In 1976, then Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser appointed the first ever Minister for Women.
He wanted something formal put in place to make sure women’s affairs were given the right attention in government affairs.
As you can imagine, if one takes on the role they’re supposed to be thinking about gender equality, domestic violence, sexism and one would think – reproductive rights.
A woman’s right to choose what she does with her body.
A woman’s right to bodily autonomy.
Well. That’s what we’d hope they’d be fighting for.
Explaining abortion to Uncle Barnaby. Post continues after video.
For those of us simply stunned that New South Wales is having to fight in 2019 to dismantle archaic laws that make abortion a criminal act, last night’s announcement of a spill motion against the Premier for her pro-choice support was just another blow.
We’ve been in the trenches on this topic for about four months now, and the majority of us are mighty tired.
Let’s not forget, 73 per cent of NSW constituents think abortion should be legal. The majority of us are sitting at home flabbergasted as we watch our politicians continually ignore our pleas, our protests, our desires.
So while we're somewhat relieved to hear that the planned spill motion has been called off hours before it was set to be announced, the stinging blow has already been dealt.
You see, one of the three MPs who planned to move against the Premier for her supposed "shameful" handling (aka, support through a conscience vote) of the new abortion bill, is the New South Wales former Minister for Women and Mental health.
A double blow.
In fact, Tanya Davies held that role right up until April of this year.
Even more depressingly, guess who also held that role but on a national level?
Yep, the man who at the weekend declared that abortion was "effectively infanticide on demand".
Tony Abbott appointed himself Minister for Women in 2013 and held the position for two years.
Two elected politicians who for a combined four years of service were supposed to be fighting for the rights of women.
What we've witnessed in the last four days is Mr Abbott taking it upon himself to attend anti-abortion protests and effectively rally the pro-life troops, while Tanya and her fellow Liberal MPs, Matthew Mason-Cox and Lou Amato, were planning to try to roll a Premier that the people of New South Wales themselves elected.
Apparently the opinions of three MPs overrule that majority.
It's a sad state of affairs when the very ministers who used to be on the frontline for women, are turning their backs on one of the fundamental rights a woman deserves.
A right that, yes we're bringing up that big ol' stat again - 73 per cent of New South Wales are in support of.
It seems to us, Tony and Tanya learnt nothing during their tenure as Minister for Women.
Read More:
"I was 14." 5 women talk about how an abortion changed their life.
The 8 most common arguments against abortion, and exactly what's wrong with each of them.
Oh, no. There’s been a mix up. Barnaby Joyce doesn’t know what an abortion is.
Top Comments
Forget about Abbott. His own party knifed him and his own electorate booted him out of Parliament.
More concerning is the behaviour of the NSW Liberals. They held a conscience vote, and the majority supported the changes to the Abortion bill. And yet a few rebels threatened Gladys with a leadership spill threat.
Throwing a tantrum because they didn't get their way is juvenile.
I read the study you're referring to when you say that 73 per cent of NSW constituents think abortion should be legal.
I found the first question, which was (paraphrasing) did you know abortion is currently listed as an offence under the NSW Crimes Act of 1900, a little odd. How many people are aware of the act that makes something illegal? How many people chose No, because they knew it was illegal but didn't know the act?
When asked do you think abortion should be removed from the act and treated as a health care service, you are right in saying 73% did, but not all of them thought you should be able to get an abortion when you want one, only 58% of people thought that.
Just about everyone thought that is a doctor conscientiously objects they have to send them to another doctor, so that's something at least.
Well, who can blame them. For close to 15 years the public has again and again in overwhelmingly numbers rejected the idea of boat people getting to stay here, but that never gave the Greens or Labor left a moments pause to accept we don’t want open borders did it?
So why can’t conservatives stick to their guns?
Because it's backward and non-progressive. I don't want to live in a country that is going back in time and I'd rather interact with people who aren't all white Australians. It would be small-minded to want to.