Australia's Parliamentary Secretary for Men's Behaviour Change

Misbehaving men will surely respond to the exhortations of this new ministry

A couple of weeks ago, Premier Jacinta Allan (of the Australian State of Victoria) announced a new parliamentary secretary who will undertake the difficult task of educating boys and men to have more positive and respectful attitudes towards women. State lawmaker Tim Richardson has been appointed Inaugural Secretary for Men’s Behaviour Change. His efforts will be primarily be directed at internet and social media messaging.

For a while I’ve thought that public campaigns to convince men to quit being “toxically masculine” are not intended to succeed, but are meant primarily as a mechanism for corporate advertising executives and politicians to virtue signal.

Think about it: if you are a genuinely “toxic” boy or man, are you really going to respond to exhortations emanating from the Office of the Parliamentary Secretary for Men’s Behavior Change?

I was nine years old when the first Mad Max film was released in 1979. Watching the mayhem of the Nightrider, Toecutter, and Bubba, I remember thinking that Australian men were setting a new standard for wild, reckless, and lawless behavior. Though I did not approve of their violent crime, I admired their general air of rebelliousness. It’s funny to think of these guys changing their ways after seeing messages from Jacinta Allan’s new office.

In the following scene “Toecutter”—the head of the motorcycle gang—and his fellow members go to the train station to pick up the remains of their fallen hero, “The Nightrider.”