I’m sorry what? Whatever your views on Affirmative Action, this is not how you talk about it. Bishop just responded to the accusation that there weren’t enough women in the Coalition by essentially saying  ‘yeah, well all of yours are shithouse anyway’. And because why? Quotas? It takes a very special kind of nastiness to assume that the presence of a quota must mean the absence of merit.

It’s  reductive and simplistic and is also profoundly disrespectful of any other beneficiary of Affirmative action. 

Bishop was also the guest on Meet The Press five days later, she repeated the comments, and went a step further. Here’s an interaction with Hugh Riminton.

HR: Are women in Australia disadvantaged by their gender?

JB: I don’t think so, when you see that we have a female Governor General, when the PM is a female -  women can achieve whatever they want in life.

Now, there’s an obvious difference between refusing to be seen as a victim and refusing to engage with reality. For Julie Bishop to suggest that women are not at a disadvantage in Australia is to ignore some pretty unassailable truths backed up by some pretty unassailable numbers. Why not peruse, Deputy Opposition Leader, Greg Jericho’s Wonderful Emporium of Entirely Depressing Graphs?

It’s extremely unlikely that women faced with a 17.5% pay gap look to the fact that we have a female Governor General for comfort or as a sign of no disadvantage. Bishop pressed on:

http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/dl-opinion/women-are-no-longer-disadvantaged-20130619-2oikt.html

I can tell you with certainty that women who manage to get there, have had to work at least twice as hard as men, and they often don't get paid as much in the private sector... No offence to you, guys, but that's the truth... And if no-one is gunning presently for the GG, a charming woman with a great sense of duty and decorum, one cannot say the same for who is leading this country, a clever woman with a great sense of duty and decorum as well, but because she runs things without making deals with the media, is an atheist (I know too many people who resent her for that), a red-head (we the blokes-for-Tony got rid of Pauline, then we got Julia — I ask you what?) and "lives in sin" at the lodge, the media is gunning like crazy to shoot her down...

Of course Julie Bishop would not be a feminist, since she is already there in a position of power — in opposition — though in parliament she has shown repeatedly she's only a tenth as clever as Julia Gillard and a zillion times more bitchy than Julia Gillard (who is not bitchy, only accurately describing the misogyny shown by Abbott on that day). Note that Julie Bishop shows total ignorance of the constitutional law of this country, despite being a lawyer...  Idiot windbags of the ritewingnuttery...

And this morning the media is at it again... The only decent headline came from the Financial Review... The merde-och Telegraph treats the news of the day as if Rudd was there already in government, while apparently the Age "demanded" the Prime Minister resigned, according to an indulgent news bulletin on the ABC... 

Meanwhile most papers are promoting Tonicchio northerly push, without one making much about all the serious pitfalls of this crazy idea nor having considered the process in detail, not to mention the invasion into Aboriginal lands.... I am sure one can move 30,000 people northward, destroy some lands and employ people to plant trees that wont grow on "marginal" lands, whatever these are... Silly Tony...