Abbott unruffled in ironing row
Posted
Updated
Critics steamed up: Tony Abbott irons a shirt during his dry cleaners visit (Fairfax Media: Glen McCurtayne)
Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has dismissed criticism of his remark about housewives and ironing.
During a visit to a Queanbeyan dry cleaning business yesterday, Mr Abbott said that the cost of an emissions trading scheme would hit "housewives" who used electricity to iron.
The government seized upon his comments, saying they showed Mr Abbott was old-fashioned and stuck in the past.
Labor backbencher Yvette D'Ath said she found the comment "extremely patronising" and accused Mr Abbott of being insensitive and out of touch.
But Mr Abbott has told Macquarie Radio the comment has been blown out of proportion.
"We've become so hypersensitive about all this stuff," he said.
"Sure it's not just women who do the ironing. No doubt about that. But I think in many households it is still much more common to see the woman of the house with an iron in her hand."
Australian Women's Weekly editor Helen McCabe says Mr Abbott's comments will not do him any favours with women.
"Women probably still do most of the ironing ... that's the reality, but nevertheless I don't think anybody likes to hear a male politician talk about housewives doing the majority of ironing," she said.
"He continues to play to those stereotypes of male and female roles, as much as he tries not to, and for many women who are working that would be a disappointing thing to hear.
"I think we want to make those decisions for ourselves at home. Many women outsource ironing these days, if they can afford to do it, because they're too busy.
"And plenty of men I know prefer to do the ironing because they think they can do their shirts better than their wives or partners."
Virginity debate
Ms McCabe says Mr Abbott's gaffes may not be as damaging as they might once have been.
"These gaffes just kind of roll off his tongue and I don't think they're criminal for him any more," she said.
"I think the voting public has got used to his old-fashioned views on the roles of men and women.
"It just makes people who like Tony Abbott and want to see Tony Abbott do well squirm when he does that because he continues to make those blunders, and I think going into an election campaign we're going to see more of them."
The Australian Women's Weekly recently published an article where Mr Abbott advised his daughters not to give away their virginity lightly.
The comments prompted vigorous debate and Ms McCabe said her readers responded to it in different ways.
"I think women who liked him continued to like him because he's a straight shooter, because he's prepared to say what he believes [and] he has great communication skills," she said.
"The women that like him also appreciate that he was talking about his daughters."
But Ms McCabe says there is another demographic that is not so pleased with the Liberal leader's comments.
"He describes them as the young, professional, educated, working women who have a real problem with him - and they really do have a problem with him - the dislike of Tony Abbott in that particular grouping is very vehement," she said.
"They hated it ... it reinforced every suspicion they had about him and they hate him even more for it."
Ms McCabe says Mr Abbott probably came out of that episode better than he expected because many people thought it was good advice to give to his daughters.
Comments (172)
Comments for this story are closed, but you can still have your say.
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ABC (Moderator):
09 Feb 2010 11:15:43am
Who does the ironing in your house?
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betty:
09 Feb 2010 11:23:24am
My 25 year old son does the ironing in my house, as is only fair. His work shirts need ironing, so he does them. Mine don't. On the rare occasion that I wear something that needs ironing, I iron my own.
It works for us.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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ron:
09 Feb 2010 12:29:44pm
Similar scenario.
I iron my clothes and my wife irons hers.
Simple really.
Do you think Tony ever ironed his shirts? He'd probably find it onerous/demeaning to take it to the cleaners.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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wtw:
09 Feb 2010 1:08:58pm
the comment on its own is irrelevant. the point is that Tony Abbot continues to push his religious stereotypes and divide the community into believers and non-believers. Howard was successful at this in a more subtle and deceptive way. Abbot has difficulty thinking outside the Northern Beaches.
Abbot continues to act like a little a damaged Catholic.Agree (1) Alert moderator
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Kathy:
09 Feb 2010 11:27:18am
My husband...
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Unimpressed:
09 Feb 2010 11:29:22am
I only have my own to do - before I head to work as a young female lawyer.
The appropriate question is, 'do you think TA is a sexist twit?' The answer is a definite yes. It's little slips like this that show us what he really thinks. These things make people mad, and for a good reason.Agree (8) Alert moderator
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Peregrine:
09 Feb 2010 11:39:12am
I'm not sure how this comment about housewives is sexist or inaccurate. You will find that the majority of house spouses are still female. But either way keep punching for that glass ceiling. Just don't forget to close your eyes when it shatters.
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Unimpressed:
09 Feb 2010 12:02:20pm
I think you're missing the point, which is that TA's comments create the old-fashioned imagery of the little woman at home with the chores and the kids, rather than being busy in the workforce. I think that is what is sexist and inaccurate in today's world. Do a majority of households have a 'house spouse' anymore?
Disagree if you like. You vote your way and I'll vote mine. And by the way, if you haven't ever had anyone tell you (or imply) what you can't do, based on your gender, this is probably the reason you don't see the problem.Agree (5) Alert moderator
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Ian R:
09 Feb 2010 12:27:57pm
My wife does most of the ironing and I agree with Australian Women's Weekly editor Helen McCabe when she says "Women probably still do most of the ironing ... that's the reality"
Is it sexist, old-fashioned or just conservative to reflect the reality? Do politicians need to qualify every statement they make? I know the PM does and the result tends to be incomprehensible. A bit of plain speaking can't be a bad thing!Agree (4) Alert moderator
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Rosie:
09 Feb 2010 1:18:28pm
From a free, educated, and independent feminist:
He was not saying anything about women's rights or equality.
Not all women are housewives, and by definition, if she chooses to be one (and it IS a choice!), then her role includes domestic chores. Just like a househusband.
My husband and I both work, we do our own ironing. Were I to stop working and become a housewife, I would do his ironing too because why should I sit around while he's out working? It is a partnership!
Instead of taking the role of housewife as a degrading and enforced position, how about recognising it for what it really is in our free and enlightened society, a role chosen by a woman who prefers to stay at home with the kids or to be a "homemaker". It is all about domesticity! If women don't want to clean and cook, then they don't have to... they go and get a job.
...if she wants to sit around and watch DVDs and eat chocolate and never clean, then she is NOT a housewife but a "woman of leisure" and good on her for being able to find a way to make that happen.Agree (1) Alert moderator
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Margaret:
09 Feb 2010 12:47:19pm
Has life really got to the stage that we are working so hard that we can't do the menial jobs around the house and enjoy them. May be there's too much money around where you work and you CAN afford to pay for an ironing lady. Certainly where I live the jobs are scarse and the money is hard to get so you don't waste it on the ironing lady.
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Shocking:
09 Feb 2010 1:15:57pm
This is an outrage! How dare you imply that only women can be paid to do ironing. 'Ironing lady' indeed. This is offensive to all men, all over the world. Such appalling, antiquated stereotypes must be eliminated!
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May:
09 Feb 2010 12:51:21pm
He hasn't implied that women can't do anything.
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Peregrine:
09 Feb 2010 1:16:45pm
It doesn't matter if the majority of households don't have a housespouse because those that do are still predominantly female. Abbott wasn't be sexist, he wasn't discriminating on the basis of sex, he was using a generalisation which is accurate.
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Janeb:
09 Feb 2010 12:23:39pm
Totally agree Peregrine.
It was a 'generalised' statement...and ergo largely ( generally) correct.
The fact is, the POINT of the statement was not the 'gender' of who irons or doesn't ...but the fact that 'ironing' and power costs will rise. FACT.
Pretty obvious really....unless you want to divert from the reality of the message and pull wings off flies for political expedience instead.
