Time to stop !!!!! #Abbott and the unmitigated #misogynist relentless abusive attacks made on our #Prime Minster #Gillard and the Office of the Prime Minister.
Do I agree with everything our Prime Minister states No. Do I agree with every policy detail of the Government No I don’t !
Julia Gillard on a school visit
But the offensive and often pornographic images of the Prime Minister must stop. Men must take a lead against the cowards perpetrating this rubbish.
Is this Man really of the belief he should run the Country
We hear daily from the Tories call that their role is to hold the government to account!!
This is not what an opposition to Government is for!
It is there to contribute to, critique and assist the process of an ‘alternative government’—which would form government if the existing government were to lose the confidence of the House, or of the people at an election. That election might occur at any time. Consequently it is no good for the Opposition to constantly oppose the Government at every turn disputing costing while they hide behind a mask of saying in respect of their budgeting “we will reveal that closer to the Election”. This is simply not good enough and it is not what is required by our system.
If the Opposition is considered and constituted to be essential for the proper working of Australia’s democratic system of government and it is an essential component of the structure of the House they must have plans and their costings on the table.
The opposition is there to contribute to, critique and assist the process of good government and make sure there is balance in the democratic system. So we have Noddy saying No to everything. This is not assisting Good Government; nor is it representing the interest of those who voted for the opposition effectively. This is their plan for Australia
So how is the house supposed to operate like this?
Two key components are the Leader of the House Anthony Albanese and Manager of Opposition Business Christopher Pyne
They are responsible for ensuring that government business proceeds with minimal delay or disruption. The Leader of the House determines the order in which the items of government business will be dealt with, in consultation with the Prime Minister and other Ministers, and after negotiation with the Manager of Opposition Business.
Leader of the House Anthony Albanese
Albanese and Closing the Gap
Leader of the House is responsible for ensuring that government business proceeds with minimal delay or disruption,the order in which the items of government business will be dealt , in consultation with the Prime Minister and other Ministers, and after negotiation with the Manager of Opposition Business.
Christopher Pyne Manager of Opposition Business
Pyne at the despatch box
The Manager of Opposition Business has the responsibility, in consultation with his leader and colleagues, of negotiating with the Leader of the House matters such as the allocation of time for debates, and the order and priority of consideration of items of business. There is normally a good deal of co-operation between the parties in arranging the program of the House. The point of this is to ensure the proper working of Australia’s democratic system of government for all Australians.
and another thing if you carry on like that Davie Mac will sort you out
The Opposition, its Leader Abbott and Christopher Pyne are clearly acting against the best interests of Australia’s Parliamentary institution and the Australian people. When do we know when Pyne last negotiated anything of importance with Anthony Albanese?
Our First Female Prime Minister
Julia Gillard came under a relentless attack over some trumped-up accusation regarding as personal relationship and a role she played in the setting up of a Trade union fighting fund. Below in “Her Finest Hour” you will hear how she refers to herself as simply a 50 year old Woman. What she was too modest to say is that she is a woman with the heart of a Lion.
This Video of her Press Conference was for the “true believers” and not for all those bleating defeatists that have been given too much oxygen in recent times. Yes we have are internal differences but Left Centre or Right we may and do have reasons to disagree but in a disciplined ALP we keep our unity and focus on neutralising the Tory Attack Dogs.
Her Finest Hour
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/s3573785.htm
In contrast see these 2 videos of the Leader of the Tory Opposition Leader Tony Abbott who stumbles when asked some tough questions by Leigh Sales in a recent interview on the ABC 7.30 report Abbott maintains the carbon price and mining tax are to blame for economic uncertainty in Australia while also responding to the style of language and the nature of speech used in parliament by the opposition
To illustrate further I have included an interview on Commercial TV Channel 7 #Lisa Wilkinson Here in this interview just a day later Abbott had a choice to look dumb dumber or dishonest. He obviously thought dishonest was a better look.
