More Women's Troubles

At the risk of repeating myself Abbott is having Women Troubles. Again. As I had suspected he has only one women in his cabinet and this is Julia Bishop, the Foreign Affairs Minister. So she will be away for a fair amount of the year.

If this is not bad enough, and it is pretty bad, he has appointed himself as Minister of Women's Affairs. As a woman I find this outrageous.

Here are some reasons:

“Abortion is the easy way out. It’s hardly surprising that people should choose the most convenient exit from awkward situations.” March 17th, 2004

“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, more women doing things like physiotherapy and an enormous number of women simply doing housework.” 2010

“The problem with the Australian practice of abortion is that an objectively grave matter has been reduced to a question of the mother’s convenience.” March 17th 2004

“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.” November 9th, 2006

“I would say to my daughters if they were to ask me this question... [their virginity] is the greatest gift that you can give someone, the ultimate gift of giving and don't give it to someone lightly, that's what I would say.” January 27th 2010

Sources: tonyabbott.com, Herald Sun News, The Sydney Morning Herald, theaustralian.com, abc.net

Also:  http://www.huffpost.com/uk/entry/3885263

The general reaction from women is hardly surprising under the circumstances.

A few tweets included:

@Kon__K: Putting @tonyabbottmhr in charge of Women's Affairs is like asking Pauline Hanson to run #Refugee Week. #auspol

@EvaBuzo: Tony help! As Minister for Women can you help me with my mascara? @TonyAbbottMHR http://twitter.com/EvaBuzo/status/381247895715864577/photo/1

@GoldCoaster13: What better way to keep women down is to put yourself in charge of them @tonyabbottmhr #auspol #qldpol

And those were just a few of many.
I am interested in hearing others views.

Right now I'm just disappointed, but not surprised.

Tony's Women Troubles

Tony Abbott has a lot of women troubles. He caused controversy during the election by saying that the then candidate, now MP Fiona Scott had "sex appeal" and telling the Big Brother housemates he was the one with the "good looking daughters. " But this time it isn't what he has said that's an issue but the women in his new cabinet - or rather the lack of them. 

With Sofie Mirabella unlikely to win her seat and Bronwyn Bishop probably  moving to the position of speaker, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells out of favour (partly due to her backing the failed Liberal candidate Jaymes Diaz) it is looking increasingly likely that the only woman to hold a seat in a new Abbott cabinet will be Julie Bishop.

There are a couple of less likely contenders. They include right-leaning  West Australian Senator Michaelia Cash, Victorian MP Kelly O'Dwyer and NSW senator Marise Payne.

Senator Cash made headlines recently calling out the Labor 'sisterhood ', yelling in the Senate chamber:

"I wonder how loud former prime minister Gillard screamed when her own sisterhood knifed her in the back,"

Ms O'Dwyer was elected into Parliament in a 2009 by-election and has little front bench experience.

Senator Payne is a party moderate and  has served on numerous parliamentary committees. She is particularly strong experience in defence, trade and foreign affairs.

Election Hangover

Today Australia has a new PM and God help us. Tony Abbott will be the worst PM Australia has ever had.  Australia what were you thinking?  As much as I wish to spend the next three years hibernating or calling  myself a kiwi, I will instead be keeping an at least weekly blog containing Abbott's gaffes,  errors,  lies and poor judgements. I am sure I will have a wealth of information to choose from.

So how did we elect such an idiot?
Maybe it's because we have a population more interested in voting for 'Australia's got Talent' than for their national leader, for the way their country will be run for the next three or more years.
Maybe it's the people who base their voting decisions on who provides them with a good sausage sizzle or has a good sounding name on the card.
Maybe people just believe everything they read in Murdoch's papers.
Maybe people were so concerned about perceived failings of one party they didn't check the failings of the other.
Maybe people would rather complain when things go wrong, than make an informed decision.

For the record I campaigned against Howard in 2007 and again against Abbott in this election. I have patches of sunburn and my legs are sore.  But my electorate was one of the few to increase its Labor vote.
I am really hoping Abbott will be a one term PM (or less) and I hope you will join me on working to make that happen.

More news to come.
J