Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce did not spare the blushes of question time this week, when he read into Hansard an obscene taunt attributed to former CFMEU official Luke Collier.
"Mr Luke Collier called a female inspector an f'ing s-blank-t, asking her if she had brought kneepads as 'you're going to be sucking off these f'ing dogs all day'," the Deputy Prime Minister said.
Joyce was halted by the Speaker, who said he had "strayed beyond what's acceptable", but his point was made: The construction industry is populated by too many lawless, abusive misogynists who have been able to act with impunity. The government's ABCC legislation is intended to clean it up.
As I listened, I was struck by how neatly Collier's remark typified the rageful counter-attack of the much-discussed angry white male, robbed of job and status, against the forces he believes are victimising him.
The following day, in the more-genteel environment of the Melbourne Economic Forum, economists gathered to mull over the crisis of a different industry dominated by white blue-collar men – manufacturing.
Independent economist and University of Tasmania vice-chancellor's fellow Saul Eslake said there was an unchallenged bipartisan consensus that making something "you can drop on your foot" is inherently nobler and more worthy than the "sheilas' work" of service jobs, like nursing or cooking food.
"Kevin Rudd said he didn't want to be prime minister of a country that didn't make things," Eslake told me in a conversation after the forum.
"This idea is shared across the political divide. Making something is seen as intrinsically more worthy than services, which are derided as flipping burgers or taking in someone's washing."
The problem for the much-derided angry white man is that he can rage all he likes but it won't change the inexorable forces of jobs growth.
Manufacturing accounts for about 7 per cent of GDP and services account for 70 per cent. The smart move for job hunters is into the services industry, and sensible politicians will help men make this transition.
So far, we haven't seen much of that, for all Malcolm Turnbull's talk of innovation and agility.
Politicians have instead sought to appease these blue-collar workers by propping up ship-building in South Australia, as the Turnbull government and Nick Xenophon Team have done, or by prolonging life support for the car manufacturing industry, as previous Labor governments have done.
Donald Trump rode to power promising to restore manufacturing jobs in the United States rust belt, an economically impossible task.
But these backward-looking pledges only betray the men they purport to help, says Janine Dixon, a Victoria University economist who also addressed the Melbourne Economic Forum.
"We need to help people, not industries," Dixon says.
"Politicians are doing people a disservice, giving them the false hope that the type of manufacturing jobs that were around a generation ago will still be around in the future.
"For young people, there is still a chance to train for something else."
The problem is, rightly or wrongly, for a certain type of man, there is no masculine credit in nursing, or cooking food, or helping the elderly and disabled go to the toilet with dignity, or cleaning other people's houses, or manning the till at a department store.
These are all chicks' jobs.
Service jobs also tend to be more casualised, and less secure, than the old-school job for life at the local manufacturing plant, the kind of job that could support a wife and children.
Casualised and part-time work tends to be lower paid, but often suits women who have (unpaid) caring responsibilities at home.
But this is precisely where things could get really exciting.
Maybe this slow economic revolution could usher in an equality revolution.
Consider it – the more men who enter these service and caring industries, the more likely the provision of services will be seen as "noble", worthwhile work, which is also deserving of a decent wage.
The casual nature of this work, while inherently insecure, might also have an upside for men.
If you have days off during the week, or your work day finishes at 3pm, you are more likely to be around to pick up the children from school, or to sit in on your daughter's ballet practice.
Men will finally be able to share the daily joys that come with being entwined with their children's routines (as well as the frustrations, of course).
As argued by lawyer and foreign policy expert Anne-Marie Slaughter, men and women will achieve true equality only when we start valuing care, socially and financially. We could easily add "service" to that formula.
This means men have to step into traditionally female roles and claim them. It also means that women have to let men into those roles, and not send them the message that their masculinity is compromised if they do so.
Lastly, it requires politicians to stop offering false hope to men whose identity and self-worth is tied up in industries and ways of life that are on the decline.
Even if there are oodles of votes in false hope.
Twitter: @JacquelineMaley
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