for including slogans such as "Fat girls are harder to kidnap", "In every princess, there's a little slut who wants to try it just once" and "Life sucks if your girlfriend doesn't".
• 2015: Soho Club, for running an advertisement appearing to carry connotations of sexual assault a week after the owner's son, Luke Lazarus, was convicted of rape.
• 2016: The New South Wales Department of Education, for its policy that experienced teachers who take five years off to raise children should return to work on a graduate salary.
• 2017: Ford Australia, for dismissing complaints on the Ford Focus losing power to an issue with the way women drove.
• 2018: Coopers Hotel Newtown, for the Facebook post "Keep calm and slap a bitch as we approach the finals of this year’s NRL!" and Outsiders, for sacking the only woman who worked on the show after criticism of their airing of David Leyonhjelm's attack on Sarah Hanson-Young.
• 2019: John Setka, for claiming domestic violence activist Rosie Batty had caused men to have fewer rights.
• 2020: Jayson Westbury from the Australian Federation of Travel Agents, for his attack on Tracy Grimshaw.
• 2021: General Angus Campbell, Chief of the Defence Force for telling female cadets they could avoid sexual predators by being aware of the "four As: alcohol, out after midnight, alone, and attractive".
• 2022: The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet for designing a women's network logo that bared a resemblance to "a large purple cock and balls".