It's going to get pretty tiresome if everyone is held to the same 'all inclusiveness', 'don't leave anything out', 'cover all bases' rule as Abbott is.
The PC over-reaction is just that, and an attempt for Labor and it's apologists to ignore the actual message, divert attention from reality and attack that which they want to highlight instead of addressing the subject of the criticism.
They want to propel this mythical angle that Abbott is supposedly not favoured by women and is chauvenist.
THAT is Labor's only tactic on Abbott....to discredit him with women, paint him as a backwards 'religo' ...and secure 50% of the vote.
Not gonna happen.
I think this continual nitpicking will backfire as people get sick of the constant pettiness from Labor....and see it as it is.
Labor cannot argue their own case or answer a simple criticism or question...instead they divert and deflect with insignificant/irrelevant PC diversionary rubbish.
How hopeless is that?
ALP - 'whatever it takes'.
Maybe it's beginning not to 'take'...as the false facade of Labor becomes exposed.
The Emporers with no clothes.Agree (5) Alert moderator
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timmac:
09 Feb 2010 11:53:36am
Lighten up! and stop generalising about how people feel.
I do my ironing my wife does her ironing and sometimes we'll do some of the others. Of course if TA as you describe him has said the same thing in the style of KR and didn't use any words of less than 4 syllables no one would have any idea what he was talking about.Agree (1) Alert moderator
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luke:
09 Feb 2010 12:06:26pm
I agree, how dare Tony Abbott suggest there are housewives in Australia. He should have said humans of non gender doing the ironing would be affected by the ets.
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gaz:
09 Feb 2010 12:38:35pm
Does that mean Mankind is out and it is now personkind??
What a load of dribble. Nothing was intended by his generalisation and the shear fact that there is still housewives out there and the power they consume doing the ironing will rise. Rudd has even admitted that.
All the offensiveness is those who want to stick the boots into TA not for what he said but for the party he represents.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Pen Pal:
09 Feb 2010 12:16:19pm
I'm surprised that you're even bothered to iron your clothes before you go to work in this very liberated country of ours.
Seems to me because of the poor taint you carry if you pick up an iron as a woman, then you think of youselves as lesser persons than men. It must be a sort of cultural cringe that your gender has!Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Tax Me:
09 Feb 2010 12:49:56pm
So, was KR a "sexist twit" for his verballing of RAAF employed flight attendant because someone didnt order his din dins - or is that different?
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Terry:
09 Feb 2010 1:01:16pm
My wife and I share our chores, and share the ironing. I must admit my wife does more than I do, but she is such a perfectionist. She thinks my ironing is not good enough. And we both work full time.
"My learned friend", until you are married with a family, you will never understand the partnership that is suppose to exist in a family. Abbott wasn't demeaning women....in fact he was crediting them. Our wives often don't get the recognition they deserve. They do a lot of the rotten meanial chores in the home, and they are too often taken for granted. But housework isn't exclusively for women....."modern women" as they like to call themselves today, are more interested in nightclubbing and pubbing, than doing anything else.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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GoodLaff:
09 Feb 2010 11:42:35am
As a single father of teenagers I do the ironing because I can't stand to see them head off to their jobs in wrinkled shirts. Do they play on this? Yes, but their appearance bothers me more than them. Hopefully they will learn enough from example NOT to show up at interviews poorly presented.
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Si:
09 Feb 2010 11:42:51am
I do the majority of the ironing not because I think I can do my shirts better, but because my wife would laugh at me if I asked her to do them.
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Lewis of The Hills:
09 Feb 2010 11:48:03am
The woman of the house does the ironing in my household. She also carried & gave birth to our children, cared for them through their childhood. We both work, she part time & me full time. We are both very concerned with rising grocery prices, petrol, electricity, water, etc. We worry about government stealing more of our money through increased taxation & then wasting much of it. Increased rates of mandatory super to be justed handed over to the incompetent financial services industry.
We're both so turned off because of the preoccupation with garbage such as this non-issue.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Darkless:
09 Feb 2010 12:36:59pm
Couldn't agree with you more Lewis. Well said.
I wish people in politics would grow up and focus on the real issues in society.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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lisadp:
09 Feb 2010 11:51:43am
Okay I admit it. I do mine and my partner's. I like to think we divide the housework evenly but he hates to iron and I don't mind enough to be bothered about doing it and I want him to look good at work.
Doesn't mean Abbot's not still a sexist twit!Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Tax Me:
09 Feb 2010 11:57:43am
Abbott comments on ironing - we have an open forum. Rudd comments on the drinking age - we have an open forum. Conroy gives jobs to a mate - no open forum. Government department has employed up to 100 people for the ETS and it hasnt been passed - no open forum. Branch questions over Belinda Neale - no open forum. Just as well we've got the priorities right!! And, my beautiful wife does, just for the record.
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Human:
09 Feb 2010 12:53:07pm
'Government department has employed up to 100 people for the ETS and it hasnt been passed'
Tax me - if you can suggest a way for the Government to develop a policy without employing anybody, please enlighten us. Or should Kevin be sitting in is office mapping every detail of every policy he brings to parliament himself?Agree (1) Alert moderator
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Roger Bee:
09 Feb 2010 12:02:33pm
My girlfriend does and is happy to do it. In return I work a 60 hour week to pay for everything, so she can volunteer 18 hours a week and work with disabled kids. Works fine - my shirts are beautiful - stuff the PC.
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Clairesy:
09 Feb 2010 12:51:46pm
sounds like you've got a nice system going on there.
As long as you're happy to work the 60 hour week then happy daysAgree (0) Alert moderator
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Clawd:
09 Feb 2010 12:06:27pm
My husband does it, I dislike ironing and I make sure I buy stuff that doesn't require it, plus my husband does a better job.
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Blabbott:
09 Feb 2010 12:06:55pm
The servant of course, who else?
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justin hale:
09 Feb 2010 12:15:13pm
That's not the question. Abbott was pulling a media stunt and made what to some is a gaffe. But while the media is focusing on trivia like this instead of analysing the impacts of his policy position, they are giving him free kicks. The same applies to the way they treat the government. And this criticism isn't just limited to the ABC. Meanwhile I'm waiting for him to explain where the land and water is coming from for the 20 million new trees, where the $10 billion is coming from to fund his program and why my taxes should be increased to subsidise farmers (again) and industry (again). Also, if his 20 million trees are only going to soak up 0.3% of Australia's CO2 emissions, where's the other 4.7% coming from?
Common guys, the silly season is supposed to end on Australia day.Agree (1) Alert moderator
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Michelle:
09 Feb 2010 12:21:54pm
Ironing in our house is on a strict DIY basis - you want it ironed you get out the ironing board and the iron - this applies to us all, including me, the hubby, 14yo daughter and 11yo son.
Even when I was a home looking after infants, the ironing was still DIY (hubby did all his shirts and pants etc) - unsurprisingly, we none of us own very much stuff that needs ironing :-)Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Mr X:
09 Feb 2010 12:25:45pm
Ironing...what is that?
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DSMatthews:
09 Feb 2010 12:30:55pm
Who cares who does what, the issue is not ironing responsibilities, it is that Abbott habitually stereotypes people and that shows poor judgement and a lack of self awareness, it raises the question of his fitness to be the leader of a modern nation, which is what he wants us to let him be.
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Tony:
09 Feb 2010 12:37:26pm
Both my wife and I equally avoid ironing unless we have to. But when we do, we just iron our own clothes, much more democratic that way.
