Australian PM attacks opposition leader on sexism, misogyny
On Tuesday Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard spoke passionately for in a 15-minute speech during which she confronted opposition leader Tony Abbott, accusing him of sexism and misogyny. Watch here:
"Misogyny, sexism, every day from the leader of the opposition," Gillard yelled in response to Abbott's motion to dismiss the speaker of parliament, Peter Slipper, on those grounds. Slipper was under scrutiny for sending inappropriate and offensive text messages to a staff member and eventually resigned. But the real story of the day was Gillard's tirade, which went viral shortly after it concluded.
"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, that's what he needs," Gillard said, standing directly across from Abbott and going on for 15 minutes to accuse him of hypocrisy."What I won't stand for is the leader of the opposition coming into this place and peddling a double standard," she said.
In reference to the text messages in question Gillard said, "I am offended by those things in the same way that I have been offended by things that the leader of the opposition has said and no doubt will continue to say in the future."
It did not take long for this speech to start circling the Internet, with several international news outlets picking it up. The Australian Broadcasting Company has gotten over 300,000 views on their website and YouTube, and that number is sure to keep rising.
[via Al Jazeera, The Guardian]
Related on SmartPlanet:
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com