The ABC’s Four Corners revelation about the sexual dalliances of Messrs Christian Porter and Alan Tudge may have brought to light their inability to control their sexual desires but the reality is that the Liberal and National parties have always had a problem with women.
Well, to be fair both sides of the political divide have had their problems.
Bob Hawke was a known womaniser and had an affair with his biographer, Blanche d’Alpuget. Hawke always wore his heart on his sleeve and confessed his infidelities. And Whitlam minister Jim Cairns had a much publicised affair with Junie Morosi.
It was said that John Gorton had an affair with Ainsley Gotto, but Gorton was in fact having an extended affair with the widow of a “a very senior naval officer.” Democrats leader Cheryl Kernot had an affair with Labor’s Gareth Evans.
But I digress.
Tony Abbott often gave us the impression that he had a poor opinion of women. At university he referred to a women Chairperson as “Chairthing.”
He was accused of assaulting a woman at University and later acquitted. He was defended by a QC and the girl defended herself.
Another woman accused him of throwing punches; hitting either side of a wall she was standing against. He said it never happened but others corroborated her story.
And who could forget these?:
“I think there does need to be give and take on both sides, and this idea that sex is kind of a woman’s right to absolutely withhold, just as the idea that sex is a man’s right to demand I think they are both they both need to be moderated, so to speak.”
“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.”
Or this?:
“I won’t be rushing out to get my daughters vaccinated [for cervical cancer], maybe that’s because I’m a cruel, callow, callous, heartless bastard but, look, I won’t be”
More quotes by Abbott about women can be found here. I don’t feel I need to expand on his misogyny as it is well-known.
If you want to watch Julia Gillard’s famous misogyny speech fired directly at Abbott once again, go here.
It is the males of the Coalition who have had a long-established “masculine problem” of entitlement: specifically, a white male problem that believes they are allowed more superiority over women than women of today want to be subjected to.
It is the view of men who still cling to an age that no longer exists. These virile males are the ones who have never really grown up. The ones who have accepted the actions of the fathers or worse still the superiority of the male as taught in many churches.
Of course, the question arises as to whether it is any of our business as to what politicians or journalists get up to after hours.
The answer is yes and no. If a journalist writes about the moral standard of the community and in doing so identifies his or her own code of ethics, I think there is a public interest in disclosing what is happening in their private lives.
The same goes for the politician. If a minister or MP is in a position of power and in fact responsible for creating laws in the area of morality I would very much like to know what his or her attitudes are about their personal moral standards are.
If they are humping their employees on the side while working on legislation pertaining to sexual harassment then the hypocrisy should be exposed.
In a piece for The Daily Mail Paula Mathewson asked “…is it any of our business what politicians, staffers and yes, journalists, do in the privacy of their homes and hotel rooms?:
“Definitely not, says that bastion of family values, Barnaby Joyce, who claimed this week that former prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, introduced a ban on ministers from having sexual relationships with their staff simply to remove him from the Nationals leadership”
“Of course, Mr Joyce conveniently forgot to mention that it was the accusation of sexual harassment levelled against him by a highly respected woman in the rural community that sealed his fate, not Mr Turnbull’s ‘bonk ban’.”
Barnaby Joyce – you might remember – was at the centre of alleged serious sexual harassment and molestation claim dating back to 2012 involving multiple women, including a 17-year-old teenage girl in a toilet.
Tony Windsor tweeted how things work in Canberra:
An example of how power works….
17 yr old harrassed by Joyce in Canberra pub in ladies Toilet.
Mother LNP blind follower
Complaint shut down by Georgie Somerset
Quid pro quo
Somerset to ABC Board
J Bishops brother hi flyer in Clayton Utz
Girl now works Cl Utz.
All quiet— Tony Windsor (@TonyHWindsor) November 11, 2020
When politicians become involved in seedy situations such as an affair all sorts of things can happen. They leave themselves open to being denied a security clearance, they become an extortion risk, being denied access to classified information without having to get such a clearance and may also cause a conflict of interest if they have the potential to unduly influence a minister’s decisions.
Females are not well represented in Australian politics, particularly on the conservative side. Having said that, in my lifetime, their journey toward equality has been incremental despite their obvious intelligence. Much of this is attributable to what men take from the Bible about (taught or decoded) their superiority over women.
Sarah Hanson-Young, at 25, was the youngest women ever elected to the Senate. Like her politics or not, she has been subjected to more abuse than most men have to take. Interjections about her dress sense, her body shape and her sex life have been common. Usually from sleaze-bags from the right of the Senate chamber.
