‘Ditch the Bitch’? Seriously?

Meshel Laurie Wednesday 23 March 2011 10:38pm

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What is Australian politics coming to when our alternative PM and two of his most high profile female shadow ministers appear in front of semi-literate hate mail?  Last month, Independent Tony Windsor revealed he’d received death threats. Now this? Broadcaster and comedian Meshel Laurie wonders how low one must go, in pursuit of the highest office in the land. She writes:

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“I think there’s an apostrophe missing from your little sign there, Sir.  Did you mean to call the Prime Minister “Bob Brown’s Bitch”?   Or did you mean to tell the alternative Prime Minister and accompanying media scrum, “Bob Browns Bitch” ?

I mean, “Bob Browns Bitch,” literally means that a bloke called Bob, turned a bitch brown, doesn’t it?   Which bitch?  The “Witch” bitch your mate’s upset about?  How does he even brown bitches, this Bob?

Gosh!  It doesn’t bear thinking about.  I can see why you’re so upset.

I mean, I’m quite upset myself at the moment.  How could I not be when bitches are paid less than men doing the same jobs, bosses want to ask bitches in job interviews if they intend to have kids, bitches are bombarded with unrealistic images of other bitches in the media.

Blimey!  What hope have we got when bitches are so outrageously under-represented in Australia’s boardrooms?  Joe Hockey says when the Libs are back in Government they’ll introduce a quota, and force corporations to hire bitches.

*Sigh* You’re the only one who really gets us little Joe.

Tony Abbott, father to three daughters and Bronwyn Bishop, mother to two daughters including Channel 10’s Angela Bishop (who is in my opinion a brilliant broad) and Sophie Mirabella (mother of two daughters and two step daughters) represent the Liberal Party in Australia.   When they allow themselves to be photographed looking like this, it’s hard to believe that the man who founded the Australian Liberal party, Robert Menzies, said at the time; “We took the name Liberal because we were determined to be a progressive party, willing to make experiments, in no sense reactionary, but believing in the individual, his rights and his enterprise…”

The letter from Bob Brown to the Prime Minister, apologising for the nature of the protest signs.

Had I not seen this picture with my own eyes, I would not have believed that these three educated, sophisticated people who believe themselves to be in possession of all the virtues required to lead the rest forward by their own example, and to represent us to the world, would stoop so low.

How could they encourage this depth of ignorance, mysogony and aggression to frame the debate about how we as a community will cope with climate change and the impending disappearence of fossil fuel?

Progressive?  Experimental?  In no sense reactionary?

Prime Minister Gillard, for her part, fronts the Labor Party which purports to stand for “ equality, social justice, compassion and the fair go at home and abroad”, which must be confusing for gay people who can’t marry like straights, but can be taxed like them and those seeking compassion on Christmas Island.

What makes me sad is that I don’t think these “leaders” believe what they are saying about any of these issues.  They are trying to guess what the majority of Australian voters want them to say, and when they hit on a golden nugget, they say it as loudly as they can, at every opportunity to drown out all the things we don’t want to hear.

The one who gives us what we want most, and the least of what scares or irritates us, wins.  Their name in the history books is their vane little prize, and we are the dice they try to spin their way.

As for you Sir, with the sign, I do have one more thing I’d like you to know: I’d have been tempted to pop a hyphen in the “Juliar” too.  I’d have gone, “Ju-Liar”, just to make it really clear that I was calling her a bitch, and a liar, and it wasn’t another grammatical error.  Then again, what would this bitch know about anything?”

It’s been pointed out by many that the Greens risk being called hypocritical for condemning this type of abuse of the PM while they were seemingly untroubled by depicting John Howard as a dog when he was PM.

John Howard as a dog during a Greens protest

It seems things have certainly cranked up a notch and having a female Prime Minister really seems to have given some people licence to behave in abhorrent ways. What’s happened to Australian politics recently? Has it gotten worse or are we just on edge in a hung parliament? Is Julia copping it worse because she’s a woman? And what did you think of the protesters and the Liberal participation in the anti carbon tax rally?

Regardless of her policies or which side she’s on, I do not want Australia’s Prime Minister called a ‘bitch’ or a ‘witch’. Just like I wouldn’t want Julia Gillard to stand in front of signs calling Tony Abbott a ‘dickhead’. It demeans us all.

Tony Abbott last night issued a statement saying he regretted the language of some protestors and did not endorse offensive signs at the rally.