Scott Buchholz has been dumped as the government's Chief Whip just days after Fairfax Media revealed his office told a female MP to express more breast milk to stop her nursing interfering with Parliamentary duties.

His name had already been removed from the nameplate to the Whip's office at Parliament House on Wednesday, even though is replacement has not been announced.

New Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is expected to announce West Australian MP and Deputy Whip Nola Marino as Mr Buchholz's replacement, after naming his new cabinet on Sunday. Ms Marino has served as a junior opposition and government Whip wince 2008.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/abbottappointee-scott-buchholz-dumped-as-chief-whip-20150923-gjt1pq.html#ixzz3mXVyasQi
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You will want to have women like me in politics. You will want to have women like me sitting in power... you want women in places where they can make a difference, because half the policy in this country is for us, but only about a tenth of it is by us. 
And if we do not stand up and put women in the epicentre of decision-making, whether it's boardrooms, government boards, politics, cabinet rooms, wherever, if you don't have women there, we will not exist. 
Peta Credlin
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Annabel Crabb
Those office splutterers will have much to say about this speech, beginning with the observation that the representation of women in Cabinet dipped by 83 per cent when Peta Credlin walked into the Prime Minister's Office as chief of staff, and increased by 250 per cent when she left it. Like I said, this is a first draft of her own history, to which she is entitled. 
But as she spoke last night, a powerful, cogent, controversial woman who has worked like a bastard for many years to get to the top of an inhospitable system, a flawed and complicated woman who generally over her career avoided the notorious lady-trap of calling out sexism in politics but on this occasion just could not hold it in any more so out it came in a fierce torrent, point after point after point, I couldn't help but think of another speech, from another woman, in another place. 
Neither would enjoy the comparison, I'll bet. 
But this young nation of ours has seen just one female prime minister. Of 50 prime ministerial chiefs of staff - as Credlin informed the crowd last night - just three have been female: "And at two years, I'm the longest-serving." So perhaps given the exclusivity of the club to which they both belong, it is on this occasion forgivable for me - as Peta Credlin walks out the door into territory unknown - to recall Julia Gillard's own parting remarks, on what it means to be a woman serving in such an office: 
It doesn't explain everything, it doesn't explain nothing, it explains some things. And it is for the nation to think in a sophisticated way about those shades of grey. 
What I am absolutely confident of is it will be easier for the next woman and the woman after that and the woman after that. 

Annabel Crabb is the ABC's chief online political writer. She tweets at @annabelcrabb. 
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comment. the yank: overt and covert" sexism in politics ... hoe could that be? Abbott as the Minister for women would never have allowed such a thing to happen. So Gillard was telling it the way it was and it takes Cretdlin to confirm that fact. How ironic is that? 23 Sep 2015 3:15:21pm
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Of course it's a bit more complicated than this. Tony Abbott was and is a closet misogynist. Peta had to sort that one out and she did not. 
A woman who works her butt off to make Tony Palatable is going to get brickbats — not because she is a woman, but because she is helping the unpalatable to exist. May be she did not find Tony Abbott unpalatable, then the brickbats are hers to swallow, woman or not.
Not good.
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Another woman is making a hated name for herself in the new government of Malcolm Turnbull:

The chief executive of the Federation of Community Legal Centres, Liana Buchanan, said she was appalled by Cash’s comments that a “misleading campaign” had been run.

“To [be] frank I was surprised and appalled to hear a government minister providing such false information to the public,” Buchanan told Guardian Australia.

“The bottom line is in the government’s national partnership agreement that the former prime minister signed in July this year. It is clear and explicit that funding for community legal centres will still be cut by $12m in 2017, so the funding will go from $42m in 2016-17 to $30m in 2017-18.”

Thursday’s funding announcement from Cash, the attorney general, George Brandis, and the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, did include $13.4m to create domestic violence units within specific legal aid centres. But Buchanan said only certain centres would benefit from that funding, so it would not offset the 2017 drop in funding.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/law/2015/sep/24/minister-for-women-michaelia-cash-appals-legal-centres-with-funding-claim

 

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So is Michaelia being demonised because she is a woman or because she is telling a porkie? 

As someone has pointed out it's the "side", the political side.... Some women join a political side not because they want to be feminists to the end of their fingernails, but because they can impose their will and views. Some of these views, especially CONservative views, are ratshit and deserved to be rejected, woman or not.

Peta Credlin is reinventing a battle she did not have, though she may have thought she had. Peta was not dislike "by men" because she was a woman. She was disliked because she was doing an impression of a protective brick wall in a rabid right wing set-up that was misogynist to the hilt.

If women want to join politics, they need to be more truthful, be more astute and be less sociopathic than the lying lot they join. We don't need woman like Peta in politics, we need more of them like Julia — but Peta is a staunch catholic and Julia is an atheist. The underlying subconscious sense of religious submission tends to create a certain illusive false sense of martyrdom in women and men — but more in women because of the original sin which is blamed squarely on the woman. 

One of Tony Abbott's closest political allies has said the former prime minister should have been allowed to stand down instead of facing a leadership ballot.

Tensions remain within the Coalition about the successful challenge, which saw Malcolm Turnbull take on the top job earlier this month.

Agriculture Minister and Deputy Nationals Leader Barnaby Joyce told Q&A he was disappointed at the process of changing leaders.

"I think that what would have been better, to be honest, is if Tony had stepped down," he said.

"It was becoming quite clear that the polls were saying it was unlikely he would be able to win, I don't think Tony would have taken us over a cliff.

"I think the proper process would have been Tony stepping down and then Malcolm has always been the obvious heir-apparent, that would have been the preferable path for me."

read more crap from Joyce http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-29/abbott-should-have-been-allowed-to-step-down-joyce-says/6811698

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Really?... Does Joyce believes that Tony Abbott would have gone of his own accord? Abbott stepping down for the good of his party and the good of Australia? On which planet does Joyce live? I see: Bumpkin Pumpkinlandia...

Abbott had to be pushed.

 

Rhonda:

 

 

"A vibrant, smart and quietly credible media sector is a critical component of democracy."

Couldn't agree more. This is something which is sadly lacking for the most part now in Australia. Which brings me to the author's selection of Leigh Sales as a journalist worthy of note. 

I watched her interviews with both Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten for their 'end of year' interviews' and her approach to the two men couldn't have been more different. 

At one stage during the Shorten interview, Sales became so shrill (regarding Unions) she became embarrassing to watch. She rounded off the interrogation (I mean interview) with a rebuke of Shorten's lighthearted quip at Turnbull in his parliamentary Christmas speech - when he said "I hope the truffles are to your liking" (an ambiguous reference to the nickname Turnbull had been given by online posters.) She challenged him 3 times over this!! Hardly good journalism.

On the other hand Turnbull's interview, was firm, but it rounded off with some cheery light-hearted banter, as one might expect among friends. My complaints to the ABC proved fruitless, as it was claimed both interviews were conducted in the same manner. LOL. I even watched the two interviews again, to be fair - my opinion is unchanged. 

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-05/attard-trying-to-get-the-truth-out-of-politicians/7140496

 

See toon at top...