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Akiel:
09 Feb 2010 12:39:34pm
Oh dear..!! Around 92% of industrial fatalities are male and yet, it's the household ironing that gets all the publicity. I'm a single father of 4 with a 4 bedroom house to keep and very little regard for Tony Abbott, but I really think there are more important things that require our attention.
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Lukemac:
09 Feb 2010 12:45:06pm
With out a single doubt Ironing is the worst domestic chore there is!
I would rather scrub toilets and change babies nappies before doing the ironing. I happily pay someone else to do it.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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aaron:
09 Feb 2010 12:46:14pm
No one!
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d:
09 Feb 2010 12:46:48pm
The issue is here the perceived role of females in current Australian society. Gee what do you expect to find by this straw survey..that women still do the bulk of the housework..even when they work full time...this is established fact. What is at issue is Abbott basic beliefs...such gaffs off the cuff actually reveal the true core beliefs of the man...something like women are the handmaidens of men..always second in line of power & importance. Young women in particular should ask if they wish a man with Abbott's base beliefs in actual power with clear potential to change their roles backwards to the early 20th C. Remember any gains such as those earned by feminist action can easily be erased if a sizable potion of the population is conned by weasil mouthed spin & distortions. Look forward not back to a repressive past.
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d:
09 Feb 2010 12:56:35pm
Abbott is unruffled about this because he actually doesnot care about social issues such as the role of all women...some women the well off yes not not all. This is not a one off it's part of a pattern of verbal revelations. His man is not PM material!
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mundo:
09 Feb 2010 12:56:47pm
Of course the real issue here is Tony's Great Big Lie strategy.
The CRPS isn't a tax and his Party's GST (which was/is) had a far greater impact on the CPI than the proposed CRPS would.
Ironic really.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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laptop:
09 Feb 2010 12:58:55pm
I do my own ironing when I need something ironed, which is almost never.
Is this comment really worthy of a news story? Yes, he generalised but people really need to get over it.
"Women probably still do most of the ironing ... that's the reality, but nevertheless I don't think anybody likes to hear a male politician talk about housewives doing the majority of ironing,"
So Helen thinks it's true, and that it's fine for her to say it, but not him?
And to the extent it's relevant, I do have a Y chromosome but agree Abbott's views are circa 1740.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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scott:
09 Feb 2010 1:00:11pm
I do... most mornings. Thanks Tony, you've got no idea.
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mik:
09 Feb 2010 1:10:05pm
Nobody - the clothes will just get wrinkly again anyway.
Now can we go back to attacking Abbott (and Rudd) on real issues?Agree (0) Alert moderator
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DB2:
09 Feb 2010 1:20:59pm
Ironing clothes is the most pointless pasttime ever invented. I insult everyone at work by turning up in wrinkled clothes. I buy stuff that doesn't wrinkle much anyway. Be dishevelled and save the planet.
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mcp:
09 Feb 2010 11:20:25am
The "little woman" does it, and I give her a slap on the rump if she does a good job...
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PeterB:
09 Feb 2010 11:20:44am
Both (me and wife) do the ironing. Talk about the Labor on spin cycle working overtime to try and discredit Abbott. If he had said that house-husbands I am sure that the Labour Party would have attached Abbott as being out of touch as more women iron than men.
Talk about a storm in a espresso cup. It is about time Labor concentrated on debating policy, rather than attaching the man. This is not reality TV but the real world that wants substance.Agree (2) Alert moderator
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Ann:
09 Feb 2010 11:50:18am
Agree completely. Go to the story on Rudd wanting to raise the drinking age to 21 and read the bleats from ALP supporters about blowing it out of proportion or misquoting. What hypocrisy.
The ALP are desperate, have no plan Bs now all their plan As are falling over and are resorting to denigration and fear tactics and the election isn't even called!Agree (0) Alert moderator
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justin hale:
09 Feb 2010 12:28:58pm
"resorting to denigration and fear tactics and the election isn't even called!"
Sounds just like Howard and Costello before the last election, or Abbott, Joyce and Abetx right now.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Tim Hoff:
09 Feb 2010 12:04:51pm
I agree with your comment PeterB.
I think the Coalition has the same problem with Rudd. They play the man instead of the ball all to often.
I also agree with Abbott when he says "We've become so hypersensitive about all this stuff,"
Ridiculous and petty political correctness is a yuppie desease.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Darren:
09 Feb 2010 12:34:09pm
I think you'll find that many people feel that the fact that Abbott's social values are stuck in the 1950s does have a very real effect on his politics, as was the case with John Howard.
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Evad:
09 Feb 2010 11:20:59am
I do, and I am definitely male.
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Luisa:
09 Feb 2010 11:23:38am
Neither of us. Ironing is old fashioned.
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Chris:
09 Feb 2010 11:30:16am
So if either of you had to wear proper, full length collared cotton shirts to say an office job, you wouldn't iron them because it's old fashioned and be 'those people' that wear wrinkled, uncreased shirts? The last person I saw who didn't iron their shirt was in a group interview. They didn't get the job.
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Luisa:
09 Feb 2010 11:57:07am
Neither of us need to. If we had to, we'd do our own. How many Australians work in the corporate world anyway? I buy the right fabrics, wash and hang clothes carefully so they drip dry and don't need ironing. For the record, so do quite a few other women I know. None of us have time. My man dresses neatly in casual clothes which drip dry under the same treatment. I work in an office, he is an IT professional who works from home office or the back office of companies he's responding to. Crisp white shirts are not required for either of us.
(By the way, it was a facetious response, designed to point out how out of touch the whole Q is.)Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Flashdisk:
09 Feb 2010 11:24:14am
I iron all my own clothes. Comes from being 20 yrs in the military. I don't have a problem with it Wife and kids iron their own as well.
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Peas and Pies:
09 Feb 2010 11:24:44am
Is this really worth writing about? Are we seriously giving space and time to such nit picking? This is political corrctness ad absurdum. Give us a break.
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Rob:
09 Feb 2010 11:40:05am
It's all part of the Liberal spin doctors... but they got the chauvinism bit badly wrong.
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Si:
09 Feb 2010 11:46:51am
No, see on its own it would be nit picking. But coming from Tony Abbott, who is renowned for the kind of thinking behind this and many other comments, it needs to be highlighted for every Australian of voting age. Because this is the kind of man Tony Abbott is, a macho regressionist chauvanist, who will use any power he has to push his own agenda on all Australian women.
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ratg57:
09 Feb 2010 12:34:58pm
Anybody bother to check with Abbott's wife and daughters or other female associates to check if he is indeed a macho regressionist chauvanist? If he's not pushing his views onto those closest to him, why would we assume he would want to do this to 'all Australian women'. I read this type of description of him all the time, but with nothing to back it up. This particular issue is a non-issue to me.
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ron:
09 Feb 2010 12:33:38pm
Would you vote for a politician who believes a womans place is in the home doing housework?
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atomou:
09 Feb 2010 1:21:54pm
I'd vote for a politician who believes a politician's place is in the home doing housework, particularly sawing patches on worn or torn clothes and knitting all the woolly underwear!
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Brightbee:
09 Feb 2010 11:26:08am
I am not a young professional working woman but agree with their opinion of Tony Abbott wholeheartedly. His values are so dated and old fashioned. Demographically there might be more baby boomers in Australia and I am one of them. I find his opinions on women old fashioned and something out of the 1950s from my mothers era.
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Ellen:
09 Feb 2010 11:45:45am
Funny, I am a baby boomer and I have no problem with Tony Abbott's thoughts and comments as I am old fashioned through and through.
