Whether you think you can…

There is an election coming up. Either a by-election or, later, some time, a federal election. Who will win? It must not be LNP. Their behaviour in the past 5 years has been abdominal, especially their relation to any politician of any other party which has not supported their ‘new’ acts or bills. ALP – Bill Shorten – seems to be the top of those that LNP picks on. Why do they? Is their abuse relative to their positions in government?

I read a book after Julia Gillard was out-voted in 2013, titled “Bewitched and bedevilled”, by many authors who objected to what LNP and the media had done, both to Gillard and to women. Gillard was the first female prime minister and ran a very good government with a shortfall team of Labor, supported by Greens and independents, but LNP, behind Tony Abbott back then, abused her unthinkably. The most visual in my own mind is the picture of Abbott, Bishop and other LNP people standing in front of two extremely unacceptable posters: one said “Juliar…. Bob Browns (sic) bitch” over some drawn in flame, the other was “Ditch the witch” with a witch drawn in the middle, flying on a broom. Gillard? A witch? A bitch??

Who the hell did the LNP think they were? Abusers? Bullies? Anti-women? Why did Abbott and his chaos team stand in front of those posters?? 

Since they were voted into government in 2013, LNP has ruined Australia. The present PM, Malcolm Turnbull, is a rich man. He doesn’t care about poor people (“escalates his war on the poor and unemployed”, New Matilda). He doesn’t care about disabled people (“government's bid to link disability funding to welfare cuts has backfired spectacularly”, SMH). He doesn’t care what tax is used for (“sticks defiantly to business tax cuts”, The Guardian). He doesn’t care about ABC (“ramps up attack on public broadcaster”, The Guardian). He doesn’t care at all about ALP (“party-pooper trick of calling five by-elections on the day of the Labor Party's biggest celebration”, Fraser Coast Chronicle). He doesn’t care about women politicians (“politics is still not an equal place for women”, The Conversation). He does care what goes into his own bank account (“the highest paid politician in the OECD”, SBS). 

The following essay writers from “Bewitched and bedevilled” wrote about what upset them – what upset so many women. This abuse they wrote about was from the media, the LNP party – and yes, LNP women. If you have never read “Bewitched and bedevilled”, read these: they can make you angry, make you cry, make your hair stand up on your neck.

Emily Maguire, p14:     Political reporting has all but ceased to exist.

Jane Caro, p24:             See, the critics imply smugly, we told you women just aren’t up to it.

Kathy Lette, p35:         Perhaps it’s time all Australian women took up knitting, to enable is to impale misogynists on the end of our needles.

Helen Razer, p44:         Yes. Yes. Politicians have ALWAYS made empty promises with big smiles. The thing is, now, no one seems to care.

Helen Pringle, p75:       What is new is that the use of the pornography to incite laughter against women has migrated into the heart of political discourse, as a way of humiliating those who don’t know their proper place.

Eva Cox, p83:               On the wider questions, gender remains an uncomfortable fit with power politics.

Catherine Lumby, p90: Female politicians are seen as female before they are seen as politicians.

Claire Hawey, p100:     She has been a victim of frequent and often shocking nastiness – sometimes by people who were also grotty sexists.

Clementine Ford, p108:          These are the depths of sexism to which political discourse in this country sunk while wrestling with the challenge of a woman in charge.

Shakira Hussein, p120: …similarities in strategies that [women] adopted to negotiate the minefield of gender and power in which they found themselves.

Ruth Hessey, p125:      Another quick check of the image-makers’ guide to success reveals that a woman ‘diminshes her image as an expert or an authority figure’ if she ‘turns a man on’.

Tracey Spicer, p133:     [LNP] had described her as ‘deliberately barren’ and, as a consequence, ‘unqualified’ to lead the country. It wasn’t long before this slur was dragged back from the muckheap and slung again. And again.

Carol Johnson, p140:    Male politicians who replace existing leaders seem to be constructed as understandably ambitious, while women who do so risk being constructed as ruthless and devious.

Chloe Hooper, p156:    The relationship between journalists and a politician is a co-dependent but not a transparent one.

Tanya Plibersek, p187:  It is absolutely clear that the News Ltd media were extremely hostile towards the Labor Party under both Julia’s and Kevin’s leadership. It’s also true that the right-wing talk-back hosts have a very clear political agenda of their own.

There is an election coming up. Either a by-election or, later, some time, a federal election. Yes, I said this at the start of this blog, but it is winding me up. I am a very, very small part of everything that Turnbull and his party does not care about, does not like, but I did not choose to be here, I did not choose to be poor, I did not choose to be disabled and I wish I could work.

Who will win the by-elections and the federal election? 

It must not be LNP.

Trenoweth, S 2013, editor Bewitched and Bedevilled, Hardie Grant Books, VIC