She usually ignored them, taking the moral high ground however last year she dug her heels in over a comment from one of these middle-aged white morons:
“It happened during a debate on women’s safety following a murder which shocked the nation. A young comedian walking home late at night had been killed by a stranger.
Ms Hanson-Young said women wouldn’t need extra protection if men didn’t rape them.
In response, an older male senator called out: “You should stop shagging men, Sarah.”
Liberal Democrat Senator David Leyonhjelm – known for revelling in his controversial remarks – refused to apologise when confronted by Ms Hanson-Young, who is divorced with a child. He instead repeated his comments and other explicit claims in TV and radio interviews.
He accused her of hypocrisy. She accused him of “slut-shaming” – where slurs about a women’s alleged sexual activities are used to demean or silence her.
I decided at that moment I’d had enough of men in that place using sexism and sexist slurs, sexual innuendo as part of their intimidation and bullying on the floor of the parliament,” the senator [Hanson-Young] said in a later interview.”
She sued Senator David Leyonhjelm and received $120,000 for her trouble.
Sexism, sexist slurs and sexual innuendo is all part of the intimidation and bullying on the floor of the Australian Parliament. To say it is uncouth would be an understatement.
MP Julia Banks felt she had to act after experiencing vicious infighting and sexism so she quit. Julie Bishop, the Deputy Leader described the intimidation as “appalling” behaviour. The Minister for Women, Kelly Dwyer also backed the allegations.
There is nothing new here. Natasha Stott Despoja joined parliament in 1995 at age 26, and experienced her fair share of abuse. Sexism was “endemic” in the political culture, she said.
“It ranged from male senators saying to me ‘you really should wear skirts’ to another senator referring to me only as ‘mother’ once I had children,” she told the BBC.
It was Julia Gillard who copped the most abuse and when it became too much, she responded with a speech that reverberated around the world. She had been portrayed by conservatives’ politicians and the right-wing media as a modern-day witch.
Sometimes you have to wonder if history is just an ongoing commentary on the incompetence of men.
She was “routinely demonised” for being unmarried and “childless”. At various times she was called “a lying cow”, “a menopausal monster”, “deliberately barren”, a “bitch” and “Ju-liar”
The media had a strange fixation with her appearance which was at times simply lewd.
Then there was that Liberal party fundraising dinner with a ‘Julia Gillard menu’ listing overt sexual suggestions about parts of her body.
Alan Jones said she should be “put into a chaff bag and thrown into the sea.” And that Australians “ought to be out there kicking her to death.”
There is something about Australian culture that excludes women. One sees it in all facets of society. In sport, in business, in many professions including law.
These men, Attorney-General Christian Porter and Urban Infrastructure Minister Alan Tudge who have both spent their careers publicly espousing family values, should have been given the opportunity to explain and then sacked.
As former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told journalist Louise Milligan:
“Some of the most trenchant opponents of same-sex marriage, all in the name of traditional marriage, were at the same time enthusiastic practitioners of traditional adultery.”
Given that ministerial responsibility no longer exists … where to now?
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My thought for today
At some time in the human narrative… in our history, man declared himself superior to women. It must have been an accident, or at least an act of gross stupidity. But that’s men for you.
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The Liberal and National parties have always had a problem with women.
I prefer to at it the other way around.
The Liberal and National parties have always had a problem with men. They prove it time and time again.
The correct resolution of these matters is for both the unimpressive Tudge and the underwhelming Porter to resign form both Cabinet and Parliament. But this is the Scummo Sacked from Marketing for allegedly fiddling the till so do NOT expect any change in the current ”Do Nothing” policy favoured by fascist governments across the world.
I note that the avid ABC watchers within the Newscorp family have, over the weekend in The Australian and what pretends to be a television news broadcaster at Sky, taken up the cudgels to condemn the ABC for having the temerity to make public the dalliances of these high flying Liberal playboys.
This curious group of Newscorp employees including Chris Kenny, Janet Albrechtsen, Angela Shanahan and at Sky, Peta Credlin, Paul Murray, Andrew Bolt and Rowan Dean appear to spend most of their waking hours watching every move, every word emanating form our public broadcaster. Ever ready to pounce with allegations of Left Wing bias and the pressing need to sell off the ABC at the earliest possible opportunity.
They have called it a Shoddy ABC investigation driven by a political agenda but curiously they don’t go as far as saying, had they been presented with the information on the behaviour of Tudge and Porter, that they would not have published.