My mother (and father), on the other hand, was a skinny dipper, a free liver and paid someone to do the ironing and the cleaning.
What does it matter who does what so long as it is done.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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GuyS:
09 Feb 2010 11:28:08am
My wife does the ironing and as the housewife that's her job. Oops the correctness Nazis will get me for that. I should have said...My life partner and I are both delighted to share equally the domestic engineering roles. Move on!
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Annie:
09 Feb 2010 11:49:31am
You're right, if she's a stay at home partner then it is her job, particularly if the income you bring into the household is shared with her. If she's out earning a 6 figure income like some of us then it's not her job. That's not polically-incorrect, it's a working arrangement.
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Will:
09 Feb 2010 12:00:50pm
You're free to have whatever domestic arrangement you like, and talk about it.
But you may like to try to understand that the social customs, expectations and conditions that made your arrangement all the more likely still function to disadvantage women. Feel free to enjoy your privilege of earning money and building your earning power by simply doing what our gendered society expects you to do, but just recognise the problem and try to help.
Calling people who work on this problem "correctness Nazis" does not help.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Unimpressed:
09 Feb 2010 12:15:29pm
Agree, agree, agree.
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Craig:
09 Feb 2010 1:07:29pm
completely disagree - remember it takes TWO to get married or live together - roles are chosen and planned by couples, women are not passive victims of this process. They choose!
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Lukemac:
09 Feb 2010 12:52:13pm
"Calling people who work on this problem "correctness Nazis" does not help."
Rubbish, these people are the problem.
Any off the cuff remark made by any polli ends up splashed over the news as the worst thing ever said.
Is it any wonder we end up with characterless automatons like Kevin Rudd?Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Wal:
09 Feb 2010 11:29:43am
I do most of my own ironing, otherwise on the odd occasion my daughter does some for me. But the comment of Abbotts was correct as most ladies of the house that I know of, do the ironing and its was just a off the cuff comment. Lets stop biting at everything because its "politically Incorrect.
I get untold e-mails that we just about ALL laugh about when its about the wife around the house and is usually backed up by similar jokes about the husband. Most of these jokes you can find in your local book shops, maybe these Politically Correct individuals should go down and protest their venomous bull to them.
Lets get back to being Aussies and stop the bull and have a laugh at ourselves for a change, life is a lot better when you do.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Rog:
09 Feb 2010 11:30:16am
Nobody. We go for the wrinkle look.
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Maggie:
09 Feb 2010 11:30:26am
My husband, who is a very busy medical specialist, does his own ironing, and I also do my own. I hate ironing, but he finds it soothing at the end of an exhausting day. Interestingly, our twelve year old son also likes it, and irons his own shirts.
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bjh:
09 Feb 2010 11:30:44am
whoever needs stuff ironed
Prime minister Howard was often accused of dreaming of the Australia of the 1950's and it seems Mr Abbott's mind is of a similar age.
I just wish the Liberals would adopt a bit of truth in advertising and rename themselves the Australian Conservative Party because liberal they ain't.
Turnbull is a liberal in the true sense of the word and he is ready to vote against the current manifestation of his party.
Tony Abbott, Nick Minchin, Eric Abetz, Kevin Andrews, Bronwyn Bishop, Helen Coonan... there's not a liberal amongst them and surely "right-wing conservative liberal" is pushing oxy-moronic language past breaking point
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Sick of PC:
09 Feb 2010 11:31:05am
Both of us , but rarely. Once again it reflects Abbott's stupidity. No doubt he was once again directed by a "higher authority" to act as the idiot he truly is. He is a hypocrite and a fool. He has no idea of anything and desires to do nothing but turn back the clock reunite church and state in our secular country. His political opportunism is right down there with Bob Brown. neither would represent an alternative PM, not that the one we have now is much chop either. I wonder if Rudd can iron?
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Joanne:
09 Feb 2010 11:31:52am
Labor and the media's constant blowing Tony Abbott's off the cuff remarks out of proportion is hilarious. Everyone sees through this ploy to discredit him because he is galvanising the opposition. Every time Kevin Rudd opens his mouth he insults thinking Australians, which is much worse.
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Morgan:
09 Feb 2010 11:32:02am
Ironing? I avoid it by thinking before I purchase clothes, and being careful about how the necessary shirts etc are hung on the line.
And who hangs them on the line? - well actually, that job belongs to one of the kids - and he is well trained.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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mik:
09 Feb 2010 11:32:35am
i do the ironing in my house because they are my shirts.
Someone buy this clown a red nose!Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Vik:
09 Feb 2010 11:32:48am
The ironing in our house is done by who ever needs to do it.
In many of my friends households the women are doing the ironing, and its not a big deal. I am sure there are other people who can state a different scenario.
Mr Abbot is making an example from his observation, not stating who should / should not be doing it. Move on, nothing to see here except a pile of ironing for someone to do.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Tiger:
09 Feb 2010 11:32:56am
What is an iron? Do you mean like a 9 iron in golf?
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hmmm:
09 Feb 2010 11:34:30am
So is it no longer possible to use the word 'housewife'? .... how is this the top story?
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Otwen:
09 Feb 2010 11:35:14am
My wife does when she's finished the washing and in between getting me a beer from the fridge. The baby on the hip slows her down, but she's coping.
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Robert:
09 Feb 2010 11:35:39am
It seems Tony has a few flaws to iron out in his great GREAT BIG TAX ON EVERYTHING argument!
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Arthur Putey:
09 Feb 2010 11:35:43am
And to think Tony "Budgie Smugglers" Abbott wanted us to think of him as "an iron man" in another sense altogether. Oh, the irony...
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Ellen:
09 Feb 2010 11:36:56am
I do the ironing in my house and the same goes with my three daughters and my daughter-in-law. One son-in-law does his ironing if the ironing is behind but he does not iron for the rest of the family.
I agree with Tony Abbott that a small minority of people are hypersensitive to so many issues that make no difference to the bottom line.
Knee jerk reactions and name calling cause more trouble in our society than anything else. It is time to chill out and look at the bottom line of the comment and that is - reducing emissions (not just carbon).Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Hekler:
09 Feb 2010 11:37:48am
Hypersesative. He hit it on the head. It shows the spin machine at work. The PM can go and watch strippers in NY and been seen as an average Aussie bloke but make a comment about ironing and well look out - here comes the hypersesative female backbench Labor member screaming. Madam, you might like to consider who your leader is undressing in a party room meeting. I objectivises women and gets away with it and the other generalises and people turn the latter into an end of the earth situation. Now all I have to do is get a helmet to protect myself from all that self righteous head beating I'll get
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Ian R:
09 Feb 2010 12:40:50pm
You're right, Hekler. The object of the spin machine is to concentrate on an off-the-cuff remark (which reflects reality) so that people will miss the point of the whole exercise.
Irons use a lot of electricity, which is going to be considerably more expensive if we let the ALP pass their ETS legislation. But it's not up to us to prevent that, you say? But it will be, if there is a double dissolution and we elect Kevin again.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Stunn:
09 Feb 2010 11:38:06am
Get used to the attempteed point scoring every time Abbott opens his mouth. This is going to be a long, tiresome and boring by a rattled government who no longer have lapdogs leading the opposition. Seems the government aren't interested in anything other than personal attacks these days, a sure sign of losing the argument if ever there was. The attacks will get dirtier and dirtier (don't bother with the Howard comparison Ruddophiles it's been doner to death)
As for distractions hasn't Kdudd and his crew come up with some doozies over the term of this government. Too many to name in this short space.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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CliffB:
09 Feb 2010 11:40:27am
What annoys me is not the adherence to out of date stereotypes, but the resort to daily dumb stunts which treat us all like children. The media rush like blowflies around dead meat to film Abbott ironing! Why? Can't we hear talk about electricity and power consumption, even a "tax slug", without a kindergarten teacher's aid? Are we a nation of infants?
