Have you noticed..

[alice]

I don't particularly like Julia or Tony, so I'm not saying this from the point of any political persuasuon.
But the Tony-Abbott-is-sexist is a good political ploy and stirs up people so that they forget/overlook things - Julia looks good, Tony looks bad, and we don't look any further at what's been happening. (all our political news coverage is focussed on debating/discussing this whole misogynist topic).

Julia is currently surfing a waver of sympathy because of her father's death and then that dickhead Alan Jones making ridiculous comments, trying to use her dad's death as a political slur.
While she's riding the wave, she's pushing this old chestnut about Tony - a man with 3 daughters and a progressive outlook regarding women, as evidenced by his good political history regarding these matters.

I agree with the views expressed by Julia Bishop on this matter - and I wish both Julia and Tony would stop playing primary school games and point scoring, and start actually working for the long term good of Australia. Or that both Julia and Tony would quit their positions and put better people in change ... sadly, I'm not sure, in either party, who the 'better people' would be :

Deputy Opposition leader Julie Bishop demands PM Julia Gillard apologise for labelling Tony Abbott a misogynist From: AAP October 13, 2012 2:22PM

Related Coverage
Labor backs off from gender wars NEWS.com.au, 1 hour ago
Speaker condemns 'underlying sexism' The Australian, 48 minutes ago
Misogyny tactic will backfire The Australian, 48 minutes ago
Labor failed its own sexism test: Bishop NEWS.com.au, 16 hours ago
Abbott a woman-hater, says Swan The Australian, 17 hours ago
.. End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.

FEDERAL Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop has called on PM Julia Gillard to withdraw her fiery comments made in parliament this week, in which she labelled Tony Abbott a misogynist.
"It is a vile slur, she should apologise to the women in Tony Abbott's life, and she should withdraw it,'' Ms Bishop said in a speech to the Liberal Party's Victorian State Council in Ballarat today.

Laurie Oakes: Misogyny's a hit for badass Julia Gillard
Ms Bishop opened her speech - in which she accused the Prime Minister of hiding behind her gender - with an address directly to the party's female members and candidates.
Wendy Tuohy: Julia Bishop's apology call: Bizarre
"You are here because of your qualities, you are here because you've been judged on your merits, you are not (here) because you're part of a quota system, and the Liberal party is proud of you,'' she said, drawing rapturous applause.
Labor vs. Liberal in sexism debate

Labor vs. Liberal in sexism debateBoth sides have their say on Labor's claims Tony Abbott is a misogynist.
The Australian11 October 2012

..Noting that Ms Gillard's remarks on Tuesday went viral across the globe, Ms Bishop said many people were missing the fact that the PM had been defending then-speaker Peter Slipper, who has since stepped down after his "vile'' text messages referring to women's genitalia were made public.
"Would women around the world be applauding if they knew her speech was in defence of the indefensible?'' Ms Bishop said.
Ms Bishop defended Mr Abbott's personal and political record on women, describing him as a loving son, husband, brother and father of three daughters.
She pointed out that in his time as health minister with the Howard government, he focused on women's health issues including a free national cervical cancer vaccine and a centre for gynaecological cancers.
While workplace relations minister, he steered the Women in the Workplace Equal Opportunity Act through parliament, she said.

Ms Gillard tore into Tony Abbott calling him a sexist and a misogynist in Parliament. Picture: Kym Smith
.Ms Bishop said Ms Gillard could not blame gender or Mr Abbott for her government's failures and backflips on the carbon and mining taxes, live cattle exports, border protection and the state of the nation's finances.
She said the Labor government had spending, taxing "in its DNA'', and that it would be left to a coalition government to bail the country out of hundreds of billions of dollars in debt.
"We've done it before and we'll do it again,'' Ms Bishop said.
Speaking before flying to Jakarta, where she'll join Mr Abbott along with opposition agricultural and immigration portfolio holders, Ms Bishop said Australia had vast opportunities to expand its trade with Indonesia and other countries in the Asia Pacific.
She hailed Mr Abbott's recently announced policy of a government funded two-way student exchange with the regions' nations. The policy draws from a 1950s Menzies-era initiative, and Ms Bishop said it would be a signature policy of a coalition government that would create "incalculable'' benefits for Australia.

Julia Gillard should apologise for "vile slur" branding Opposition Leader Tony Abbott a misogynist, says his deputy Julie Bishop.
.The country needs a coalition government now more than ever to "restore pride to this great country'', she said.

http://www.news.com.au/national/deputy- ... 6494914499

I don't know how to do the video link...
http://video.news.com.au/2289581329/Lab ... ism-debate

[The Hen]

It just doesn't work that way in politics, Alice.

