I’m so disappointed.

The award for Australian of the Year has gone to Ian Frazer, the creator of a vaccine that is 100% effective against human papilloma virus, which causes cervical cancer. One hundred percent.

So why am I disappointed? Two reasons.

First, a Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce has tried to dampen the enthusiasm by citing concerns that the fear of HPV might be the only thing holding teenagers back from indiscriminate fornication.

“There might be an overwhelming (public) backlash from people saying, ‘don’t you dare put something out there that gives my 12-year-old daughter a licence to be promiscuous’,” he said.

Senator Joyce – who has four daughters – said he would be “personally very circumspect” about giving such a vaccine to girls who were too young to cope with the potential consequences of sexual activity.

If you’ve been paying attention, you may be saying “Wait, didn’t this happen two months ago?”

Yep, but it’s happening again now. Senator Joyce has blundered into exactly the same rhetoric that the Christian Right used waaay back then. They have learned nothing. And that’s the second reason I’m disappointed.

Smarter idiots, please.