And in South Australia there's Isobel Redmond talking about recycling water, holding a commercial bottle of water! Doh! I blame Nick Xenophon and Steve Fielding for this stuntery posing as politics.
This banal and infantile playing to the all too wiling media, creating "events" that are just dumb is what is really objectionable. Talk about dumb and dumber!
And where are the facts, the details, the thorough analysis of Rudd and Abbott's proposals? Not on ABC or commercial television news programmes. They're just for entertainment, consumed by trivia.Agree (1) Alert moderator
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TD:
09 Feb 2010 12:27:37pm
You didn't mention PM Rudd in his hi-vis vest and hardhat. That's a pretty regular occurrence too, and achieves nothing but another sound bite. I guess that's different though??
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harts:
09 Feb 2010 11:41:15am
You poor sensative darlings. As seen in every study ever done, on average women still do a larger proportion of the housework than men. There will be some households where the male does more or some where it is a 50/50 split. Its refreshing to here a politician actually speak the truth for a change. We both work so we both share the household duties. The world needs to lighten up a little.
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JWatGW:
09 Feb 2010 11:41:16am
My wife. She stays home and works there, I go out and work for paid income. She is generally known as a housewife, and Tony Abbott's comment is correct. He did not exclude everyone else who does ironing (including me from time to time), he was simply referring to a substantial majority.
The PC brigade just can't handle someone talking like the rest of us, who is understood by the majority of ordinary people, and who is cutting through Rudd's spin and bull***t.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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will do:
09 Feb 2010 11:41:34am
Well well well, here we go again I hate to say it but my wife does the ironing in our house occassionally me. Here is another attempt by the opposition to pick on something so trivial and blow it out of proportion what a joke. Even the editor of Womens weekly says more women do ironing than men.
How about the government focus on the real issues oh thats right because the opposition is finally giving them a fight. Its like when Mr. Abbott told his honest view on what he would tell HIS DAUGHTERS about virginity. It wasnt that everyperson should say the same and he wasnt preeching.
I think our society is much to sensitive these days. I am all for womens rights and a fair go but not every time someoen lets something slip like this if we are going to get to the nitty gritty then fine. Heres what we do. Equally punishment for male and female offenders, females open doors for men on a rotating basis, Jails are not discriminitory and we have men and women in the same prisons, men get maternity leave aswell for the same time we are just as important in a baby's life, etc. I think we need to settle down and really not over exadurate.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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bob bobbings:
09 Feb 2010 11:42:30am
It's a straightforward fact that women do the majority of the housework in Australia. It's certainly nothing to crow about that most Aussie guys exploit women's labour, and plan to go on doing so as long as they can get a way with it, but it's a fact. So what exactly was wrong with Abbott's comment?
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fishjamo:
09 Feb 2010 11:43:02am
I think that it detracks from what the reall issue is and that should be how should the environment be managed that we live in. Should we disreagard it so everything is cheaper? Will that increase our living standards?
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BEN:
09 Feb 2010 11:43:06am
The is a difference between sexist and tradition, Tony abbott obviously believes in the tradition family form and there is nothing wrong with that, i was brought up like that and it was great, when i have kids if i can afford to have my wife stay at home and she would like to then i would be more then happy for her to do so.
im not sexist i just believe in the traditional family unitAgree (0) Alert moderator
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Ann:
09 Feb 2010 12:43:13pm
TAs wife works full time with her own business so he understands the stressses of a working family fully.
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justin:
09 Feb 2010 11:43:35am
My husband and I both do the ironing. Yep, two boys know how to iron - amazing isn't it?
At my parents' place, Mum does it, but call her a 'housewife' and she'll make you sorry!Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Aubrey:
09 Feb 2010 11:44:01am
Each does his or her own ironing and my wife blanches at the term "housewife" in any context except the historical. It pretty much fits in the same lexicon as "head of the household". It is really only a minor gaffe by Abbott but he does keep reminding people of his world view in these little ways. My mum (76) wouldn't register these things at all but my wife picks up even the smallest hint. I suspect Abbott's approval rating amongst women under 50 is pretty much set now and he should not try too hard to mend his ways. My kids in their twenties are also very strongly of the view that the Coalition represents the "oldies" and they are not all that politicised normally.
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ateday:
09 Feb 2010 11:44:58am
I iron by necessity.....
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Annie:
09 Feb 2010 11:45:31am
Sorry, Mr Abbott, but I work fulltime, not stay at home barefoot cleaning and ironing and cooking pot roasts. My clothes are mostly drip dry but occasionally pick up an iron on Sunday evening. My husband either ironed his shirts or paid someone to iron them.
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Brendan:
09 Feb 2010 11:45:37am
How about we focus on "the point at hand" being the possiblity of energy prices increasing under a proposed CTS rather than being lost in oversensitivity of who does the ironing.
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DR:
09 Feb 2010 11:45:54am
Ooooh your so 1980's, I have a ironing lady
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Andra:
09 Feb 2010 11:46:47am
What a lot of nonsense. Let's worry a bit more about Mike Kaiser and all the rorts going on.
This is just a bit of comic relief and not worth the paper it's written on.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Peter:
09 Feb 2010 11:47:17am
Pffttt.. BIG DEAL!!!! I have been forbidden form doing the ironing.. I tried.. I really did but my other half was very unimpressed with my results, so she does not mow the lawn, clean the pool, clear the gutters or fix anything around the house. I am permitted in the kitchen however and we do that 50/50. I guess people would like to concentrate on almost anything to get the focus of the ETS joke!! KR owes the media one here!!
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Rob:
09 Feb 2010 11:48:13am
Oh please, he was making a case in point
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Tory Boy:
09 Feb 2010 11:48:20am
I do my own ironing, I find it quite relaxing after a stressful working week, and I would not let\want my wife anywhere near my clothes, we dont even share the washing machine for laundary...girl germs!
So - whilst the government likes to warn us of world enconomic and environment collapse, and in the midst of federal labor starting to show it's true colours with conroy's mate heading up the 43billion dollar waste of time known as the NBN, all rudd and his cronies can do is pick up on a slip of the tongue by abbot.....gee, these guys are more scared than I thought...Agree (0) Alert moderator
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DrPhil:
09 Feb 2010 11:49:14am
my wife doesn't iron but you should see her box.
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MisogynistMe:
09 Feb 2010 11:51:23am
My wife refused to do the washing and ironing so we send it out to a laundry. We get have a housekeeper come in once a week. I do all the cooking. She does the garden. What's wrong with that? It's called sharing. Yep, we are Baby-Boomers. We both think Abbott is a prat and totally out of touch with reality.
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Michelle:
09 Feb 2010 11:52:27am
We each do our own ironing. Neither of us will do it if it can be avoided. If it's for an important event I will do my husbands shirt, because I am a control freak, but I don't do a better job of it than he would.
I agree that it's a pretty tame question. Still, gotta have a few on the light side to balance things out hey?
I love reading TA stories, just because I know sooner or later he will drop himself in it... again. What a fun time it's going to be leading up to the election, the more pressure he is put under to watch his comments, the more likely he is to slip up. Even if he doesn't mean anything by it, the die is cast and the media will pounce.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Politically Incorrect:
09 Feb 2010 11:52:29am
Iorning? How 20th centuary.