At the end of each interview you can see the anger in his eyes …worth noting in respect of his history of abusive and threatening behaviour
On his website Abbott claims to post transcripts of his public interviews; however if you go to his site today you will not find any of these interviews
Just for good measure here is a third interview where again he is less aggressive bit still he avoids key questions this time in response to a broad criticism of the opposition in Parliament made by opposition back bencher and ex Leader of the Liberal Party Malcolm Turnbull who said…..
“The last 2 years [Opposition in Parliament Question time] almost entirely focused on People Smuggling and the *Carbon Tax” *Price on Carbon
Abbots response “We are not a Stalinist Party”
BUT as we know he won’t allow a free vote by the Parliamentary Liberals on anything especially climate change and LGBTI.
Misogyny and our Prime Minister but first…hear Heart of a Lion
Misogynistic and Gender bias should not be part of the Parliamentary process!!! So Misogyny? LETS RUB IT OUT
Anne Summers writes exposing the The Political Persecution of Australia’s First Female Prime Minister
In the preface to the article Anne Summers wrote the following on her blog.
I have compiled this material, not to titillate nor to reward the people who have generated it, but because I felt it was important that we ordinary citizens and voters be aware of the obscene and offensive material that is circulating about our prime minister and our governor-general. As I say at the end of the speech, we have to stop this and each of us as individuals can say: It Stops with Me.
“On Friday 31 August I delivered the 2012 Human Rights and Social Justice Lecture at the University of Newcastle. I chose as my topic: Her Rights at Work. The political persecution of Australia’s first female prime minister. Like many other Australians, I have been disturbed by the double standards that are seemingly applied to Julia Gillard by the Opposition, by the media and by many ordinary people.
But in the course of researching this topic I discovered that Gillard is subjected to far worse than mere double-standards. There is an entire industry of vilification, much of it sexually crude, all of it offensive and designed to undermine her authority and thus her legitimacy in the role as Australia’s first female prime minister.
I felt that I could not argue this case without displaying at least some of the material that I was referring to.
I recognise that it is very confronting and that not everyone will want to look at it.
So here we have “Her rights at work”
Here are 2 links to an article in 2 versions of the article written by Anne Summers.
I thought I would include something briefly about Anne Summers recent life I confess for the sake of speed to post this article I have just refered to others research in 1970, Summers and other WLM members squatted in two derelict houses owned by the Church of England, turning them into the Elsie Women’s Refuge to provide shelter to women and children who were victims of domestic violence.
Anne received a postgraduate scholarship to do a PhD, which she used to write the book in 1975, ‘Damned Whores and God’s Police’ which looked at the history of women in Australia.
In ‘Damned Whores and God’s Police’ ( I’m fortunate my House mate has a copy) Anne Summers set out to explain barriers to women’s participation in society. I am told very firmly it was an important contribution women’s modern-day emancipation.
She was offered a position to work as a journalist on the National Times, where she wrote an investigation into NSW prisons which led to a royal commission, and to her being awarded a Walkley.
From 1986 to 1992, Anne Summers lived in New York, becoming editor-in-chief of “Ms.” magazine. Later was appointed a political adviser to Labor Prime Minister, Paul Keating, until 1993, heading the Office of the Status of Women during this time.
Dr Summers was then appointed editor of the “Good Weekend” magazine, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. In 2003 Anne Summers wrote a new book new book, “The End of Equality” . I mention these two books not to suggest I have read them I haven’t (honestly they would not be my cup of tea) but I mention them to bring some context to her blog post “Her rights at work” and if you wanted to explore her work further .
