Law and Politics are tough, and over the last month I have had a healthy dose of law, politics and toughness.

Some politicians, usually men, have worked hard to trash my reputation. Heck, if you’re in politics you have to cop that stuff on the chin.

You know, some men even claim that I was never even a Barrister! While other men claim that I never even worked in the law. Heaven forbid, a blonde Barrister cum politician having skills?

These claims about my career have been made since I entered politics. They make me chuckle. Some of the claims emanate from the fact that I have never been a member of the Bar Association. I mean where do people get off, don’t they realise I don’t like unions? The law is not a closed shop; the Bar Association is not compulsory for Barristers to join.

The men of the hierarchy making these claims about my career are usually bullies, desperate to trash women and keep female achievements in the closet.

Women like me usually threaten these men’s relevance. What these men say is usually a reflection about themselves.

I worked hard at establishing my career in law. In fact before I was elected to Beaudesert Shire Council law was my life, as I studied and worked towards achieving justice for people that were cast aside or chewed up by the system.

While I was gaining my experience most of my work was pro bono. I had to build experience, and am grateful for the lessons it taught me. The law is a firm grounding for politics. I represented clients in tough negotiations seeking justice, not dissimilar to what I do now.

I appeared before the Beenleigh and Inala Magistrate Courts on behalf of clients; both courts are tough environments where I represented people who were desperate and seeking justice. All of this was done as I undertook my pupilage under the direction of Mr Russell Tacon. Court records show my advocacy; it’s funny how critics can find court papers referencing me in QCAT proceedings but not papers showing where I appeared for clients!

The law is as tough as politics. They are both a gamble, and reputations can be made or shattered in seconds on the whim of the media or other individuals with power.

Career gambles are a part of life though, and if you don’t like the heat, then get out of the kitchen. What grates on me most however is arbitrary justice, usually dispensed by people in the hierarchy with little sense of the real world. Arbitrary justice by men without an understanding of the real world is what people find distasteful about politics and for that matter the law.

Not that my views are rooted in feminism. As Margaret Thatcher said, “I owe nothing to Women’s Lib”. My views are firmly rooted in distaste for incompetence, and to me it seems the very people that our state and country need at the moment have lost their way. At least the ALP recently recognised this.

It takes people with real substance to speak out. For what it’s worth, I’m doing my part even if it makes me a target. But that’s the price of having real character.