10 minutes in the dryer does the trick for me.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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JC:
09 Feb 2010 11:56:26am
Gees Labor must be running scared! Again, they take Abbotts comments out of context. We're all the sum of our experiences and in Tony's case his wife does his ironing, in my home my fiance does ours, big deal, he simply related his message to his own experiences!
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Matt:
09 Feb 2010 11:56:49am
Yeah we got one of them downstairs, its useful as a paperweight.
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Hmmm....:
09 Feb 2010 11:58:11am
What a champion haha, the unscripted honesty that he comes out with is such a change to the robot like programmed monotone that Rudd offers.
My girlfriend does most of the ironing and cooking. We both work and share in these duties, but looking back on it, she does the bigger share.
She was brought up in a family where her mother didn't need to work, and has therefore inherited the housewife ethic.
I'm certainly not complaining!
By the way, whats with all the focus on Abbott? Why not open up the article on one of Rudd's most despised ministers, Conroy, so we can have our say on his jobs for the boys?Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Pen Pal:
09 Feb 2010 11:58:51am
Goodness gracious me - what is happening to this supersensitive nation of ours? Mr Abbott was only demonstrating that the Government's ETS is going to cost households money.
This article is rubbish and if that's the biggest worry that people have in this country, then we should all take a cold shower.
This is political correctness gone made!!!Agree (0) Alert moderator
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justin hale:
09 Feb 2010 12:22:49pm
Abbott was conducting a media stunt that demonstrated nothing except his ability to talk under wet cement, even if it is only to repeat the same rhetoric. It was actually intended to detract from the real issues that his 'policy' will increase taxes, increase CO2 emissions, put increased strain on the countries water resources, create ecologically disastrous monoculture plantations, and subsidise farmers and industry at a cost to other taxpayers.
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Luisa:
09 Feb 2010 12:01:51pm
I told my partner about Abbott's comment this morning and he laughed. He said Abbott isn't old enough to remember John Howard land. For that matter, he said, neither was John Howard. They were both harking back to their father's lives.
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Anned58:
09 Feb 2010 12:04:03pm
Yes it is an off the cuff silly remark by Tony Abbot. It does however point to an underlying patronising mindset that this man holds.
The media has a lot to answer for in stirring the pot over the ridiculous instead of the issues at hand.
Why not take all politicians to task with some more insightful questioning instead of forever attempting to get the 10 second grab and often bating politicians in the hope that such silly remarks will make the 6 o'clock news.. The game has become very boring and disheartening.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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The Phantom:
09 Feb 2010 12:04:47pm
Who actually cares about either ironing or a comment made by Abbott that referenced ironing? Do we really want a Government who makes a priority of 'seizing on comments' like this and responding with equally inane rubbish? Abbott is no better, and the same low standards apply across every state governmnent in the country as well.
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Martin Milne:
09 Feb 2010 12:06:12pm
This isn't about political correctness it's about Tony Abbott's use of language reveling what he actually believes.
In this case, he could easily have said Australians but he said housewives because he still believes that there are such people - most women go out to work Tony - and that they do the ironing.
He is completely out of touch with modern Australia.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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mario:
09 Feb 2010 12:08:03pm
i iron and i vote! I'm male, single and live bymyself. Abbotts comments are fine. Political correctness is ridiculous. I'm giving my vote to Abbott.
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rock:
09 Feb 2010 12:11:35pm
My wife does the ironing. She also can't stand Rudd and likes TA. Labor had better be careful with this strategy of trying to turn women off TA - the oppositie sex quite often can be attracted to males who are more manly and perhaps a little out there and edgy. They also run the danger of being seen as a pissant little party who can't focus on the big issues. Interestingly, I have teenage/young adult children with a very large circle of friends and acquaintances who were all behing Rudd at the last election - the vast majority of them now can't stand our vaccuous excuse for a PM. Labor's in trouble.
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Aldaron:
09 Feb 2010 12:12:35pm
Nobody. We are an "iron-free" household because we both *hate* it. The permanent press industry owes us a lot! :-)
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sceptic:
09 Feb 2010 12:13:27pm
I don't vote liberal but I agree with Abbott if we are going to be this sensitive about things then we might as well all go and jump off a cliff now ,wake up Australia,I'm starting to warm to abbott if he keeps his current line what is wrong with old fashioned anyway .
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Larry:
09 Feb 2010 12:14:13pm
My wife hates ironing, and when I was younger, both Mum and Dad hated it too. I like ironing. It is very relaxing. Also, I know I will never have creases in my jeans. First rule of ironing that...
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not before coffee:
09 Feb 2010 12:18:09pm
Why iron? What's wrong with wrinkles?
We have reduced our carbon footprint in our house by not ironing. Just hang the wet shirts up and let gravity do the ironing - it's more natural that way.
If it's really, really important to get ALL the wrinkles out, just lay the shirt out between the bed-board and the mattress, and sleep on it overnight. Presto! Ironed shirt in the morning. Works for socks too.
(Use the hot water kettle to steam out the last few wrinkles *... but let it cool before you wear it!)
Think outside the box people!
* that reminds me, if you ever run out of paper coffee filters, a sock will work just fine!Agree (1) Alert moderator
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Hmmm....:
09 Feb 2010 12:32:08pm
I equate wrinked shirts and those that wear them to a lack of pride in personal appearance.
Whatever floats your boat, but I refuse to step out the door looking like a slob, let alone walk into the office.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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laptop:
09 Feb 2010 1:07:01pm
And I equate people who place undue attention on these things to pointless vanity.
My boat is floated by a number of things, none of which are wasting time ironing.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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not before coffee:
09 Feb 2010 1:17:01pm
A valid point... in a world where 'appearance' is more important than 'substance'. Slob-esity is in the eye of the beholder.
I had a boss once who told me he had given a job interviewee a "fail" even before the interview because she had paper in 6 or 7 piles in front of her, and that "told him" she was messy, so she wouldn't get the job.
Some people still do judge a book by its cover. Explains why the sharp-dressed idiots rise to the top in some cases.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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CoolClimate:
09 Feb 2010 12:56:42pm
I agree totally, do we really need to risk a climate catostrophy n a never ending quest to look smarter than one another? Surley operating a hospital or school is a better use of limited carbon emmissions.
Actually ironing is exactly why the ETS or a carbon tax is a good idea. Aussies are fantastic tax avoiders - if you stop ironing you don't pay the tax, you use less electiricity and you might even get compensation.
People don't like crinkles so we are likely to see the development of more clothing that you can just hang out to dry on the line and then fold up into your packpack for your bicycle trip to work
If you need to show off then take up snow skiing(while you still can), but don't iron your ski suit!
Of course if you are a climate skeptic then the above will be meaningless to youAgree (0) Alert moderator
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Hmmm....:
09 Feb 2010 1:12:28pm
Lol lol lol
To try and link ironing of all things to climate catastrophe is really grasping at straws!
The pro global warming / ETS zealots are becoming frantic now!Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Brian:
09 Feb 2010 12:21:20pm
A lot of soon to be former Liberal MPs might need to take in ironing after the next election to make a living. Is this guy for real?
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Jen:
09 Feb 2010 12:23:12pm
i wonder if any thought is given the the fact that there are more women in Autralia, and in fact the world, and ticking us of with contantly snide comments and thinking he can get away with "cos he's a good bloke mate", is really wearing kinda thin.
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Braz:
09 Feb 2010 12:26:33pm
What a beat up. Is this the best the Rudd government can throw at Tony Abbott? As for Yvette D'Ath, is this the only contribution that she has made in her almost three years as a member of Parliament? Shameful.
