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Australian
Prime Minister Says Repealing The Carbon Tax Was Best Thing He Did
For Women This Year
CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK
22 December, 2014
Australian
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has made no secret of his disdain for
taking action against climate change. Before buckling to
international pressure earlier this month and contributing to the
Green Climate Fund, a global mechanism to fund clean energy
development, he’d done nothing but rollback regulations and
diminish incentives. On Monday he said his main anti-climate success
this year, repealing Australia’s carbon tax, was also the best
thing he did for women.
“As
many of us know, women are particularly focused on the household
budget and the repeal of the carbon tax means a $550 a year benefit
for the average family,” he explained
Abbott
has had problems with women — female voters — before. So much so
that last year he named himself Minister for Women just to show he
cares. His statement about the carbon tax repeal was in response to a
television host askingwhat his biggest achievement as Minister for
Women was this year.
In
February 2010, Abbott elicited similar ire when saying of the
emissions trading scheme that “what the housewives of Australia
need to understand as they do the ironing is that … their own power
bills when they switch the iron on are going to go up.”
Women
took to social media to react to Abbott’s proudest accomplishment
as Minister of Women.
With
the money saved from repealing the #CarbonTax, I bought an iron and
@tigervsshark bought a pregnant!
#ThanksTonypic.twitter.com/LoZd1lQLc9
-
Kate
McLennan (@katemclennan1) December 21, 2014
Some
men got in on the action too.
Australian
foreign minister Julie Bishop, one of the few women on Abbott’s
frontbench, defended his remarks, saying “women’s policy is
everyone’s policy” and “what’s good for women is good for the
community generally.”
Bishop
was the only woman in the Australian cabinet until Abbott reshuffled
it this week. Abbott’s coalition is the first in nearly 40 years to
fail to appoint a dedicated minister for the status of women or
women’s affairs.
Christine
Milne, leader of The Greens party, said Abbott had been “a
disaster” as minister for women” and that “it’s almost as if
he’s in that portfolio to make sure there are no strides ahead for
women in Australia.”
“He
might as well have said that by abolishing the carbon price he’s
been able to give women more money to buy a new iron and stay at home
and do the ironing more often,” Milne said.
Another
female opposition minister, Michelle Rowland, said Abbott’s answer
demonstrated he had “no vision whatsoever” on women’s issues.
She said he should be talking about pursuing pay equity, helping
women increase participation in educational institutions, or
improving their roles in the private sector, for example.
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