I must also add that I am a very chuffed London Lad that Dr Anne Summers is one of my Facebook friends. I shudder to think what she might think of my grammar, sentence construction etc. But then again it might not be too bad 🙂 I’m just a bloke after all and a man who like many of us battle within ourselves decades of society conditioning and instilled gender bias 🙂
escalator over the hill 
I tire of these apologetics on the basis of gender. Three points up front –
* Abbott’s defective character and bone-headedness do not abdicate Gillard from accountability for a government that is doing a lot of very nasty things to undermine many the liberties we all take for granted and subvert liberal democracy itself. To claim Abbott is somehow “representative” of critics is tarring with a very broad brush, and –
* the hatchet job done on her regarding AWU and her time at Slater & Gordon are hardly the worst example of such there is
* how are your graphics about Abbott any less offensive than those you cite targeting Gillard?
The only point that you seem to be raising is that political hypocrisy and betrayal of principle are forgivable on the grounds of gender. I disagree. This “faith” that Gillard is pure and free from guilt because she is our first female Prime Minister is in itself sexist in that it subscribes to the idea that her gender should allow her more slack than male counterparts – i.e. she’s not really equal and how dare we expect her to be so.
First the hypocrisies. Gillard claims to be an atheist and lives in sin. Yet –
* she is stonewalling gay marriage, and
* entrenching school chaplaincy and religious instruction programs, the cost of which is approaching the $1 billion mark, even as funding is slashed from core education programs and many schools face the prospect of closure.
Second, the destruction of liberal democratic principles and civil liberties –
* Her grand Great Firewall of Australia censorship scheme is not dead and still simmering in the background
* The proposal to give carte blanche digital surveillance powers to police and intelligence services to monitor and data warehouse every action every citizen makes on an electronic communication device, coupled with the near criminalisation of encryption. A grand plan to destroy all privacy and create individual dossiers on all citizens that use such devices. The ASIO dossiers of the ’60s and ’70s will look like the good old days.
* The obsessive secrecy of her government and absolute corruption of the FOI process. Virtually every piece of legislation is now schemed behind close with no scrutiny or accountability to the electorate. This is a good example of a Labor FOI request on the data retention scheme – http://i.imgur.com/Hbqt2.jpg – and this year the Gillard government spent close to $10 million on document shredding machines, 10 times the amount spent on training for the handling of FOI requests.
* Selling our country’s sovereign rights piecemeal to overseas interests, most notably with the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership talks which would see us forfeit control of our copyright and patent systems to US control – which among many other evils would see generic medicines vanish from our pharmacies.
And these lists go on.
The Gillard government makes it very clear that the citizens of this country cannot be trusted and are pretty much all criminals that just haven’t been caught yet. Further, we are too stupid to know what is good for us, therefore it justifies all the secrecy. Sorry, this government is destructive to the point of being outright evil. It wants to destroy our way of life. To say that criticism of this is sexist is beyond insulting – it is the kind of statement that can only be made from inside an identity politic reality bubble absolutely divorced from the real world.
Gillard’s only legacy will be to deliver a disastrous coalition landslide. I look forward to how that picture will get painted.
By: franc hoggle on September 16, 2012
at 2:23 pm
I have no problem with critical opinions however the points you raise which are not just 3 but 10. 4 are all dealt with within the article and in Dr Ann Summers address.
Clearly you have just used the opportunity not to critique, criticise or even pull apart the basis of what I say. You only confirm further the correctness of the position as stated. That is that there is an unmitigated, misogynist and cowardly barrage of attacks made on Gillard. If that were not enough in the context of our Parliamentary Democracy the whole constitutional office of the Prime Minister is also being severely attacked.
Let me go through you points 1×1
• You provide no evidence of this and even if you did it isn’t related to the business of what I have written i.e. you are off subject.
• Was dealt with in her Press conference but your response is confusing and I’m not sure of the context related to what I wrote i.e. you are off subject.
• The Graphics are really quite harmless and none show a cock strapped to Abbott’s head or the like. Had I done so nothing would compare to the filth and the images portrayed about the Prime Minister e.g. with the Pickering dildo. Had I cut pasted a picture of a cunt between his legs then you might have some recourse to criticise.
