Abbott’s Party Members Don’t Appreciate Him Calling Them Sexist


Rather than asking how things are going in Canberra then deploying NotGreatBob.Gif for the hundredth time, we’re going to branch out to a different Mad Men reference. 

Instead, we’re going to go ahead and say that this is everyone’s face in federal politics right now, following choice remarks that Tony Abbott made about sexism last week:
You may recall that recently, the Prime Minister went on breakfast television (not a great idea for him at this point in time), and then lashed out at critics of his controversial Chief of Staff Peta Credlin, calling them sexist.
“Do you really think my Chief of Staff would be under this kind of criticism if her name was P-E-T-E-R as opposed to P-E-T-A?”, Abbott said, not-so-subtly pointing the finger at a number of his colleagues.
Leaving aside the cognitive dissonance of the fact that this is the man who tried to explain economics to the housewives of Australia in terms of ironing, many of his own people were upset at the implication that they are sexist.
“That’s not the way I would put it,” Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said, per a report in Fairfax, adding that she refuses to view politics through the prism of gender, and saying “I’ve been called a lot of things, but not sexist.”
 
According to 9 News, Queensland Liberal National Party MP Warren Entsch has lodged a formal complaint about the Prime Minister’s remarks. “To suggest there’s an issue because of her gender I find offensive,” he said. 
“He’s basically said, ‘if they don’t like it they are sexists’. He needs to be very careful because there’s a lot of cabinet ministers who have a problem with how the Prime Minister’s Office is operating,” he continued, adding “it’s as bad as it’s ever been.”
He went on to mock the negative headlines that have come out of Canberra these past few weeks, adding that it’s “just mind boggling” that Abbott would trivialise “legitimate concern” over the way his office is run by attributing it to sexism.
All this combined means that the coalition’s office Christmas party will probably be even more staggeringly awkward than yours this year. 
Photo: Stefan Postles via Getty Images

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