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Chris:
09 Feb 2010 12:28:25pm
who cares who does the ironing.... he was making an illustration.
it seems that these days, instead of listenting to the message we insist on over analysing what people say. perhaps if we listen to a message, act appropriately and move on we might actually Advance Australia Fair as well as reduce our size of Government administrationAgree (0) Alert moderator
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Chris:
09 Feb 2010 12:29:46pm
I've taken over from my wife as the stay home carer for two kids. I had a battle on my hands getting that through. It sure beats staring at a computer at work by a long mile!
The mums of other kids at school (eldest is school age) seem pretty happy with their mix of bits and pieces jobs, studying, or not being in paid employment at all. I know I am. I am indebted to womens lib movement. Go sisters.
I plan on maintaining the 'user pays' system that my wife used when it was her turn at home. If you want to wear something that needs ironing, then you iron it.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Acey:
09 Feb 2010 12:30:34pm
I am male and have done my own ironing for years. They are my shirts, so why should anyone else iron them?
Irrespective of who does the ironing in a household though, it just seems like a massive overreaction to a flippant comment. Would there have been such a reaction if the comment was about a male doing jobs in the shed? No!
The majority of females are just way too sensitive about these issues and alot of that majority are stridently anti-male, so if any comment is made by a male that is either negative about females or could be construed as being negative, they will jump all over it, claim it is sexist etc. Yet those same people will make negative comments left, right and centre about males and expect those comments to be accepted.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Simon:
09 Feb 2010 12:31:05pm
This is an old political tactic attack the irrelevant detail and not the argument.
Mr. Abbott is making the point that an ETS will affect all electricity use, even the ironing.
If Government wanted to engage in proper debate they would discuss the issue of the necessity for an ETS or the costs of not having an ETS, or the lack of calrity in the opposition position on emmissions trading.
Instead they concentrate on the irrelevant issue and state "house wives" do the ironing. The Government is trying to portray Mr Abbott as a sexist relic.
Once again the fourth estate is being sucked into the game and missing the issue.
For the record, I think the scientific evidence is that global warming is at least partly accelerated by humans & we need to reduce green house emmissions. An ETS will only entrench exisitng companies in the market, as it adds and additional barrier to entry for new players. I do not think it will be particularly effective in Aust. It will have no effect if China and India do not addopt significant greenhouse gas strategies.
I am not sure what the opposition is sugesting as a better/ alternative option.
Two weeks after we got married I complained that my wife put traintracks in my shirtsleves. 17 yrs later I am still doing the ironing.Agree (2) Alert moderator
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bcebul:
09 Feb 2010 12:36:12pm
Neither my wife or I do any ironing any longer. She stopped long ago. We both work. No time. I was the hold out. I prefer cotton shirts. If they are wrinkled when they come off the line, so be it. If my customers at the office don't like it, they aren't saying. We use "green energy" from our electricity provider. Too expensive to waste on ironing! To the rest of you poor ironers, I say get, get a life and stop ironing.
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Mr and Mrs Average:
09 Feb 2010 12:36:26pm
My wife and I agree that this "condemn everything spoken by a Liberal leader" type of journalism has seen its day. Trying to sour every innocent remark with this bias is just unprofessional.
You people are out of touch. We don't want to hear from you with your rancid and venomous language. Report the news will you please and try to avoid soliciting irrelevant sources who will support your stupid remarks.
Can we just have the news - please!Agree (1) Alert moderator
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AlsoUnimpressed:
09 Feb 2010 12:36:26pm
I also agree with the comment from Unimpressed. The appropriate question is, 'do you think TA is a sexist twit?' The answer is a definite yes. I am not in the demographic of Unimpressed but TA rattles me with his sexist comments.
My husband irons in our house - he is particular about his shirts and I just want to get the job done before moving onto the next household chore - works for us.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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angela:
09 Feb 2010 12:36:44pm
As soon as I heard his remarks my hackles raised, it was automatic. That's what he has to deal with- lots of women I know have a visceral response to his thoughtless stereotyping and switch off to anything else he has to say. Dumb strategy Tony- you may be shoring up the conservative base but your bleeding the female demographic under 60.
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Gladius:
09 Feb 2010 12:37:34pm
All this talk about going back to the 1950's.....by many accounts its was a better place....Children behaved better in school, most new their father, Older people were generally respected, you could leave your door unlocked at night and much less street violence.
I guess it was just all pretend and no body really liked it at all..... Many modern things suck and political correctness is just one of them.....
Tony has just reinforced my faith in him!Agree (0) Alert moderator
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sally:
09 Feb 2010 12:39:45pm
Tony Abbott shouldn't be ruffled about the ironing statement----in march last year ABC NEWS reported that, the AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS survey says that---WOMEN STILL DO MORE OF THE HOUSEWORK in fact they say women do 2/3 of it. maybe it's the RUDD GOVERNMENT that's out of touch with the real world.
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peter:
09 Feb 2010 12:47:44pm
Abbott doesn't think twice before saying such things as like many conservatives he's clearly stuck in the past when it comes to gender issues....... and I have always done my ironing and occasionally do my partners as well
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Lou:
09 Feb 2010 12:47:48pm
A housewife is a married woman who stays at home to manage the family. There is nothing wrong with being a housewife if that is what you like for your homelife, if you can afford it, etc. (but a lot of people consider the term to be offensive anyway because it defines an occupation in terms of a woman's relation to a man.)
But I didnt like Abbott's comment because a lot of us work outside the home, dont have a family, aren't married, cant afford to stay at home. We do our household chores without being housewives. Abbott is negating the full and varied life of women.
And the "little woman" need not worry about electricity prices anyway - the breadwinner is responsible for the billsAgree (0) Alert moderator
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Mike:
09 Feb 2010 12:47:59pm
Surely you ahve to be joking. A comment like this can create all this much drama and can be twisted - by the media and Abbotts political opponents - to sound demeaning. The fact that Abbott does more behind the scenes community work - unpublished by these very same media hounds - than just about any other ALP polly and this does not even take into consideration Joe Hockey. Please...when the media want to mis-represent here is a classic case.
Agree (2) Alert moderator
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Ross:
09 Feb 2010 12:50:46pm
Yvette D'Ath is clearly the one who is out of touch of every day people:
"Many women outsource ironing these days, if they can afford to do it, because they're too busy."
- Maybe inner city types, but the rest of us don't have money to waste on such services. I don't think the majority of voters outsource there ironing services.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Stuckinthepast:
09 Feb 2010 12:53:10pm
Who irons in our house?.....me mum of course. Why leave home, although I'm turning 40 next week and she can still cook, clean and make my bed.....she says 70 is the new 50!
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Armin Sensitive:
09 Feb 2010 12:57:08pm
Tony Abbott's missus comes over and does mine.
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Kez:
09 Feb 2010 12:57:39pm
I'm the "man of the house" but I do most of the ironing and in our household. Also we'd prefer rising electricity prices to rising sea levels if it's all the same to Tony Abbott.
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Bonza:
09 Feb 2010 12:59:21pm
I'm more concerned about Abbott's remark about the hardly rich teachers on 80,000. Most tradesman earn less than 40,000 what does that make us.
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Clairesy:
09 Feb 2010 12:59:35pm
When did Australian's become so uptight?
I think it was a dopey comment - but what I think we need to remember is that it came out of Tony Abbott's mouth so of course it's dopey
This forum is cracking me up - all these supercilious responses because they either;
iron for themselves
have their wife/husband do it because they "go out and work hard and fund the house wife/husband - so they're well within their rights!"
or don't iron at all
Newsflash - are we all really spending our days talking and debating how who's ironing?
