Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott on Tuesday was forced to sit just feet away from Prime Minister Julia Gillard and endure a fearless scolding over his record of "misogynistic and sexist" attacks on her.
Following's Abbott's push to have House Speaker Peter Slipper removed for crude text messages about female genitalia, Gillard lashed out the opposition leader during question time, saying she would "not be lectured on sexism and misogyny by this man. ... Not now, not ever."
"If he wants to know what misogyny looks like in modern Australia he doesn't need a motion in the House of Representatives, he needs a mirror," the prime minister charged.
"I was offended too by the sexism, by the misogyny, of the leader of the opposition cat-calling 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," she explained.
"I was offended when the leader of the opposition went outside in the front of Parliament and stood in front of a sign that said 'ditch the witch'," Gillard continued. "I was offended when the leader of the opposition stood next to a sign that described me as a man's 'bitch'."
(h/t: The Political Notebook)
