It was one of those moments that made you feel deeply, wonderfully proud to be Australian.
The then Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott had been needling Prime Minister Julia Gillard for months – years, even – in his ‘everyman’ attempt to drag politics down to the gutter and keep it whimpering there.
Nothing was off-limits for him, it seemed: particularly her sex. A woman! In politics! Who would have dreamed of such an occurrence Certainly not Abbott and his cronies, still firmly rooted in the testosterone-laden locker room of Australian politics of the ’60s and White Australia.
Women should look good, and shut up, that’s the impression male throwbacks like Tony Abbott give. (He might change his policies at the drop of an opinion poll but that’s one thing he’s fairly solid on.) He’d also do stuff, like campaign in front of posters bearing the slogan “Ditch the witch”.
Something had irked Abbott, or – more likely – he saw an opportunity to score another cheap political point, something to do with the Speaker’s demeanour. It doesn’t really matter what now – but Abbott decided that the House needed a lecture on sexism.
Enough was enough. Gillard rose, and famously declaimed (with more passion then she’d exhibited in her previous three years in charge): “I will not be lectured on sexism and misogyny by this man; I will not”. She then proceeded to tear him apart, every which way.
How we all cheered. The female Prime Minister directly addressing the issue of gender discrimination that continues to plague public life in Australia. Um… didn’t we Well no actually.
The Australian wrote:
“Is it possible for a political party and a prime minister to have more egg on their collective faces than Labor and Julia Gillard do right now”
The Age wrote:
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“The screeching of the most senior members of the Gillard government and the Abbott opposition yesterday was the sound of Australia’s Parliament scraping the bottom of its barrel …”
