The award for the year’s most satisfying political smackdown goes to Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who, in this video, defends Speaker Peter Slipper from ouster by the Opposition after being caught sending salacious text messages. A fiery Prime Minister Gillard countered that it’s Opposition Leader Tony Abbott who is the real misogynist in this story and then proceeded to let him have it for 15 glorious minutes — to his face.
Her attempt to save him failed, however, as an embarrassed Slipper later resigned, but what an attempt. For those who can’t play video here are some highlights:
“I say to the Leader of the Opposition I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man [Abbott]. I will not. And the Government will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man. Not now, not ever.”
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Because if he wants to know misogyny looks like in modern Australia He doesn’t need a motion in the House of representatives, he needs a mirror. …..I was offended too by the sexism, by the misogyny of the Leader of the Opposition catcalling across this table at me as I sit here as Prime Minister, ‘If the Prime Minister wants to, politically speaking, make an honest woman of herself … ‘ — something that would never have been said to any man sitting in this chair.”
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“I was offended when the Leader of the Opposition went outside in the front of Parliament and stood next to a sign that said ‘Ditch the witch.’ I was offended when the Leader of the Opposition stood next to a sign that described me as a man’s b***h. I was offended by those things. Misogyny, sexism, every day from this Leader of the Opposition.”
And that’s just a taste. Reports the International Business Times: “During her lengthy harangue, Gillard noticed that Abbott was apparently distracted by something, leading her to sneer that he was “now looking at his watch because apparently a woman’s spoken too long.”
For everyone Stateside who’s fed up with “legitimate rape,” Governor Ultrasound and the seemingly nonstop assault on women’s rights, it wasn’t nearly long enough.
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