Tonight is the 30th and final Annual Ernie Awards for sexist remarks, with all 330 seats for the gala dinner at the NSW Parliament House filled out. The event sold out within four days, with some of the attendees including one former Premier, two former Deputy Premiers and even Ernie Ecob’s niece.
What had started out as a lunch to celebrate the resignation of the notorious sexist secretary of the old Shearer’s Union, Ernie Ecob in 1993 had soon grown into the Ernie Awards that founder Dr Meredith Burgmann is happy to finish off with a bang.
“For thirty years we have toiled away exposing the sexism and foolishness of public figures. It is hard work and, like Ash Barty, we would like to quit while on top,” she said.
This year, there were 208 nominations across the six categories. Some are standard categories like media, political, judicial, and industrial. Others get a special name, like the Warney for sports, the Fred for clerical/celebrity, the Elaine for the “least helpful remarks to the sisterhood.”
For men who have behaved better, there is the Good Ernie trophy. Repeated offenders, however, are given the Trump, originally named the Clinton until 2017. The winners are then decided by the crowd, who are to boo their loudest at each remark.
While there are skilled judges on the side to measure the audience’s volume of disdain for the remarks, Burgmann assures that the final result is usually accepted.
One of the nominees in the political category is former Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. Photo: Josh Frydenberg/Facebook
“I don’t deny there is some suspect deal making on the side but mostly the final result is accepted,” she said.
City Hub spoke with Burgmann who reminisced about the most memorable moments throughout the last thirty years of the Ernie Awards.
“One year after Senator Bill Heffernan was announced as the Gold Ernie winner for his “deliberately barren” remark about the then Prime Minister Julia Gillard, he rang me the next day and demanded to know what was wrong with his statement,” she said.
“He defended himself saying “I’m an old farmer, I know what happens with cows and bulls and rams and ewes.”
When asked why this was the last Ernie Awards, Burgmann stated that the new Albanese government was one of the reasons. She also attributed the slow disappearance of some of the biggest sexists and misogynists’ public figures as another.
“All of the main men, Shane Warne, John Howard, Piers Akerman and now Scott Morrison are basically taken care of. So there’s no real need for us anymore,” she said.
Some of the nominees for this year include Angus Taylor for repeatedly calling deputy speaker Sharon Claydon ‘Mr Speaker’ and continuing to do so five more times after being corrected. Former Liberal senator, Eric Abetz for his comment on being relegated to third on the Senate ticket.
