The Today show host says Australia needs to wake up to the way that it treats women.
Lisa Wilkinson, 55, is one of this country’s most respected journalists, with more than 36-years of media experience. When she speaks, Australia listens.
In an interview with Sunday Life magazine today, Lisa Wilkinson gets straight to the heart of what is wrong:
“We’ve got a crisis in this country when it comes to domestic violence; our figures, shamefully, are that one woman dies every week at the hands of a partner,” she said. “We need a minister for women who is not also our prime minister. And we have a gender pay gap that’s the largest it’s been in 20 years. We need to focus on these issues.”
Lisa is not afraid to call out sexism where she finds it. And that’s something she attributes to the strength she found after being horribly bullied at Campbelltown Highschool in her teens.
She told Sunday Life: “I can remember it as if it was yesterday,” she says, “walking out of the gates, and making a decision that never again in my life would I allow someone else to determine who I was and what I was capable of.”
Since then, Lisa’s career has been characterised by an unstoppable work ethic and a straight-talking style, which has seen her challenge injustice – even at the highest levels.
In February, she accused Tony Abbott of hypocrisy on Q&A. According to Lisa, his claim that the Gillard government was nothing more than “broken promises” was ironic considering Abbott’s cuts to the pension, education and the public broadcasting sector.
She also has no time for interviewees who hedge and use political double-talk. Last month, Lisa interviewed Social Services Minister Scott Morrison to talk about his leadership goals, only to end the interview with “like all politicians, you’re very good at not answering the question.”