"Mate" banned from Parliament
By NICOLETTE BURKE
August 19, 2005
THE affectionate Australian term "mate" has been banned from the hallways of Federal Parliament.
In a move branded "un-Australian", Parliament House security guards have been given a directive that they are no longer to call people "mate".
Instead, they have been issued with a written order to refer to members, senators, staff and members of the public as "sir" or "ma'am".
Security staff have told The Daily Telegraph the order came in their morning briefing, after a complaint by an unnamed Commonwealth department head.
Prime Minister John Howard was visibly unimpressed by the ban after the matter was raised in Question Time yesterday. A spokesman later said the PM, who uses the term himself, thought it was "absurd and impractical to prohibit the use of the word".
The guards' union, politicians and prominent Australians yesterday spoke out at the edict, saying it was creating a class divide between parliamentarians and the security workers, in the "parliamentary palace of pretension".
"We're all laughing about it – and so are the senators I've spoken to this morning. It's a bit much," said one guard based in the Senate wing.
"It's pretty ridiculous to have that level of formality enforced. We work with these people every day, we know their names and we have a chat in the hallway."
Department of Parliamentary Services Secretary Hilary Penfold said yesterday a reminder had gone out in the daily briefings for security staff to be courteous to people they encountered in the building, but she denied the ruling was the result of a specific incident.
"PSS officers are requested to treat any visitor to Parliament House with respect and courtesy and not address them as 'mate' or use similar colloquialisms," the notice read.
The Commonwealth and Public Sector Union, which represents the security staff, said the policy had a "master and servant" feel, and was un-Australian.
"It's heavy-handed and it's over-the-top," said CPSU spokesman Stephen Jones.
"The workers who are . . . protecting Parliament House should have the same rights as everyone else.
"Our members who work here are ordinary Australians, and they treat their colleagues with due respect.
"We don't think there's any lack of respect in using the word 'mate'."
Mateship last came to a matter of national debate during the 1999 constitutional convention, when Mr Howard pushed to have it included in the constitutional preamble.
Opposition Leader Kim Beazley said workers should not be forced to be so deferential to their colleagues within Parliament.
"This is John Howard's Australia," he said.
This is getting ridiculous. Today's society is so unnecessarily over-sensitive about every little thing. I've come to the conclusion that people don't actually get offended anymore, they don't actually feel any sort of emotional distress or pain over anything. Instead, their lives revolve around waiting for that perfect opportunity to catch someone out, to whine about something so as to feel important and justified and above someone else. It's weak and pathetic and it's going to ruin the fucking world.
