Prime Minister Scott Morrison has underestimated the power of women time and time again, and it could cost him the election.
Parliament is all about protection: protecting party members from bad press, keeping the daily dealings of politics behind closed doors, and presenting a unified front to the public.
But in following the unofficial parliamentary playbook, Morrison has underestimated the power of women who have seen too much.
The Me Too movement has given women a name to what they know has been wrong all along, garnering huge amounts of support for women coming forward with their stories of abuse, bullying and harassment. Criticism of Morrison has been mounting, with women — even from within the Coalition — calling out his poor behaviour and dodgy conversations as they arise.
Women have long been ignored on both sides of politics. In the 2019 election, just 35% of women put the Liberal Party as their first preference, compared with 45% of men. Just 15% of voters under 24 voted Liberal. Although Labor scored more of the female vote, it failed to target the Coalition on failing women and scrambled at the last minute to implement gender-based campaigning.
But women are likely to be a key focus of this year’s election.
Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame wield enormous power. They’re well connected, famous and relentless in their drive for justice. Importantly, neither are affiliated with Labor or the Greens, showing the anger around the state of politics isn’t just about party preference, but about the shitty behaviour inside Parliament.
The pair also — as text messages from Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce leaked by Higgins show — have access to insider information damning to Morrison’s reign.
“I and Scott, he is Scott to me until I have to recognise his office, don’t get along. He’s a hypocrite and a liar … I have never trusted him and I dislike how he earnestly rearranges the truth to a lie,” Joyce sent to Higgins via a third party in March 2021. Joyce was on the backbench at the time.
Joyce has apologised to and been forgiven by Morrison: “People say things, and people feel things, people get angry, people get bitter.”
Bitter indeed. And Joyce wasn’t alone in his criticisms. Liberal women Julia Banks, Lucy Gichuhi, Linda Reynolds, Kelly O’Dwyer, and Julie Bishop each spoke about bullying within the party following the leadership spill. While Reynolds and O’Dwyer appear to have been placated, the rest left.
Higgins and Tame aren’t riding on the coat-tails of “victimhood” as journalist Claire Lehmann implied in The Australian, criticising “elevating narratives of female victimhood” as counterproductive.
“Angry and bitter” perhaps, but the pair have moulded their careers on not being victims but survivors relentless in their pursuit for change and justice. They, like scores of women, are sick of being told to smile, placating predators and protecting them and their livelihood with our secrets.
Tame’s stoic reception of Morrison’s and her refusal to smile, Joyce’s texts, and Higgins’ public frustrations at her allegations ignored and cast aside by the Liberal Party show one key thing: respect is earned, not given, and if respect is not there, many women are happy to speak up and speak out.
We’re always told Scotty is a brilliant campaigner, but how many women found his shampooing a woman’s hair a bit yucky?
I found it really creepy!
Did the woman give genuine consent to have her hair washed by that man?
Word is she was a first year apprentice so potentially felt like she couldn’t refuse
If she is a first year apprentice, then normally she would be underage which makes it more than creepy. Potentially legally offensive I would have thought.
Short memories re Barnaby, wasn’t he reported for sexual assault a while ago? That is weird as well.
I was stunned when I saw that photo flop. My skinned literally crawled. Shudder.
You’re not alone on that score. There was sooo much that was wrong with the whole stunt.
“I did not have sets with that woman.”
Now the suggestion for Smirky brazilians!
Extremely creepy! Just so much wrong with it.
I wear my “Vote 1 Zoe Daniel” tee-shirt each morning when I go out on my geriatric walk around the neighborhood in the hope that she will join the progressive group of women in parliament after the next Federal election.
Personally I am not too ‘hung-up’ on gender, race or nationality. I just want to see positive, progressive policies. Such policies would of course treat all reasonable people, regardless of gender, race or nationality, with respect and dignity.
Vote 1 any “voices of” women and hope they have a say in getting rid of the current lot of lying rorting backslapping boys club members. A minority government may be an honest option.
They actually work because people have to negotiate. and would help break down the Liberal/ Labor chasm.
The saying used to be, take the right of the Labor Party and the left of the Liberal Party and 95% of the population would be in there.
Howard basically ripped the heart out of what he called the “wets” or left of the Liberal Party and with the mean and calculating eyes of a petrol station owner he forced them to leave.
I want decent honest people doing the job for which they have been hired, not, the ones intent on ensuring that their mates all get a government “break” and so pay back the favour at a future time.
I would like the new integrity unit to have retrospective powers, so that they can interrogate the source of the multi-millionaires wealth 7 years after they have left parliament.
On the hair washing issue, given the previous “laying on of hands” where he apparently gave some sort of blessing unbeknown to the person being touched, his advisors, PR people and body guards should have steered him well away. He should know by now he shouldnt touch anyone. Its too creepy.
Brazilian ? Any one?
I’d would definitely love to see young women and men take on the stale, pale males masquerading as politicians in Canberra. We need politicians with enthusiasm and a willingness to work to better peoples lives instead of the greedy political machine working for lobbyists and big business that we have now. I say BRING IT ON.
Me too. But they don’t necessarily all need to be young, do they, Gabrielle?
No they don’t ALL need to be young but we do need some younger voices being heard. Perhaps then younger Australians would engage with Australian politics more.
You may well be right. But I hope some of them are also interested in policy and justice.
A major error in your first paragraph Amber: “it SHOULD cost him the election”.
I am certainly hoping that the overwhelming majority of women will heed the call, and give this government of misogynists and crumb maidens the caning it deserves.