Prime Minister Scott Morrison apparently didn’t know the gender pay gap existed until recently. And understandably, Twitter has gone into meltdown with people wondering how that’s even possible.
On Sunday morning’s Insiders ABC, political reporter Andrew Probyn said that according to inside sources, Morrison was “gobsmacked” to find out the gender pay gap existed.
WATCH: @andrewprobyn says, according to inside sources, Scott Morrison was “gobsmacked” to find out the gender pay gap even existed #Insiders #auspol pic.twitter.com/t2ZHCDMWia
— Insiders ABC (@InsidersABC) April 11, 2021
“I think what we are witnessing, though, is the slow transformation of Scott Morrison from someone who didn’t understand it at all to someone who is getting some understanding,” Probyn said on Sunday.
“I’ve heard inside some of these [government] meetings Scott Morrison was gobsmacked there was even a gender pay gap, because he can’t understand why you would have women and men paid differently for doing the same job, and you’ve got some of his colleagues say, ‘Well, Prime Minister, that actually does happen.’
“So you would have noticed that two weeks ago the Prime Minister actually started talking about the gender pay gap, but maybe a day or so before that he had no understanding that actually happened.”
Probyn’s comments about Scott Morrison quickly went viral, with many people (including MPs, like Peta Murphy) unable to believe that the Prime Minister is only learning of this concept now.
Before he was PM, Scott Morrison was Treasurer.
And he didn’t know about the gender pay gap until last week?
Where the bloody hell has he been? #insiders @andrewprobyn
— Peta Murphy MP (@petajan) April 10, 2021
Seriously. Did he ask his wife?What planet does he live on. No slavery? 12 ships in the 1st fleet? No gender pay gap? No climate change? Nothing to see anywhere.
— There’s a Thought (@Adamjeffrey7D) April 11, 2021
Wow! @andrewprobyn says Morrison was unaware there was a pay gap between men and women doing the same job!
Where has this spinning, incompetent, sneering, chauvinist been!
Why is a PM of Australia who was Treasurer so out of touch and incompetent!
I know he never asked Jenny????— Doug Cameron (@DougCameron51) April 10, 2021
But it seems like Morrison did actually know about the gender pay gap. after a tweet from 2018 resurfaced.
“Under Labor, the gender pay gap increased from $15.5% to 17.2%. Under our Government it has fallen to 14.5% and heading in right direction,” Morrison wrote on Twitter.
If you’re gonna lie, probably make sure there isn’t easily accessible evidence proving that you’re lying.
— Kyle Jacob “Manifest Good-Feels” de Boer ???? (@Bababooie42) April 11, 2021
However, the PM’s office have released a statement claiming that these allegations are “demonstrably false.”
This comes after Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk called for National Cabinet to host a National Women’s Summit on the “economic” and “social inequality” facing Australian women.
This is what I sent to the Prime Minister. It’s time for action. #auspol pic.twitter.com/4wmRRCKH0v
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) April 7, 2021
The Summit would address key women’s issues like affordable childcare, sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace, domestic violence, the impact COVID-19 has disproportionately had on women and of course, ScoMo’s favourite: the gender pay gap.
Maybe Jenny needs to run the Summit, so Scott Morrison can understand these issues better?