Julia has probably built herself, and her party, a good lead in the polls.

She played the opening and she played it well..There is a nuance and dance behind scenes that maybe appear as a mystery. But it is planned, strategised, and totally scripted.

Tony played and lost with his Motion.

Jules scores 7 poll points.

Never forget it is a game of strategy.

Much is behind the scenes and apparently petty.

[TPFKA@W]

Why is there no Special Ed forum on here?

I presume that is directed at me.

Clever fellow. Keep doing that well and you might get a cookie.

[Andrew D]

And yet another member of the Great Liberal Conspiracy strikes:

Republican vice-presidential hopeful Paul Ryan - a Wisconsin congressman - has withdrawn his endorsement of Rivard due to the comments, his campaign said on Thursday.

[liberty]

Why is there no Special Ed forum on here?

I presume that is directed at me.

Clever fellow. Keep doing that well and you might get a cookie.

You think I would eat a cookie provided by you? I might be retarded, but I am not stupid.

[rubato]

Was it wrong of me in the middle of her Motion response to think "Oh Julia! That salmon top, blue jacket and your hair AREN'T a good combination."?

(I'll change me name to Mr Rabbit immediately.)

What? You think she should have a better fashion sense than a man would?

SEXIST!

Very good speech, btw.

yrs,
rubato

[Jarlaxle]

I'm Welsh.


(She sounds more Kath and Kim than Nessa though.)

But HE is the one who manages to post 12-letter words with no vowels. I thought he was Welsh and you were Australian? Or is Gob Australian? Or am I confused. (Actually, no need to answer that: I am perfectly willing to admit I am very confused.)

[TPFKA@W]

but I am not stupid.

But your reading skills are not quite up to snuff. I never said the cookie would be from me. I would not waste a perfectly good cookie on you.

[Jarlaxle]

*ears perk up*

Send unwanted cookies here, please.

[The Hen]

Very good speech, btw.

yrs,
rubato

Wasn't it just?

Part of my job is to listen to my local members in our local Assembly (for local people).

Occassionally there might be the odd five minutes (or so) of superb debating on display, but rarely anything that comes half way to what Julia delivered.

Her pace, her repetition of the points she wanted to be remembered, and the fact she spoke without reference to paper, (except when she needed to quote the Leader of the Opposition directly), just brought goosebumps to my arms.

The way he went from his normal smug demeanor to having more wrinkles on his head the Gordon Ramsey's great-great Grandfather was phenomenal. (I bet he wasn't expecting that.)



Ahhh, happy days.

[dgs49]

If these are the best illustrations of misogyny she could come up with, then she has a pretty lame case.

"Under-representation" is proof of NOTHING, and people who claim that it is are either stupid or angling for something. Asians are underrepresented in the NFL. Women are underrepresented among chess Grand Masters. American whites are non-existent among NBA starting teams.

And "Australian housewives" is not the same as "Australian women," is it?

And how noteworthy is is when a person is pummelled with slander for 15 minutes that he starts to look uncomfortable? He should have gotten up and knocked her out. The speech was outrageous, and the fact that it was tolerated is an indication of what Pussies Aussie men have devolved to.

[The Hen]

Sure.

[Lord Jim]

I thought that stylistically and in terms of the optics it was well delivered....

In terms of the substance I thought it was kind of a hodge podge that ran the gamut from some things that represented fairly significant gaffs, (like Abbott's apparently saying that he thought that men might be more "intellectually" equipped for some things than women) to the fairly trivial, (at one point she complains about him laughing when she's speaking...I haven't watched the Australian Parliament in action, but based on what I've seen of the British and Irish ones, opposition leaders laughing while Prime Ministers are speaking is pretty standard fare.)

Personally, I feel that she kind of detracted from some of the more significant points she had to make by including stuff that was a lot less important...(I think she could have left out the stuff that was about her personally completely and it would have been more effective; I thought that part of it made her look kind of thin skinned)

Also, because I don't follow Australian politics all that closely, I have no idea if she was taking some things out of context, or in at least one case what she was talking about at all,. (She makes reference at one point to some comments that were made by some junior opposition members at some meeting or conference, that she complains were not denounced by the senior members, without quoting what the comments were...without knowing what they said, it's impossible to know whether this was in the significant category or the trivial category, since she included both.)