It may very well be that Newscorp would have swept the whole thing under the carpet and ignored it entirely, one reason why whistleblowers would be reluctant to go to Newscorp in the first place. At the present time Newscorp are frantically trying to ignore the Rudd Petition and the resultant Senate Enquiry into media diversity and ownership : evidently it’s not newsworthy. Just as they ignored the resignation from the News Board of James Murdoch who had become concerned about the direction of his father’s company. He accused News of ‘legitimizing disinformation’ and ‘promoting climate denialism’ : this it appears was also not worthy of reporting.
Sounds to me that James may have been on the money !
It will always be the same. The cohort of neanderthals who call themselves MPs will never accept that women can be anything more than objects, chattels, breast and legs, who are provided for their enjoyment and vessels for their progeny.
I cannot understand for the life of me why any woman would ever want to be a Liberal or National MP. The only thought is that they have a similarly low opinion of themselves and their gender.
My good attention were shot with “Greens leader Cheryl Kernot had an affair with Labor’s Gareth Evans.” she was not a loonie but a democrat.
She and evans had an affair or are you in laurie’s camp when in 2002, journalist Laurie Oakes wrote a column criticising Ms Kernot for not mentioning her affair with Mr Evans while Democrats leader. He didn’t go on to say the deputy labor leader Evans kept quiet for 5 years?
Perhaps I missed the last of your religious series with your reasons for leaving god but a look at the Abrahamic god groups will explain that god made man from scratch but women came from man(either his rib or os baculum) ie the first creation from man was to serve man. The three bible believers are wedged into believing their god made women for men and children. So if a women strays well whacko she is fair game and if she is not in your ‘class or church’ then go for it. Other men are even worse and rape is often a part of punishment which has morphed into acceptance as normal in some societies with India having rape as the 4th most common crime against women with 32033 rape cases were registered last year.
‘The list does not include the estimated rape statistics of the countries, per year, such as South Africa having 500,000 rapes per year, China having 31,833 rapes a year, Egypt having more than 200,000 rapes a year, and the United Kingdom at 85,000 rapes a year.”
Until politicians can be questioned on their religious beliefs we will continue to give billions to school for them to perpetuate the religions of men for menand millions of women are indoctrinated into believing their god made them subservient to man.
Interestingly; Terence outside of their snarling they have nothing worthwhile to put forward on any topic.
It is a bit simplistic to imply that an atheistic society would be less corrupt. While wam singles out the monotheisms, ancient Rome for example was routinely corrupt, cruel and warlike.
Keitha…. Observe the snarling Cash and wonder no more why some women join the LNP. These women are the stereotypes of those who give birth to the men of the LNP. Generations, born and bred in the politics of entitlements, ruthless scrambling up the greasy pole and once there, nurturing alliances in bed and out, to maintain their position in the hierarchy.
The pool in november is fantastic for relaxing.
There is still a belief by society that women are not suited for maths, science and construction.
That is despite:
Marie Curie, Karen Uhlenbeck and hundreds of maths science women in between, all working at the highest level.
During the wars women took charge of every construction job showing the skills that put the lie to god’s gender creation.
The wealth of evidence for, at least equality, women is such that the indoctrination process set up by society must be bloody good to keep women down in the religious fold???
ps josephus I am talking about the god of today. The god that awards men who kill women and children and who gives men the power to absolve men and women who abuse women and children?
ps my darling reminded me why men can ignore successful women.
Remember the rabbott and sophie mirabella? God made some women ‘exceptional’..
The thing that always bothered me most about David Leyjonhelm’s nasty comment
was his equating rape with consensual sex!
Does he believe all sex is rape or that rape is just part of normal consensual “shagging”?
It’s clear he finds SHY arousing or he would not have headed down that path.
Leyjonhelm reminds me of that old joke.
Q = What is that useless piece of skin you find hanging on the end of a penis?
A = A man.
My God could there EVER have been a PM worse than the mumbling, stumbling, incoherent moron and Mother and Father of All lying MISOGYNISTS, Phoney Grabbit aka Tony Abbott?
His sickening “Ditch the Witch” campaign against Julia Gillard remains one of the most appalling, spiteful and horrific misogynistic campaigns against a respected female politicians in living memory. Abbott is an immature, self-entitled and unspeakably repugnant fool who’s childish, entitled behaviour reminds one of a spoiled, dummy-spitting two year old. The fools who voted him into power quickly realised the APPALLING mistake they made because his misogynism, corruption and arrogance grew so offensive and so out-of-control, blind Freddy could have foreseen that he was to become a colossal impediment to any political party, INCLUDING one as inherently regressive, corrupt and misogynistic as the LNP!
