Prime Minister Gillard’s speech yesterday was a triumph for feminism. It was a game-changer. It had me dancing in my car, prancing down the corridors with glee, and fist-pumping in the office whenever the video was played on the news. It had me yelling “Julia Gillard has arrived! This is what leadership looks like, amigos! Our first female Prime Minister has done us proud!
Since taking office, Gillard has been careful and deliberate not to cry sexism. By doing this, her opponents have been able to get away with some appalling behaviour. But yesterday, after Tony Abbott’s gob-smacking and highly provocative use of the Alan-Jones phrase “died of shame”, she let rip.
I watched the full 15 minute speech twice yesterday, and again first thing this morning. I woke up with a smile on my face.
But when I read the news, I felt like I’d seen an entirely different Question Time yesterday.
Either Peter Hartcher’s television is broken, or he dozed off and missed the part where our Prime Minister BROUGHT IT.
Hartcher wrote in his Sydney Morning Herald column this morning: “If Gillard won’t defend respect for women, what will she defend? Just another politician indeed.”
And this: “Gillard’s judgment was flawed. All she achieved was a serious loss of credibility.”
WHAT NOW? Defending respect for women is exactly what she did yesterday – with a fiery eloquence I’ve never seen from her before. Her judgment, like any other politician, is often flawed. But not this time. This time, she made a courageous choice to be honest and to be publicly angry, and I will not have any columnist take that away from her. Or from me.