Tony Abbott

[Madmya]

Hahaha nice one Twit, "I won't read this because I know I won't like it but read this instead".

[Hercy]

I'm pretty sure Twit did read it but said he didn't so he could do the kitchen gag.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Whether you like Julia or not it was a pretty big takedown. Not because one is more hypocritical than the other but because she reeled off a list of Abbott's best/worst indicators.

It's not that Abbott hates all women. He's one of those male types that loves women when they're agreeable and/or in their place. He is an ex Catholic priest after all. Anyone who says this has no bearing need only look at his record on social policy, including that when he was in government.

[BruceCamblzChin]

I agree she landed some punches with her speech and I agree they are both hypocrites.

[unfnknblvbl]

It was one of the best, if not the best speech given in Australian Parliament since Keating left.
It doesn't make her any more appealing, but it's nice to know she can give as good as she gets. If she did that more often, she might have a better showing in the polls.

[Twit]

I'm pretty sure Twit did read it but said he didn't so he could do the kitchen gag.

Yeah, um ... I ignored the article because it was from a woman and then ranted about misogyny being unacceptable while using terms like pussy and girl as insults and then referenced an opposing article from another woman, thus demonstrating both misogyny and hypocrisy in one swoop. So okay not particularly funny, but seriously – are blindingly obvious throwaway trolls too subtle for this place when it comes to political threads?

[BruceCamblzChin]

You sir are a legitimate misogynist GET OUT!

[Madmya]

Well this is entirely your fault for being witty when I've just woken up.

New rules, don't be witty before midday or madmya gets cranky.

[Hercy]

For anyone who's not just trolling this thread, these are some good articles from a feminist writer about what it means to be a modern misogynist and how the Slipper SMSs are a distraction from the actual reason why Slipper is unfit for parliament (ie rorts and sexual harassment of a male staffer).

http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-vi ... 277ux.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-vi ... 27cxp.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Twit]

“I couldn't possibly be a misogynist, officer. Some of my best virgins are daughters.”

The real hypocrisy here is in trying to pretend that Peter Slipper’s awkward attempts at text flirting are in any way comparable to the sustained sexism displayed by Tony Abbott in his entire history of public office. Comparing a vagina to shelled mussels might be crass, but I’m fairly confident the women of Australia can cope. Unlike conservatives trying to spin this scenario to their advantage, I know what misogyny looks like. And I’d rather a man compare my vagina to a delicious, briny creature of the sea than have them tell me they know better than I what I should be doing with it.

Bam.

[guttermouth]

Peter Slipper pre-selected 9 times by the Libs, between 1984 and 2010. That's 26 years the Libs where happy to keep a man they can't stand.....

[Madmya]

... and they had the sense to get rid of him because he's a stain. Enter, the ALP...

[BruceCamblzChin]

They were warned. They must have been rubbing their hands together with glee when he went to the speakers job.

[guttermouth]

... and they had the sense to get rid of him because he's a stain. Enter, the ALP...

Indeed a stain, but 26 years before they came to their senses....

[Madmya]

I don't understand where you're going with this. How were the libs supposed to know he'd behave this way in power? It's all come out only recently, yet the ALP have shown that they are okay with his behaviour.

[Hercy]

You're talking like the Liberals voted against Slipper because they think that what he's done makes him unfit for Parliament. That's demonstrably wrong, because other Liberal (and Labor) MPs have done worse and retained the support of their party. The Liberals only care about it because it's politically expedient to vote against Slipper at the present time. They haven't come to their senses on the morality of his actions.

It's bizarre why Labor voted to retain him as Speaker when they must have known that the independents would force him to resign anyway. Just another pointless political screw up, I guess.

[mech]

Love how many lefties are lining up to defend Slipper. Cognitive dissonance much?

[Hercy]

I haven't seen any.

[guttermouth]

Exactly haven't seen any either. After the word racist, lefties has to be the next most over used word.
As with someone who doesn't agree on one persons view, their best reply is ohhh you racist..

Just like Liberal nut jobs and fanboys, ohh your view is different to mine you must be a leftie, and that's usually their main argument on why you are wrong.

Again we see the leftie card played again, because why??? Ohh no one here is sticking up for slippery Pete...

[Madmya]

I still don't understand the point you're trying to make. Just say 'I hate the libs', don't give a reason why, and be done with it.

[GW2cameout]

... and they had the sense to get rid of him because he's a stain. Enter, the ALP...

Tony would never do anything like solicit Slipper's vote now that he's not Speaker, would he?

[Madmya]

If slipper was originally an ALP member I have little doubt that the libs would have done the exact same thing.

Unionists and solicitors, the worst people in the world, all in parliament house.

[mech]

Haven't seen any? Heads in the sand much?

