“There has not been a single word and single action or a single policy that has justified my cautious optimism in Tony Abbott as Prime Minister.”

The day after Tony Abbott was elected Prime Minister two years ago, when many people were threatening to move to Canada (or any country of which Tony Abbott was not Prime Minister), I wrote a post here on Mamamia stating that I was cautiously optimistic.

Despite a woeful and alarming history on issues affecting women such as reproductive rights and maternity leave and despite him having a general air of some highly regressive attitudes about women and our place in the workforce, the parliament and the world, I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“All we can do is judge our new Prime Minister by what he says and how he’s promised to lead the country. In time, we’ll be able to judge him by what he actually does as Prime Minister. It’s not about rhetoric anymore, it’s about action and we’re about to see how that plays out.”

Look! No woman problem here!

Here’s what happened after that:

There has not been a single word and single action or a single policy that has justified my cautious optimism in Tony Abbott as Prime Minister. He has shown particular aptitude for alienating women. He has been wilfully, recklessly and arrogantly burning any capital he had with women since the day he was elected.

From the archives. Breakfast meeting with Tony Abbott in 2009.

He has stubbornly and steadfastly refused to engage with women in any public sphere. He has ignored hundreds of requests from us at the Mamamia Women’s Network, despite assiduously promising he would talk to us after he was elected. Every Prime Minister since Mamamia was founded has willingly engaged with us, as did Tony Abbott before he became Prime Minister.

Because why would the Minister for Women talk to a women’s website?

Tony Abbott has done nothing to persuade women that he understands the issues that affect us or that he cares enough about them to even learn what they are.

It’s time for him to go.