• The “Great firewall” is a proposal by Minister Conroy. Like it or not you cannot attribute everything to the Prime Minister but again you are off the subject. Not surprising since much of the pornographic filth is posted and distributed via the internet which you clearly approve of.
• I did qualify in a positioning statement at the very start of the article that I didn’t agree with everything Gillard states or proposes. The article was not written in relation to specific policy but was clearly focused on the issue of the continuing barrage of abuse Gillard has been subjected to as a WOMAN. Most of it is disgusting but again you are again off subject. On the issue of ASIO and surveillance as you would be pretty naïve if you didn’t think that ASIO was indeed keeping a watching brief on political activists. Right or wrong and I am not saying it is right but that’s how it is and that is how it will always be. Yes we have to oppose the invasion of privacy and mitigate its impact and fight any attack on our Civil Liberties but that is another matter and an ongoing struggle to be dealt within the frame work of our Social Democracy. And you know what? A Government expects that.
• I will repeat this statement of yours “**The obsessive secrecy of her government and absolute corruption of the FOI process. Virtually every piece of legislation is now schemed behind closed doors with no scrutiny or accountability to the electorate.”
Last point first: Clearly you forget we have a Parliamentary Democracy and collectively the electorate made a decision to elect a number of MPs to the Parliament. They accordingly govern the country not unlike the Coalition in opposition which as Christopher Pyne declares their role is to keep the Government to account…I guess that’s job done.
Come September next year the electorate have the choice again to vote.
Regarding the first part of your **statement what on earth is your evidence? We have an open and transparent Parliament and all legislation passed is discussed openly on the floor of the Parliament and then scrutinised in the Senate. The legislation and Policy is then delivered through an appropriate Government Department. This is the same for all sides of Politics.
• The point you raise about “document shredding machines” I don’t understand nor am I able to verify your claim of the procurement; which is absolutely nothing to do with the article. The link you provided is of American comedian George Carling which is most puzzling. He from memory died in 2008. Now you are not only off the subject you are off the continent
• The simple way for me to deal with the trans-pacific partnership “agreement” is to point out that it was entered into in 2006 under a Howard Liberal National Party coalition, but once again you are off the subject
• You make the comment “that the Government does not trust us and further, we are too **stupid to know what is good for us”. I respond first with a rhetorical question. Is the statement a projection about yourself …the **stupidity I mean? As for the comment that we or “I am in a bubble absolutely divorced from the real world” My response is this; I have the feeling I wouldn’t like your way of life nor having it imposed upon me or what it might mean for us all.
Friend you do not know me to decide whether I am either attached or divorced from this world or…..how rigorously I am willing to fight to keep people with your vision for Australia well away from the corridors of Power.
• As for the landslide I wouldn’t be rushing to the TAB if I were you. We have won the last 4 monthly rounds of the fight and there are another 11 to go before the election.
Bottom line is this: of the 10 points you raise 4 were already covered in the article Did you actually read it? 6 didn’t go within light years or the core of my position.
What I think is you didn’t actually read the article, listen to or read the text of Dr Summers address but just chose this opportunity to present a diatribe of hysterical anti Gillard nonsense
In the interests of democracy I have given oxygen to your response but if you think to continue the dialogue make it relevant to the article please.
By: daviemacdonald on September 17, 2012
at 12:56 pm
[…] united dozens of immigrant communities. with This post is a follow-up to that I posted 3 days ago “The Political Persecution of Australia’s First Female Prime Minister” Credit for the title goes to Dr Anne […]
By: Her Rights at Work Dr Anne Summers Lecture | escalator over the hill on September 14, 2012
at 11:30 am
Reblogged this on AZIAZONE.
By: dyoll09 on September 13, 2012
at 11:38 am
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By: The Political Persecution of Australia’s First Female Prime Minister | escalator over the hill on September 12, 2012
at 9:38 pm