Tony Abbott, Just F…F…Fade Away
If the pundits are correct, by Wednesday, the Liberal party could
have a new leader, and Australia could have a new Prime Minister.
Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, NSW), a former Opposition Leader who was
replaced by Tony Abbott, but patiently waited for his party to create so
much chaos they would beg for his return.
If the polls are accurate, by Wednesday, the man who faces the biggest challenge will be Opposition Leader Bill Shorten. Polls suggest a 9% swing back to the Liberal-National parties if they install a new Prime Minister.
Since the day Tony Abbott began his disastrous reign as Prime
Minister, people have been saying that we need to keep Abbott as PM, in
order to give Labor the best chance of defeating the Liberal Nationals
at the next election. (People said the same thing about changing
Opposition Leaders before the 2013 election, reasoning Turnbull would be
harder to beat than Abbott, and look how that turned out).
However, if the best reason for keeping a PM as incompetent as Tony
Abbott is to make Bill Shorten’s job easier in the next election, then
that really doesn’t say much about the competency of either the current
PM or the alternative PM. The next election can be held any time on or
before 14 January 2017, just under two years away. The damage that
Abbott can do in that time, given what has already been destroyed, is
incalculable, especially for women.
We live in a time of #GamerGate,
of MRAs (Mens Rights Activists) who make a fortune on the international
lecture circuit telling desperate men how to sexually abuse women and
get away with it, of politicians and law makers in the US and the UK
advocating that sexual assault of drunk, unconscious or sleeping women
should not count as rape, we live in a time where a female Prime
Minister can be figuratively carved up and put on the menu at a Liberal fundraiser.
The world has become more dangerous for women when we have men like
Tony Abbott in power, men who see women as property and unpaid
house-cleaners and do not exist as human beings worthy of respect.
In the world which Tony Abbott lives in, it seems there are two types
of women – the mummies and the stepping-stones. Mummies are the women
who indulge his every whim – his family, his chief of staff, Peta
Credlin, who let him get away with anything he wants. There are also the
stepping-stones, the women Abbott walks all over to get whatever he
wants – all the women who aren’t the Mummy figures. If a woman does not
fit into either of these categories, Abbott will destroy her, especially
if she has something he wants, such as the keys to the Lodge.
Is this an over-exaggeration?
– In 1977, Tony Abbott was beaten by a woman, Barbara Ramjan for
Student Representative Council, he punched a wall on either side of her
head, then spent the year following his defeat calling her “chairthing”.
– Tony Abbott admits he indecently assaulted a woman when he was a
20-year old student, when he groped a female activist on stage in front
of a group of people.
(source – Abbott: I was charged with indecent assault)
– Tony Abbott does not believe women
should access higher education or paid work “While I think men and
women are equal, they are also different and I think it’s inevitable and
I don’t think it’s a bad thing at all that we always have, say… an
enormous number of women simply doing housework.”
– Tony Abbott does not believe that when a woman says “no” she means “no”. He says “when it comes from Julia, ‘No’ doesn’t mean ‘No’.”
– Tony Abbott believes
that if men demand sex then women should give up their right to say No.
Abbott says “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”.
– Since becoming Prime Minister, Tony Abbott has slashed the funding
for domestic violence services. Even though approximately 1 woman a week
is murdered in family violence in this country.
These are just some of the reasons why Tony Abbott must go. This man –
who is also the self-appointed Minister For Women – has made women the
target of his rage, has made them responsible for his inadequacies. If
we listen to the Prime Minister, he is still blaming Julia Gillard and
her Labor government for everything that is wrong with his government.
Australia was warned. Prime Minister Julia Gillard made a speech before parliament in which she spent 15 minutes throwing many examples of Tony Abbott’s misogyny back at him. The voters chose to not listen.
If those in the Liberal party rallying against Tony Abbott get the
numbers for a spill on Tuesday, then there is a good chance we will have
a new PM. If the Left are hoping that Abbott stays on, just so that
Bill Shorten and the Labor party have a greater chance of winning the
next election, then the ALP had better step up their game. The lives,
the safety and dignity of women in this country should not be a play
thing for Tony Abbott during the next two years, just so someone can win
an election.
Tony Abbott, it’s time for you to just go away.
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