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Abortion will become political plaything if Coalition wins election, PM warns Abortion will become political plaything if Coalition wins election, PM warns
(about 4 hours later)
Abortion will become the "political plaything" of male politicians if the Coalition wins the September federal election, prime minister Julia Gillard says. A war of words has broken out on the future direction of Australia’s abortion laws, with prime minister Julia Gillard declaring “we don’t want to live in an Australia where abortion again becomes the political plaything of men who think they know better.”
Addressing the launch of Labor's Women for Gillard campaign, the prime minister said women would "once again (be) banished from the centre of Australia's political life" under a government led by Tony Abbott. The prime minister attempted to shrug off continuing leadership speculation and a shadow campaign by Kevin Rudd by going on the offensive over abortion rights and other women’s policy issues in her strongest public intervention since her now famous misogyny speech.
"We've got a hard fight ahead but it's a fight for women we must wage and we must win on the 14th of September," she told a crowd of around 100 women in Sydney on Tuesday. But Gillard’s declaration provoked a swift and emphatic response from the Coalition. Deputy liberal leader Julie Bishop called on Gillard to apologise for waging a “gender war to divide the nation.”
"Australian women need a voice ... that voice is Labor." Bishop argued Gillard was becoming desperate. “Julia Gillard knows full well the Coalition won’t change the abortion law. For her to raise this as an election issue is as offensive as it is false, and she should apologise,” Bishop told Guardian Australia on Tuesday afternoon.
Speaking to a wall of young female ALP supporters, Gillard highlighted abortion as a key election issue. Victorian Liberal MP Kelly O’Dwyer also took to Twitter to voice her objections. “Disgusted by PM's comments - divisive gutter politics.”
"We don't want to live in an Australia where abortion again becomes the political plaything of men who think they know better," she said. At a “women for Gillard” function in Sydney, the prime minister elevated the election contest on 14 September to a referendum on the future of women’s voices and influences in political life - implying that women would be out of the picture under a government led by Tony Abbott.
"That's not the future we should choose for our nation." “On that day, 14 September, we are going to make a big decision as a nation. It’s a decision about whether, once again, we will banish women’s voices from our political life,” Gillard said.
She said her message for commentators and pollsters was that Labor could win September's election, adding that she was "energised for the fight". Referencing a tendency for the Opposition leader and some frontbenchers to wear blue ties, Gillard said: “I invite you to imagine it. A prime minister – a man in a blue tie – who goes on holidays to be replaced by a man in a blue tie.”
"We know that nothing worth fighting for ever came easy," Gillard said. “A treasurer, who delivers a budget wearing a blue tie, to be supported by a finance minister – another man in a blue tie. Women once again banished from the centre of Australia’s political life.”
She said Labor had always campaigned on behalf of women on issues like paid parental leave and pay equality. The blue tie reference attracted a strong and mostly negative response among politics watchers on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon, many of whom pointed out a penchant for blue ties was solidly bipartisan.
"It was only Labor that was going to put paid parental leave on the agenda and get it done," Gillard said. Gillard declared in her speech that “women’s equality has always been hard-fought for, and we’re entering a hard fight again.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Gillard dismissed as a "waste of breath" speculation about her leadership, insisting she's still the best person to take Labor to the 14 September poll. “But I know I’ve got so many women to share it with in this room and beyond. I’m energised for the fight, thank you for coming along.”
The prime minister recently told Guardian Australia in an interview that she was concerned that abortion rights was back on the political agenda in Australia.
The Democratic Labor Party Senator John Madigan has signalled he wants to legislate to ban “gender selection abortions.” If current opinion polling proves to be accurate, Senator Madigan could find himself in a king-making role in the Senate when the membership of the upper house rolls over in July 2014.
Gillard said in her interview with Guardian Australia: “I think it is always possible for abortion to become a political issue and it always disturbs me when I see the start of what looks like voices once again coming out in the debate to try to create community sentiment so that women no longer have the ability to govern their own bodies and make their own choices.”
“I don’t think as women we can ever rest easy on this, we always have to always be mindful there are forces in Australian political debate and Australian political life who would seek to impose the alternative: no choice for women,” she said.
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