Plenty of people have been saying "ohhhh what he said isn't that bad" - including Pep, and the stuff Twit quoted up above (" I’m fairly confident the women of Australia can cope"). Imagine if Tony Abbott had said something like that? The uproar would be incredible.

You guys are hilarious to watch twisting yourselves in knots trying to get upset at the Liberals as much as possible while the Gillard government just continues to fuck over Australia with its attempts to cling onto power.

[mech]

http://www.afr.com/p/opinion/this_despe ... NkZuGZ9sSI" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Labor government’s dirty deal late last year to install the Coalition turncoat Peter Slipper as Speaker of the House of Representatives has been undone by dirty text messages. Desperate to cling to power, Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s minority government is bringing out the worst of Australia’s political culture rather than the best. Both sides of politics have been guilty of bad behaviour that is undermining the whole purpose of government and distracting national attention from the serious issues at hand such as the waning of Australia’s mining boom, the need to revive productivity growth and the federal budget’s stubborn structural deficit.

Ms Gillard installed Mr Slipper in the Speaker’s chair in late 2011 after the government dudded independent MP Andrew Wilkie on promised poker machine reforms, which threatened to remove one vote from Labor’s already wafer-thin majority.

Negotiation is widely agreed to be one of the Prime Minister’s strengths but the Slipper deal confirmed, following her ­carbon tax reversal, that Ms Gillard is also prepared to ruthlessly break promises to stay in office.

The Australian Financial Review condemned Labor’s decision to squeeze out a competent Speaker in Harry Jenkins in order to anoint Mr Slipper, describing it as “a gamble driven by desperation and expediency”. We warned that Labor’s controversial move would inject more poison into the political debate, and that elevating a dubious character whose own side of politics was trying to get rid of was bound to end in tears. The decision treated our nation’s parliamentary standards with contempt, again calling into question the credibility of her government and her judgment.

The political misjudgment was exposed by the legal action brought by ex-staffer James Ashby against his former boss, Mr Slipper, over alleged Cabcharge rorting and sexual harassment. In line with its political interests, Labor treated this as a partisan conspiracy, with Attorney-General Nicola Roxon paying up $50,000 to try to make the problem go away.

But it has turned out that the unresolved taxi rorting claims and sexual harassment allegations were not what brought Mr Slipper down, but private text messages he sent to his former staffer.

Those messages re­leased by the Federal Court this week were ribald, crude and ­sometimes obscene. Whether, of themselves, they would be grounds for dismissal of a speaker is debatable. The political problem is they clash with Labor’s political narrative that Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has a “problem’’ with strong women or is even a misogynist.

Mr Abbott is a mainstream Catholic who is opposed to abortion and who talks in the language of everyday Australians, rather than the language and social culture of Labor progressives. But that doesn’t make him a misogynist. Some Labor MPs who share Mr Abbott’s cultural outlook constitute key parts of Ms Gillard’s support base as Prime Minister. Ms Gillard herself represents this culture with her refusal to back gay marriage. But that does not make her homophobic.

The Prime Minister’s examples of sexism or even misogyny against Mr Abbott have not been persuasive and Labor’s charges that he has a problem with strong women are confected. Labor’s attacks are in part provoked by the nature of the personal abuse that has been levelled at Ms Gillard. But Labor has also overplayed this. Politicians receive personal abuse and female politicians will receive abuse couched in female terms, however unpleasant that may be.

Some attacks certainly go right over the top, such as the disgusting and plainly wrong remarks that radio broadcaster Alan Jones made about last month’s death of the Prime Minister’s father. Mr Abbott should have been stronger in condemning these remarks, even if he was not responsible for them. Mr Abbott was also wrong to goad Ms Gillard in Parliament on Tuesday when he said the government “should already have died of shame”, a phrase that echoed Mr Jones’s words.

Yet, the Opposition Leader would probably be happy to fight a culture war on “sexism”, notwithstanding his low support rating with female voters. Ms Gillard’s rating deficit with male voters is even worse. And Labor’s attacks provoked Mr Abbott last week to bring out his wife, Margie, to display his credentials as a family man and husband who is comfortable with women. Labor misjudged John Howard’s ability to resonate with working families when it ridiculed his white picket fence motif. Mr Abbott will likely reckon that, while Australians are a tolerant people who support a “fair go’’, they may recoil from Ms Gillard’s extreme accusations against him, particularly when she continued to defend Mr Slipper.

This unseemly episode is likely to turn voters away from debate and lower their opinions of both sides of politics. Many will increasingly figure that the only way to end this failed experiment with minority government will be through fresh elections to give one side proper authority to govern.

Well written and sums it up perfectly imo.

[Cardsy]

Mind your own business American.