New low in Australian discourse as radio DJ asks Gillard is partner gay
Insulting quizzing of Australian PM Gillard on whether her live-in partner is gay adds another chapter to dire discourse in lead-up to poll
A menu at a conservative political fundraiser likens a dish to Prime Minister Julia Gillard's intimate anatomy. A radio host asks her on-air if her partner is gay.
Mud-slinging is nothing new in politics, but a no-holds-barred election campaign in Australia is plumbing depths seldom seen.
Here we are yet again ... We see a pattern of behavious. It doesn't go away
After a week of headlines filled with sexual innuendo and squalid attacks, The Australian Financial Review harrumphed: "We deserve better than this."
Voters are used to colourful language Down Under. After all, former Labor Party leader Mark Latham publicly called then Prime Minister John Howard an "arselicker" of the US president.
But the campaign pitting Gillard and Labor against Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's Liberals has the chattering classes howling at the dire level of discourse. Some hoped the arrival of the nation's first woman leader would drain the swamp of debate, political analysts noted. Fat chance, judging by recent events.
When Gillard, who has accused Abbott of misogyny, dared to raise accusations of sexism again this week, she was howled down by opponents. Then the viciously degrading dinner menu for a fundraiser for one of Abbott's candidates surfaced. One dish was "Julia Gillard Kentucky Fried Quail: Small Breasts and Huge Thighs and A Big Red Box".
Gillard branded it "grossly sexist and offensive". Could anyone argue?