Where There's Steam, There's Fire

Hasn't Tony had a good week? I bet he's secretly relieved about those poor insulation installers who died - they've taken the attention nicely away from his comments to the "housewives of Australia". I can see the Advisers now - "thank fuck for those dead workers, we can attack Peter G for his plan to significantly reduce the power needs of Australian homes and no one will remember what Tony said about ironing. Hurrah!"

(And of course I don't mean to be flippant about the deaths, it's a terrible thing to have happened and is a reminder of how important enforcement and compliance is when you launch a scheme that's nation wide and involves a lot of money. It also reminds us that unions, health and safety and fair wages are vitally important to Australian trades).

But back to Tony.

I wanted to blog about his 'virginity' comments, but you know what? It was almost too easy. We all know he's a right wing, anti feminist, arsehole. But then came the ironing comments. It was just too much on top of the virginity stuff. Where does he get off making assumptions about Australian women? Where does he get off telling women what they should be doing with their private lives?

Obviously, some damage control was required. There was quite an uproar about the ironing stuff, with a lot of the comments focusing on the fact that it's pretty hard to identify a 'typical Australian family' and reiterating that the majority of women are in the workplace - not sitting at home being married to a house, ironing.

I love politics. I love that this week, as penance for his thoughtless comments, and to prove that he's a modern guy, Tony got on national TV and ironed a shirt. Cause that totally makes me change my mind about him........

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/tony-abbott-started-ironing-this-week/story-e6frfku0-1225829534250