The Abbott/Gillard contest went too far. Beyond the
normal push and shove of Parliament. The level of
personal vitriol levelled at the former Prime
Minister in Parliamentary debates was of a
substantially different nature from anything we had
ever seen in the past. Abbott's strategy had been
to paint Gillard as untrustworth and he repeatedly
focused on her gender. When doing this he invoked a
deep suspicion of successful women which resides in
Australian culture.

Anyway - I shan't argue any further.
The record is there for those interested. And those of
us who remember those times - do know what went on.
No matter how many times we're told that it was "par for
the course." It wasn't. And it certainly wasn't
politically "waffle," or "whinging," - it was sexism and
mysogyny. And the PM finally called it out.

Dear RObert,

Hillary Clinton has gone.

And as far as I am aware they didn't find anything
on her. The investigation into Donald Trump is
still ongoing. Who knows where that will end?

In any case history will judge them both.

The same as they will our present and past PM's.

Take Mr Howard's
"non-core promises," his selling of the Iraq War,
Saddam Hussein's non-existent weapons of mass destruction,
the AWB's dealings with the same Hussein or Howard's
appaling behaviour regarding the children overboard
affair. And all this treated to chapter and verse about
how complaints were the sort of thing that only concerned
"Howard haters." That decent and ordinary people were too
busy getting on with their lives to concern themselves with
hair-splitting about what Howard did or didn't do or say.

But it's a different story when it comes to Julia Gillard
and Hillary Clinton. They're women, and not to be trusted.
That's life.

Sexist and misandry would be a more apt summation especially of the view that Gillard copped more than is dished out to male or conservative politicians.

R0bert

especially of the view that Gillard copped more than is dished out to male or conservative politicians.
R0bert,
If she hadn't brought it all on herself it wouldn't have turned out the way it did. What's that old saying of laying down with dogs,.....

So the personal attacks on Gillard were somehow deserved because of the Carbon Tax and Peter Slipper?

Is that the same tax that Peta Credlin recently admitted was never really a tax but a convenient political weapon to use at the time?

The "tax" based on a two second edited grab from a TV interview that left out the following statement about an intended price on carbon - the same fact that was published in the Australian the day before the election?

And Peter Slipper - the Liberals own nominee for Deputy Speaker who his party was already planning to dump in order to make way for the corrupt and conspiratorial Mal Brough? His Party nickname name was "Slippery Pete" when he was under their protective umbrella before he agreed to become replacement speaker and was later turned on by his own when he made Abbott's intended coup harder.

Abbott effectively endorsed all the abusive personal protests against Gillard by never condemning them - an act he was later said to regret, but then we've all seen clear examples of his morality and decency in recent years. Unlike him, there has been no "sniping or undermining" from Gillard since.

Funny that nobody ever asked Abbott if his wife was gay during a radio interview or portrayed him in a satirical (ABC!) TV comedy as a bogan PM having sex in his office under the Australian flag.

I forgot to add the incident of Gillard appearing on a Liberal Party fundraiser menu as "Julia Gillard Kentucky Fried Quail - small breasts, huge thighs and a big red box".

Really classy, especially when "Jewellery Asbestos" Bishop later called for Gillard to apologise for a statement about the abortion issue possibly becoming a political plaything for men.