Everyone Is Stumped Over Why Kochie Was A Panellist At The Women’s Safety Summit
Meanwhile, Brittany Higgins was left off the speaker list.
Everyone is scratching their heads over why David “Kochie” Koch was invited to speak at the Women’s Safety Summit this week, when notable names in the domestic violence movement were absent.
The Sunrise host sat on a panel titled ‘Violence against women is everybody’s business’ on Monday, as part of two day event aiming to end violence against women and children.
Kochie copped backlash for his appearance for sexist comments made in the past, including telling women to be “more discreet and modest” about public breastfeeding in 2013.
His contribution at the summit was to highlight educating teenage boys through sports organisations about respecting women. “I’m a firm believer that if you can start to influence right in those formative years, then you’re making real progress into the future,” the Port Adelaide Football Club chairman said.
David Koch! You have to be kidding, whoever organised this summit has to be having a joke with us. David Koch! A bloke with no qualifications on anything remotely concerned with women’s safety is at a summit on women’s safety because he is a celebrity & runs a footy club. Insane.
— HBells🔔 (@Hbells2525) September 7, 2021
Teaching young men about gendered abuse in their formative years is an idea that has been pushed by advocates like Chanel Contos for months.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s keynote speech was also criticised for tokenism, with fellow speaker Grace Tame calling out how he “appropriated private disclosures from survivors to leverage his own image”.
David Koch! You have to be kidding, whoever organised this summit has to be having a joke with us. David Koch! A bloke with no qualifications on anything remotely concerned with women’s safety is at a summit on women’s safety because he is a celebrity & runs a footy club. Insane.
— HBells🔔 (@Hbells2525) September 7, 2021
All the while, vital activists like Brittany Higgins were shut out of the speaker list, despite the summit only being called after her sexual assault in Parliament House allegation came to light in February.