What’s behind the prime minister’s lack of popularity with women? It could be his history of sexist and patronising comments.
In 2015, Morrison burst onto the Ernies scene when he and Joe Hockey accused new mothers — on Mother’s Day! — of “double dipping” and committing “a fraud” on the Paid Parental Leave Scheme if they also legally accessed employer schemes.
In 2018, he knocked back a proposed gender analysis of tax issues with his truly tin-eared statement that “the tax system doesn’t discriminate by gender, it’s an absolutely ridiculous proposition … you don’t get pink forms and blue forms to fill out your tax returns”.
In 2019, he was once again in trouble for his smirking reference to Baywatch star Pamela Anderson’s complaints about Julian Assange’s treatment in the UK: “I’ve had plenty of mates who’ve asked me if they can be my special envoy to sort out the issue with Pamela Anderson.”
Also that year, he opined: “It’s not in our values to push some people down to lift some people up … We want to see women rise. But we don’t want to see women rise only on the basis of others doing worse.” As women around Australia groaned at this, he won the Political Silver Ernie — but Morrison was unaware of its import.
Last year, when talking about the Women’s March4Justice, he proudly addressed Parliament: “This is a vibrant liberal democracy, Mr Speaker. Not far from here, such marches, even now, are being met with bullets, but not here in this country.”
Following Brittany Higgins’ allegations of rape, he made his now-famous explanation: “Jenny and I spoke last night and she said to me ‘you have to think about this as a father first. What would you want if it were our girls’ … Jenny has a way of clarifying things.”
One of his fallback tactics is to suggest that women who stand up to him are having mental health issues. When Julia Banks criticised the party (and eventually resigned), he indulged in classic gaslighting rhetoric: “I’m supporting Julia and I’m reaching out to Julia and giving her every comfort and support for what has been a pretty torrid ordeal for her.” (Banks memorably described him in her book Power Play as “menacing, controlling wallpaper”.)
He has not changed his language in any way. Even after being lambasted about his “I spoke to Jenny …” statement, he recently referred to the Will Smith slap at the Oscars by saying, “I am fiercely defensive of anyone who would say anything about Jenny, so I can understand”.
I may sound tough on Morrison but the Ernies women are equal opportunity offenders. Only lack of space prevents me from including terrible things that former Labor leader Mark Latham has said about women.
But just remember, the Australian electorate didn’t vote for Latham either.
Source: Scotty the sexist: a history of the PM’s misogynistic language