Federal parliament is sitting this week amid protests from various groups
The Morrison government is deeply unpopular and the personal apology heard yesterday from the Prime Minister to Brittany Higgins shows how badly he needs to repair his image with female voters.
There's been a perception that Morrison doesn't take personal responsibility for many things, so the messaging seems clear when he identifies oversight of a workplace where Ms Higgins was allegedly assaulted.
Last year Higgins spoke at a large protest by women outside Parliament House and today she'll be addressing the Press Club.
Morrison was so obviously trying to appeal to women with his hair-washing stunt.
So gender will be the topic on many agendas this week.
The debate in parliament of religious freedoms will have a similar focus, particularly the question whether religious schools should have the right to expel trans students.
This subject is interesting to me because it highlights a looming division among voters and it is one as stark as the presentation of gender differences.
Let me recall a local scene around the time of the last election.
I was chairing a public meeting that was attended by representatives of all three levels of government.
There were a group of candidates for an upcoming election and it surprised me that one challenger quipped that on the subject of gender fluidity they "didn't want any gender fluid in high schools."
This simple gag substitutes sex and gender and, while it's a kind of dogwhistle in politics, it also reveals a fundamental misunderstanding about issues including trans students.
I think shows a generation gap.
One of my majors at university was cultural studies, so I've researched differences of sex and gender in various departments.
Yet I often feel how difficult it is to navigate gender fluidity, particularly in conversations with my children.
Kids today are so much more capable when it comes to recognising this terrain.
Mine seem to have many more trans friends than I do.
So this gender gap that I've observed will be interesting to watch as it plays out in conversations at Parliament House ahead of an election.
Australian voters are on the cusp of an interesting shift, possibly as soon as the next election.
It's simple demographics that the ageing Baby Boomers are losing their grasp on Australian public life and Australian voters will soon be dominated by the upcoming echo of the baby boom they are named after.
Politics is often a series of wedge topics designed to identify divisions and I think the religious discrimination bill has further alienated the Coalition government.
