Julia Gillard slams opposition for misogyny

Interesting. Would like some more explanation from aussiegrans. Politics over there is pretty brutal. Some people judge JG because she has ginger hair, no lips and is thought to have stabbed that smiley, cuddly looking Kevin in the back to get party leadership.
The leader of the opposition seems very unpleasant and very right wing

Oh - I understand now - Kathy Lette was her usual funny self commenting on this on Today prog. Worth re-playing on the website.

Seems the Speaker, a Mr Slipper is in trouble for sexism and the leader of the opposition is trying to distance himself from his mate Slipper. I bet he is now sorry that he opened his mouth after this brilliant speech from Gillard. I suspect that never in the history of a parliamentary democracy has a female PM gone out firing on both cylinders about sexism. Here is the transcript:

www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/transcript-of-julia-gillards-speech-20121010-27c36.html

And I AGREE with her

Wow!

In September Julia Gillard's father died and a radio shock jock made a speech about Julia Gillard's father dying of shame" (over his daughter's policies). There was outrage and many people complained and this idiot lost all of his sponsors.

Yesterday Tony Abbott demanded that Peter Slipper, the Speaker of the House, step down for allegedly sexually harassing an openly gay male staff member in a series of text messages. Abbott then implied that if Julia Gillard defended Slipper (who had previously been a friend of Abbotts) she would be just as sexist as Slipper. Tony Abbott said, 'And every day the prime minister stands in this parliament to defend this Speaker will be another day of shame for this parliament, another day of shame for a government which should already have died of shame.' This was pretty low of Abbott.

Australia has a minority government. This explains why Peter Slipper who was a member of the Liberal Party became the speaker. www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/timeline-of-peter-slipper-as-speaker/story-fncynkc6-1226492361705

Normally Julia Gillard talks in a slow droning voice which makes people switch off. She also is quite happy to lock up refugees and is now going to move Single Parents onto Unemployment Benefits to save the country around $700 million. She is also against Gay Marriage, she said 'that I think for our culture, for our heritage, the Marriage Act and marriage being between a man and a woman has a special status.'

Only recently it was reported that the Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's denied that he intimidated a student rival by punching a wall next to her head during their student days. Tony Abbott will do anything to be Prime Minister (I can't stand him).
www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/abbotts-goon-squad-threw-me-against-a-wall-20120913-25ty2.html#ixzz28yzDWwfc So you can see what type of sexist creep he really is.

If you haven't seen the speech here it is. Well worth watching.

media.smh.com.au/selections/julia-gillards-misogyny--speech-in-full-3701787.html

There was a clip played on the main BBC news prog this morning Faye. "Go girl" as they say in the USA (which is great alliteration, even if it does call girls, women). A forceful delivery reminiscent of Thatcher - but T never uttered a single feminist sentiment that I can remember. Even "our own dear queen" said something vaguely feminist in the last commonwealth conference I seem to recall. But, even if we don't agree with all your policies "Go Julia" - tell it like it is.

The leader of the opposition found it amusing to begin with - but not for long.
She is a great speaker.

I thought it was wonderful, and Kathy Lette brilliant on today. the presenters were squirming at what she was going to say next, well worth listening to again.

Gillard, fed up with the plotting, called a snap leadership vote for the Aussie Labour party just a few months before an election. Called on the loser to leave politics - and she just lost.
Have to say that I hope she gets offered some really interesting job with the UN or similar. She has battled away with those chaps in her own party and of course, damned if you do and damned if you don't, if you are a female politician.
She has also been subjected to a relentless onslaught of sexist rudeness by the opposition in recent months. Jokes about her thighs etc. Last week a radio interviewer tried to get her to admit that her male partner was homosexual (because he is a hairdresser)
I even found an example of a "Julia Gillard is ugly" joke on GN. I was shocked. Remembered why I don't read the jokes thread.

www.gransnet.com/forums/chat/a1193087-More-jokes-needed#24887946

Someone sent me a copy of one of her speaches about immigrants. She said they were welcome but should realise it was a Christian country and should respect that, as the Australians would respect other faiths which obeyed the laws of their adopted country. I believe she went on about learning the language. She certainly knows how to make a dramatic speach. I rather think she does not suffer fools lightly and says so.

