One Plus One: July 5

Tomorrow on One Plus One, Jane Hutcheon talks to the speechwriter for army chief David Morrison, Lt. Col. Cate McGregor, believed to be the ranking transgender in the Australian Army.

In the wake of the Army’s revelations that soldiers had been stood down and around 100 men are under investigation over allegations of an email sex ring, the Chief of Army David Morrison acted swiftly to end behaviour that he regarded as sexist, demeaning and disrespectful of women.

Lt General Morrison was widely praised for his handling of the sex scandal and insisted the Defence Force had to be an organisation where women feel included.

This week on One Plus One, Jane Hutcheon speaks with someone who’s likely to have influenced his views, David Morrison’s speechwriter Lt. Col. Cate McGregor.

Cate McGregor is believed to be the highest-ranking trans-gender individual in the Army. Until last year, she was Malcolm McGregor. Malcolm was awarded an Order of Australia for his service to the army. Now Malcolm is living as a woman and in the process of gender transition. Cate McGregor has faced what she calls a “drumbeat of personal abuse.”

On One Plus One, Cate appears in army uniform on camera for the first time, she tells Jane Hutcheon that there have been deliberate attempts to drive her out of the military. She has been subjected to online taunts about her continuing role in uniform. Lt Gen. Morrison has refused to accept her resignation.

“I’m causing embarrassment to your office,” the Lieutenant Colonel told her boss, yet “he has unfailingly supported me and insisted that I serve on.”

Regarding the current crisis in the army, Cate McGregor says, “Professionally, he took the view that the army simply could not survive if it became a demographic ghetto, a smoke-stack industry in a changing world. He knew that there needed to be more women in the army…that if you were physically and mentally good enough to be a soldier, then the army wanted you and he’s rigorously enforced that, whether on grounds of gender, race or sexuality.”

Friday 11.30am ABC1
Friday 8.30pm ABC News 24
Repeated: Saturday 5.30pm, Sunday 9.30 pm and Monday 2.30 pm on ABC News 24