Clive Palmer told reporters this morning he won’t be apologising for comments he made regarding Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s chief of staff Peta Credlin.
The politician made several remarks to a nearly empty parliamentary chamber last night, stating that the $5.5 billion paid parental leave scheme had been designed to benefit Credlin if she fell pregnant.
‘Why should Australian citizens and businesses be taxed, and working women discriminated against, just so the Prime Minister’s chief of staff can receive a massive benefit when she gets pregnant’, Palmer asked.
“I think the idea for the paid parental leave came directly from his chief of staff,” Palmer added.
“She’s propagating [PPL] and she gave Tony Abbott his ideas, he can’t think of anything himself.
“As chief of staff, regardless of whether she’s a woman or a man, she exercises undue influence on government policy to the detriment of many elected members of Parliament.”
“Her husband is of course federal director of the Liberal Party, and it’s naive to imagine that a lot of the so-called ideas from the Liberal Party don’t come from there.”
This morning he denied that his comments were sexist, according to ABC News, and refused to back down, calling Credlin the “top dog in the government” and said she was not above scrutiny.
“I went after the idea and the concept and the person who was promoting the concept, be it male or female,” he said.
“I didn’t go after her by virtue of who she was married to, that would be a sexist thing. I went because that was her deeply held belief that people should have parental leave and the Government should pay it, not the employer.”
He told reporters he was unaware of her previously reported struggles with IVF but wouldn’t apologise.
“I’m not going to apologise because that’s my position. I’m elected to Parliament … being elected to Parliament carries a lot of different privileges in relation to raising certain issues, that’s why they have them.
“These issues are much bigger than any one person.”
He also accused Abbott of blocking a leading Liberal woman from becoming party president, and said that the low number of women on Abbott’s front bench is a concern.
“How can it be that there are so many capable and competent female members of the government on the backbench. Such a lack of representation of women in cabinet is a matter of concern,” Palmer said