I'd be interested n knowing what Abbott has had to say since this, and what his side of it is.

[Lord Jim]

If Gillard can get any political improvement for her party in the polls out of this she can sure use it. While she is personally more popular than Abbott, that doesn't seem to be translating into political support for her party. At the moment they're headed for a right thumping:

By Jason Scott and Nichola Saminather on October 08, 2012

Support for Australia’s governing Labor Party fell from an 18-month high, as Prime Minister Julia Gillard struggles to gain traction with voters before elections due next year.

Labor’s primary vote dropped 3 percentage points to 33 percent, while Tony Abbott’s Liberal-National coalition climbed 4 points to 45 percent, according to a Newspoll survey published in the Australian newspaper today. Taking preference votes into account, Labor trailed the coalition by 8 points after pulling level in the previous survey.

Australia’s first female prime minister is battling to maintain support more than two years after backtracking on a pledge not to introduce a carbon tax. Abbott may be benefiting from his bid to counter claims that he is prejudiced against women, after his wife Margie last week began a media blitz defending his credibility.

“Gillard’s recent surge may have been a dead-cat bounce and the tactic to attack Abbott hasn’t worked,” said Andrew Hughes, who conducts political-marketing research at the Australian National University in Canberra. “The only good news for Labor is it still has a year to regain momentum before the next election.”

Gillard’s lead over Abbott as preferred prime minister shrank to 10 points from 14 points in the previous poll. The telephone survey of 1,168 people, conducted Oct. 5-7, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Rhodes Scholar

Senior Labor lawmakers including Attorney-General Nicola Roxon and Health Minister Tanya Plibersek have claimed Abbott has a problem dealing with powerful women. The Rhodes Scholar and former amateur boxer last month denied allegations that he physically intimidated a female political opponent during Sydney University elections in 1977.

The latest analysis of Newspoll surveys, published in The Australian on Oct. 5, showed 29 percent of female voters are satisfied with Abbott, compared with 34 percent of men.

“I won’t stand by and let others claim that the man I love, and the father my children adore, has some agenda against women,” Margie Abbott said in a News Ltd. interview published Oct. 5.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-1 ... ralia-poll

It doesn't look like up to this point at least that making Abbott less personally popular has translated into any significant improvement in her party's election prospects.

[Lord Jim]

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that most of the worst things that she attributed to him saying, (like calling abortion "the easy way out") must already be widely known to the public and thus already baked into the cake politically. (They probably contribute to the 10-14 percent personal popularity advantage she has now.)

If that's the case, I'm not sure how much additional benefit she can get from them....

[Sean]

I'm Welsh.


(She sounds more Kath and Kim than Nessa though.)

But HE is the one who manages to post 12-letter words with no vowels. I thought he was Welsh and you were Australian? Or is Gob Australian? Or am I confused. (Actually, no need to answer that: I am perfectly willing to admit I am very confused.)

They are both Welsh Jarl.

It's just that one of them happens to be more Welsh than the other...

[Lord Jim]

Okay, well I finally sorted out what the "died of shame" thing was about:

VETERAN radio host Alan Jones has sparked outrage by telling Young Liberals that Prime Minister Julia Gillard's father "died of shame".

The 2GB breakfast show host was recorded making the remarks in a speech to 100 members of the Sydney University Liberal Club President's dinner, just weeks after the death of John Gillard.

Mr Gillard died at the age of 83 on September 8 after a battle with illness.

“Every person in the caucus of the Labor Party knows that Julia Gillard is a liar,” News Limited Sunday papers reported Mr Jones as saying at last Saturday's event at a Sydney restaurant.

“Everybody, I'll come to that in a moment.

“The old man recently died a few weeks ago of shame. To think that he had a daughter who told lies every time she stood for parliament.”

Okay, well that's cruel and tasteless, (though I don't really see anything sexist about it; it's a vicious joke that could just as easily have been aimed at a "son" as a "daughter"...) and yeah, the party leadership should have criticized it, but I'm not sure why it belonged in a speech that was focusing on accusations of Abbott's personal misogyny....

[The Hen]

Hang about.

That was WELL fair-game.

Mr Abbott in his position on the Motion had stated the government was "ethically bankrupt" and should "already have died of shame".

[The Hen]

He later claimed he had "forgotten" the Alan Jones comments.


How?

It was not off the news or airways for days.

[Gob]

The whole fucking country is in an uproar over that cunt Jones comment on the PM's late father, and Abbot uses the the expression the Govt. should; ""already have died of shame"?

Politically astute or what?