What about Haiti? The govt still hasn't shown it's face and people are still going without medicine, food and clean drinking water...STILL
oh but wait pointless drivel is far more important that real, actual issues...
now...back to the ironing...Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Ed:
09 Feb 2010 1:00:03pm
I think people are just unfairly picking on Tony Abbott and he was on the money "People are just being hypersensitive".
You got to remember that there are some realities and that Tony Abbott is a straight shooter - not just a "Crowd Pleaser".
And come on, people won't leave him alone about the "Virginity Thing".
What did you expect him to say to his daughters? "Go out and get laid?" - How would that have gone down.
By all means, criticize Tony Abbott, review his policies but don't just misquote him with no basis.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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MiWe:
09 Feb 2010 1:01:43pm
My wife, my daughter, my son and I do the ironing. I wish Kevin Rudd would come do mine! As for Tony Abbott's comments, the media and the ABC in particular are making a mountain out of a mole hill. Can't wait for Kerry O'Brian to unleash at Tony Abbot on the 730 Report tonight and Julia Gillard to unleash her tainted spleen in Parliamentary Question Time today!
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Raymond Sammut:
09 Feb 2010 1:02:46pm
Yet another indicator that Tony Abbott is a genuine threat to Kevin Rudd. Rudd would have had exactly the same thought dwelling in his mind, but he is just too scared to utter it loudly in front of a camera. To Abbott, it simply comes out naturally. That's the trademark of the "man". You can hate Abbott if you don't like it. But then you are a damn fool for not hating Rudd just as much -- if not even more.
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Gerry:
09 Feb 2010 1:03:27pm
My wife and I have a partnership, we both do some ironing - she does the lions share ( the women in our household also produce the lions share of the ironing) but it depends on what is going on at the time.
I just think this debate is a sad reflection on society for two reasons.
1. that we have to examine and then extrapolate every fraction of comment made by every politician or public figure so that we can create conflict and argument.
2. that spokespersons for women have to still feel so sensitive about things.
It would be nice if we all grew up a bit.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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wooly:
09 Feb 2010 1:03:31pm
Only a bored journalist or a desperate Labour supporter would take offence at Tony's off-the-cuff comment. He should have used the fuzzy 'household' to describe the consequences of Rudd's BIG NEW TAX, rather than the realistic but apparently repulsive term 'housewife'. Would 'goodwife' have been more acceptable to gens X & Y, i wonder?
Reality is that anyone who still irons clothes lives in the past. Most work shirts, shorts and dresses can be bought in drip-dry materials and it is only folk who really want to do it hard that deliberately buy cotton-based clothing.
Wool doesn't need ironing and neither do most synthetics.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Person of unstatable gender:
09 Feb 2010 1:04:19pm
This idea of political correctness drives me crazy... Perhaps Tony should have said "the ironing appropriate household member". Stupidity detracting from the issue.
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Jade:
09 Feb 2010 1:04:46pm
As a 21 year old female who can really only recall a Howard government and Rudd government, the concept that Abbott is even being considered to lead the country worries me; its lucky Howards tyrannical reign ended when it did.
I fail to see what he has to offer the country. As opposed to Turnbull, a modern, intelligent person (crossing the floor on ETS, admittedly 6months too late) that respects women and men alike Abbott is nothing but an out of date conservative. I rejoiced the day he was voted in as leader (What chance does this clown ever have of getting voted in?), however his floundering about in budgie-smugglers and ongoing denunciations of women seems to be appealing to many Australians... my guess is white, 20 to 50 something men, lacking a perspective of the world, unintelligent enough to understand Rudds comments and without awareness for what it means to be a citizen in modern, multicultural Australia.Agree (1) Alert moderator
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Richard:
09 Feb 2010 1:05:48pm
Maybe some woman's magazine editor does know many men who do their own ironing because they think they can do it better than their 'wives or partners'. But what about men who live only with other men. You know, their partner is a bloke.
Seems a bit unPC to say what she said then. A heterosexist comment about sexism. Being unPC when criticising someone for being unPC is pretty hypocritical?
Abbott's a moron, no doubt about that, but is a woman's trash rag editor the correct person to comment on that?Agree (0) Alert moderator
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deejay:
09 Feb 2010 1:10:35pm
I'm an executive - the kind of power woman that some people think makes the housewife thing redundant.
However, I was a housewife for years, and I object to all the people who would like to pretend that, for that time of my life, I didn't exist or shouldn't exist or shouldn't be talked about. Why shouldn't politicians talk about or consider me and my perspective as it was then? Why is my current perspective considered more valid?Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Dave:
09 Feb 2010 1:11:56pm
To quote John McEnroe, you canNOT be serious! Tony Abbott raises the suggestion that even doing the ironing will cost more under Labor's ETS, and Labor seizes upon the fact that he said 'housewives' would be doing that ironing.
They didn't even try to rebut his suggestion that it would cost more under the ETS because they know they *can't* rebut - because they know the ETS will cost Australian households money.
So typical of Labor - play the man, not the ball - divert attention from our major policy failure onto one slip of the tongue the Opposition Leader makes at a photo op. Let's see if we can convince the public that whether women or men do the ironing is more important than household incomes, dealing effectively with global warming...
I honestly think Tony Abbott must have Labor worried, to be playing the man so ferociously 8-9mths before an election. Labor is afraid having to face an election where the choice is between an alternative PM who is a human being, and a robot who is all style and no substance.Agree (1) Alert moderator
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elsie:
09 Feb 2010 1:13:55pm
i cant believe all these people care so much about what TA says.
if it matters at all i buy clothes that dont need ironing and my husband ironed all his shirts for years [until i organized an ironing lady so we get to snuggle up a little longer in the morning].
we are both professionals who work equally hard outside the home, comments such as the ones TA make dont bother me in the slightest and never have.
i think those sort of comments only bother the women and men who have their own self confidence issues, let it rest and get a life.Agree (0) Alert moderator
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toastman:
09 Feb 2010 1:14:39pm
How can Tony Abbott assume any high moral ground when he is prepared to risk the future of the planet to gain a few political points. All 'crap' aside, there are issues which are political and areas where they both need to work together. It not just a political win that is at stake but the future of our children and grandchildren. 'great big tax' what spin and at what expense to man.
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David:
09 Feb 2010 1:16:11pm
In our relationship, my partner does his and I do mine. Although I'm thinking of outsourcing it to a dry cleaners.
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Michael:
09 Feb 2010 1:17:10pm
Here is a quote from the article : ""Women probably still do most of the ironing ... that's the reality, but nevertheless I don't think anybody likes to hear a male politician talk about housewives doing the majority of ironing," she said."
So Mr Abbot is now being raked over the coals for saying something that reflects the reality ? Are we now demanding that politicians NOT be honest when it might offend some hypersensitive people ?Agree (1) Alert moderator
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P Q:
09 Feb 2010 1:17:20pm
Tony Abbott is only saying what is true of Liberal households. Most of them still have the little woman ironing the shirts, running around to get the slippers and making sure the arm chair is comfy for the master when he returns home.
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tasronnie:
09 Feb 2010 1:20:42pm
Hey Tony,
I am a single woman with career but haven't had an iron at home since the early 90s, drip dry is the way to go...my father, 78, does the ironing at the family home...
You need to get out more...Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Ben:
09 Feb 2010 1:22:29pm
I iron my own clothes. My partner does hers. It's almost like equality.
Agree (0) Alert moderator
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