With all the social media & mainstream media mesmerised by the gender war Gillard has launched it has done nothing for Gillards standing in the eyes of voters & she has brought ridicule upon herself.
Women attack PM on gender by: Joe Kelly:
GREENS leader Christine Milne and deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop have warned against Julia Gillard's revival of gender politics, calling it an unfair attempt to silence legitimate criticism of her government.
Key independent MP Andrew Wilkie described the Prime Minister's elevation of abortion as an election issue as "scaremongering" and condemned her claim that female voices would be banished under a Tony Abbott-led government as "patent nonsense".
Senator Milne yesterday agreed it was not politically smart for Ms Gillard to have reignited the abortion debate, but expressed concern Mr Abbott could make a deal on the issue with Democratic Labor Party Victorian senator John Madigan following the September poll.
While expressing concern Mr Abbott did not have enough women on his frontbench team, Senator Milne rejected Ms Gillard's argument that female voices would be shut down under a Coalition government.
She also expressed disappointment at the implications of the Prime Minister's revival of gender politics in her speech at the launch of the Women for Gillard fundraising initiative last week. "I was disappointed because mixing up gender with policy is a bad idea," Senator Milne told Sky News's Australian Agenda.
"When you try to roll these things together, as in that speech earlier this week, what you get is the notional view that you can't criticise a policy of a female leader without that being some sort of criticism of gender, and that's not the case."
Ms Bishop accused Ms Gillard of using gender as a "shield and a sword" to silence criticism of her government, and argued women in Australia were not disadvantaged by their gender.
"She is using this kind of claim and sexism generally as a defence against legitimate criticisms of her performance," Ms Bishop told the Ten Network's Meet the Press program.
"Her own party are being bluffed into keeping her as their leader because if they seek to remove her on the grounds that she's lost respect or she's incompetent, then they'll be labelled as misogynists for removing Australia's first female prime minister."
Mr Wilkie was harder in his assessment, saying Ms Gillard's speech was "terribly regrettable" and "turned a lot of people off".
"I think Julia Gillard is better than that. She doesn't need to go there," he said. "She doesn't need to run a campaign based on smear and fear."
Mr Wilkie said Ms Gillard's credentials as a feminist crusader had been damaged by her decision last year to defend then Speaker Peter Slipper in the parliament despite his referral in a text message to female genitalia as shell-less mussels.
"Julia Gillard will ultimately be judged not as a woman prime minister but as a prime minister, and whether or not she was a good prime minister and whether or not she ran a good government," he said.