I've always rather liked her. She comes across as very capable and certainly seems able to hold her own against the men. To have become PM of Australia is no mean feat and I agree with JessM and hope she goes on to find a meaningful post elsewhere.

I'm glad she challenges misogyny, and I'm sorry she's had it directed at her, but I think she's about as 'trustworthy' a politician as Nick Clegg.

Just so long as she finishes Kate and Wills's baby's red kangaroo I will think no ill of her.
Is it a case of "sour grapes" though to complain after being ousted (if that is the case) when she did the same thing herself? Sauce for the goose etc?

I think so too Gracemum and I found this article regarding Julia Gillard from the Sydney Morning Herald interesting.

I am not a huge fan of either Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, but anything that stops Tony Abbott winning the next election is fine by me.

Many thought her behaviour this week when she was defeated was very dignified gracesmum. She said it had been an honour, and it would be easier for the female PMs who came after her.
Suspect the red kanga knitting was something PR talked her into. Female politicians are damned if they do and damned if they don't aren't they. Play hardball like the men - they are unfeminine. Play the knitting card - they're compromising feminist principles/appearing non-serious.
Rudd gets away with stuff because he has a smily avuncular appearance. Gillard has been endlessly criticised for how she looks.
I do worry about my GKds growing up in such a sexist society.
I remember my mother commenting years ago that once a female politician was turned on, the knives would really be out with a vengeance. She was predicting the rapid downfall of Thatcher and also of Currie. Can you imagine any of today's male politicians careers ending over something like the salmonella in eggs thing? They would bluster a bit and maybe move to another ministry is all.
Abbot is a worm isn't he Faye.

Yes Abbott is a worm JessM and God (if there is one somewhere out there) help Australia if he does win the next election.

Abbott would be an absolute disaster for us all. I've been researching him and I hate what I've found; he is far worse than I realised.

He's a fundamentalist Catholic who does not believe in the separation of church and state; he is a self-confessed habitual liar, a known misogynist, a bully, a pugilist of the worst kind, was an indifferent student who nevertheless got a Rhodes scholarship through recommendation of a top Catholic cleric, he shagged around as a student himself, but expected his daughters to remain virgins till married.....the list of nastiness, hypocrisy, and right wing ratbaggery goes on. Bob Hawke * (a former PM) saw right through him, calling him 'madder than a cut snake'.

He will ruin our international reputation, and cause the country irreparable harm.

But I have a sneaky suspicion his party knows all this, and if there is any way they can engineer it, they'll get Malcolm Turnbull (previous Coalition leader) back.

Some Tony Abbott quotes - there are lots more, just as bad:

‘Bad bosses, like bad fathers and husbands, should be tolerated because they do more good than harm’

‘I think it would be folly to expect that women will ever dominate or even approach equal representation in a large number of areas simply because their aptitudes, abilities and interests are different for physiological reasons’

On climate change:
‘Climate change is absolute crap’

As a student:
Student council president Barbara Ramjan chaired SRC meetings. She did not want to be called “Mr Chairman” but preferred “chairperson”. For an entire year, Abbott called Ramjan “chairthing” whenever he addressed her at SRC meetings.

730 report (about his lying)
Well, again Kerry, I know politicians are gonna be judged on everything they say, but sometimes, in the heat of discussion, you go a little bit further than you would if it was an absolutely calm, considered, prepared, scripted remark, which is one of the reasons why the statements that need to be taken absolutely as gospel truth is those carefully prepared scripted remarks.... (he goes on ad nauseam trying to justify his many lies)

On sex before marriage
"I would say to my daughters, if they were to ask me this question, I would say...it is the greatest gift that you can give someone, the ultimate gift of giving and don’t give it to someone lightly, that is what I would say."

Just seen this post joan seems I was being unfair to worms. They just crawl around quietly doing good. Surely to goodness he won't get in? Will he?

Joan - shagging around has not done Boris Johnson much harm! And it seemed to make Berlusconi positively attractive to Italians. I hope the macho culture of Australia won't triumph over common sense.

Greatnan, we don't have a good history of common sense triumphing over macho idiocy. As for serial shagging - Bob Hawke (our former and best Labour PM) was a prolific expert at this, but he was no hypocrite; we all knew and he never pretended to be otherwise. But Abbott is an absolute hypocrite. He also looks like an anorexic rat, so no-one would fancy him anyway.