Hey remember this from 2012?
In an unprecedented intervention by a political spouse, the normally private Mrs Abbott used a newspaper interview, breakfast television and radio interviews, and a speech in western Sydney yesterday in which she said the experience of having three daughters had made Mr Abbott a feminist.
Now, I remember commenting at the time that if having three daughters made a man a feminist, did having slaves turn slave owners into communists?
Clearly we’ve moved on. Well, the Liberal Party and I have moved on, and that’s the important thing. Why, just the other day, Julie Bishop pointed out that she’s not a feminist. Strange, considering she’s never had children – which everyone knows is the reason that God created women. Of course, when I say everyone, I’m excluding feminists who seem to have strange ideas about the role of women.
Now, before some of you feminists get all fired up and accuse me of being sexist just because I’m suggesting that women’s primary role is to have children, let me just remind you that this is only the female feminists who don’t think this is the case. Feminist Tony Abbott, who’s also the Minister for Women, seems to agree with me. In one of my previous blogs, I gave a link to the news section for the Ministry for Women’s website. There’s no need to go there again if you checked it out last time because there haven’t been any additions to the news. Of you do go there, you’ll notice, however, that what the Minister for Women thinks women need is a Paid Parental Leave scheme and Childcare. That’s about it. I can’t see any suggestion about a need for those silly quotas that would leave men like Barnaby Joyce, George Brandis and Christopher Pyne out of the Cabinet in favour of women with less ability, who are promoted just because they need a couple of token women. (Actually Barnaby couldn’t be left out because they need a certain number of National Party MPs in Cabinet, but don’t call that a quota because it’s not. A quota is when you have an artificial number imposed to pacify minority groups whereas the National Party is part of the government who are the majority. Not to mention the fact that Barnaby is a man and therefore not part of any minority group!)
Like Miss Bishop (I refer to her as Miss because Ms. would be offensive to a non-feminist like her), Michaela Cash, who’s the Minister in Charge of Assisting the Minister For Women Remember That The Portfolio Still Exists, has also made the point that she’s no feminist. A few months ago, she went on record to say:
“In terms of feminism, I’ve never been someone who really associates with that movement. That movement was a set of ideologies from many, many decades ago now.”
Of course, it did concern me when she added:
“All I know is I believe in women. That’s it. And I believe in men.”
Apart from my confusion that we have a member of Parliament whose knowledge is so specialised that it doesn’t extend beyond a belief in the existence of women – and men – it does perplex me that the women in Abbott’s government are telling us that they’re not feminists while Abbott himself was happy to have his wife establish his feminist credentials.
Although it was a couple of years ago, when one reads the rest of the article, one realises that a lot has changed since then.
In her speech, Mrs Abbott indirectly drew a stark contrast with the Prime Minister (Julia Gillard), who has never married or had children, saying the Abbotts were an ordinary family that had lived an ordinary life.
”I don’t pretend that the Abbotts are doing it tough, especially now. But when Tony was the only breadwinner and we were paying school fees and health insurance premiums, I often had to put off paying some bills till the following month especially when they just seemed to be going up and up and up,” she said.
”That experience has helped to keep Tony grounded when it’s so easy, mixing with people who have succeeded, to imagine that new taxes and charges don’t really hurt.”
Yep, things change! For one thing now that Abbott has become PM he’s become a conservationist. (Remember http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/i-am-a-conservationist-tony-abbott-says-no-friction-with-barack-obama-on-climate-change-action-20140613-3a192.html)
Perhaps we’ll have a reshuffle and Tony will take over as Minister for Conservation and Greg Hunt can become the Minister for Women, or as it may be renamed the Minister for Childcare and Having Babies. Julie Bishop could become the Prime Minister just to show that the Liberals aren’t really as sexist as they appear, and Malcolm Turnbull could become the Minister For Not Taking A Stand On Anything. In an attempt to ensure that there are always conflicts to distract us from the domestic problems, Barnaby Joyce could become Foreign Minister.
(There is a rumour that Turnbull has some supporters counting the numbers, but they run into trouble when they get past ten because they need to take of their shoes and socks to continue counting.)
[textblock style=”7″]
Like what we do at The AIMN?
You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.
Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!
Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be gratefully accepted.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
[/textblock]
