feminist news round-up 10.04.16

NSW police officers found trolling Greens MP online
Lovely. It has been discovered that serving members of the NSW Police Force trolled Greens MP Jenny Leong on Facebook with racist and sexist comments. The member for Newtown was attacked with racist and lewd messages after she introduced a bill to the NSW lower house to end the use of drug detection dogs in public spaces without a warrant. A spokesman for the NSW Police Force said that they were in the early stages of investigating the posts, after Ms Leong had referred the matter to the Police Integrity Commission.

Afghan Sesame Street introduces hijab-clad local character
The Afghan adaptation of the beloved children’s show Sesame Street has created a new Muppet for the show. Her name is Zari, she’s six years old and wears the hijab. Zari’s role on the show will be to talk about ‘girl empowerment, social and emotional wellbeing’. Yay!

Calls for more cultural diversity within federal Labor
Jennifer Yang, a Chinese-Australian woman who has just won preselection for the third spot on Labor’s Victorian Senate ticket, has called for increased cultural diversity in the federal Labor Party. Ms Yang said it was important to have a diverse range of candidates to prove that minorities have a valued voice and influence. This coincides with the formation of Poliversity, a group that aims to support culturally diverse candidates for Labor preselection and encourage MPs to work more with multicultural communities.

Rick Scott releases ad attacking woman who yelled at him in Starbucks
After Cara Jennings yelled at Florida governor Rick Scott in a Starbucks for cutting Medicaid, his official political action committee has funded an ad calling her ‘terribly rude’ and an anarchist. By the way, she doesn’t hold public office or anything. Mature.

Daily Telegraph columnist accused of mocking domestic violence leave
The Daily Telegraph has published a blog post by writer Tim Blair in poor taste, joking that ABC staff want domestic violence leave in their workplace agreement because the corporation is a ‘bloodhouse’ and employees abuse each other at home. Blair also insinuated that the agreement was because ABC employs an unusually high number of domestic violence victims.The Guardian notes that domestic violence clauses are common in industrial agreements nowadays.