Abbott’s never-ending condescension and open contempt for women; his rigidly conservative type-casting of women’s roles that go back to the dark old days of the 1950’s, the fact that he only had a tiny number of women in his cabinet; Abbott’s clear fear and evident loathing of intelligent women and women in power have been INTERNATIONALLY condemned! Abbott was a Grim Reaper, a destroyer, and WRECKING BALL who did SO MUCH damage to our international reputation in record time! Quite a feat for a loathsome, non-productive grub who NEVER achieved a single thing to enhance or improve the quality of life for ordinary Australians. In fact, Abbott was so detested by members of his own party, he was kicked to the kerb after a very short tenure as the absolute WORST PM in our history – right up there with his lying, conniving mentor, the loathsome little war criminal, John Howard and, still ahead, of the smug Jerk with the Permanent Smirk and bible-thumping hypocritical member of the Cult of Hillsong, Scott Morrison, who also happens to be a renowned, insufferably smug misogynist!
Abbott remains one of the worst, most appalling, non-achieving and vindictive political parasites in our political history. The ONLY things in which he managed to do with any level of “efficiency” was to become an autocratic combative little dictator who ruled by division, fear, elitism and hatred! If there was EVER a Trump-Wannabe, Abbott is it! Needless to say, the man is completely unqualified to undertake ANY other job and the fact that the UK government chose to select this appalling, insignificant, self-confessed, woman-hating misogynist proves the appalling lack of good judgement Boris Johnson’s Tories have! The fact that Abbott was born in England, the fact that this monstrous individual has claimed LOYALTY to Britain OVER Australia, the known fact that this crawling, obsequious lapdog to Britain and its elitist Tory values crawled into power (like a cockroach entering a sewer) on a platform of misogyny, division, hatred and fear tells anyone with an IQ >10 just how malignantly toxic Abbott and the rest of the deep-seated misogynistic Australian Tories (in the LNP) really are! There can be no denying that his ill-informed nomination as a Trade Envoy to the UK is a CONFLICT OF INTEREST that will, no doubt, give absolute PRIORITY TO THE UK.
The ALP are not perfect but, my God, they – at least – have a sense of compassion and egalitarianism. Also they have at least FOUR TIMES as many INTELLIGENT women in their cabinet compared with the LNP’s four or five vindictive harridans and Misogynistic Sympathisers like the vile Michaelia Cash who has now been outed for conducting her own form of bullying harassment against another female political member of the LNP.
The ONLY way this country will EVER progress; the ONLY way this country has EVER progressed; the ONLY time this country has EVER passed policies that positively impact on women and the lives of ordinary Australians (who are vulnerable OR middle-class) is when the ALP is in power! For God’s sake, kick the regressive, 1920’s styled BOYS’ CLUB OF THE LNP OUT at the next federal election – they are misogynistic Neanderthals (like the out-of-control sexual predator, Christian Porter).
The LNP are NOT FIT TO GOVERN! There is not ONE person in the LNP who has a SINGLE REDEEMING FEATURE – not one! KICK ‘EM TO THE KERB!
Shame this doesn’t apply to our two lotharios
Your god, Kathryn?
The rabbott is english has english prejudices and english class values. He should not be included with scots, irish and welsh.
Did you see speers? the reaction of the media to the accusation of husar verses the media to the ‘boys’.
Gives you some idea of how male their god is?
wam, my apologies to the beautiful people of Scotland, Ireland and Wales! I should have stated ENGLISH and not British or the UK – my mistake. Hmmmm, and what makes anyone think that God is male?
Secretly I think god snuck down as quenton crisp because she has red hair, too.
The LNP will never come near an equal number of women as men, because most women sociopathic enough to fit into their culture would be barred from being elected by felony convictions. Of course, the same scene plays out for men, but in that case there is a much larger collection of sociopaths to pick from.
Just thinking you could say the opposite also.
Women have always had problems because of the LNP?
‘This curious group of Newscorp employees including Chris Kenny, Janet Albrechtsen, Angela Shanahan and at Sky, Peta Credlin, Paul Murray, Andrew Bolt and Rowan Dean’
National cabinet or cabal of white Christian nationalist political activists, self annointed as official witch hunters finding scapegoats; while masquerading as sober political commentators of the centre….. desperately pushing the Overton window to the right making distasteful LNP/IPA policies palatable.