I wasn’t at the Press Club today which meant I didn’t get to ask the Prime Minister Tony Abbott any questions. Rather than fixating on that disappointment though, I am embracing the upside. If I had been there I might not have been offered a chance to ask a single question, and even if I had, I’d only have been allowed to ask one. As it transpired one question wouldn’t be enough. Not even close.
These are the 9 questions I would have liked to ask Tony Abbott.
1. On Tuesday last week you scheduled a press conference after a meeting you had with Australian of the Year Rosie Batty and stated your commitment to ridding the scourge of family violence from Australia. In the press conference you specifically referenced Rosie Batty’s own concern that her award not be merely symbolic but instead the mark of substantive change in the way we treat domestic violence. How do you reconcile that statement with the $300million budget cuts to services that support family violence victims? It has been reported that Rosie Batty’s attempts to contact your office with this question have been unsuccessful. Is that true? And while I’m here do you think your decision to host a press conference regarding domestic violence and allowing it to be consumed by the fall-out from your decision to knight Prince Philip is fair?
2. In 2009 the Productivity Commission released a report that stated a generous Paid Parental Leave policy would not generate a commensurate increase in women’s workforce participation. Today you quoted a 2012 Grattan Institute report finding that a 6% increase in women’s workforce participation would generate an additional $25 billion in GDP each year.
Why has it taken you until 2015 to agree with these conclusions?
3. Given that the Productivity Commission has looked into childcare twice in the past 6 years, do you concede that now is not the time to consult more widely on childcare but instead to instigate change?
4. In December last year you described abolishing the carbon tax as your biggest achievement as minister for women. If this is your greatest achievement for women, against a backdrop of a domestic violence endemic, the largest pay gap in 20 years, the rise of pregnancy discrimination and, to use your own words, the fact women are the “most under-utilised resource” in our economy, do you think you are, in all seriousness, suitably equipped for the portfolio?
5. You just said to Paul Osborne, “Your job, if I may say so, is not to just run the scare campaign” in relation to changes about childcare. If I may say so, your job, is to give us a reason not to be scared. If you accept that, can you provide any assurance as to your substantive plans for childcare?
6. Do you own any ties that aren’t pale blue?
7. You have been now in government for over 17 months and in your speech today you mentioned Labor 22 times. At what point will you start governing by reference to your own achievements and intentions rather than the achievements and intentions of the previous government?
8. At the end of last year Victoria voted a new Labor government in and it seems, against the odds, the same might have happened in Queensland over the weekend. You just said: “In relation to Victoria it’s a classic example of what goes wrong when in a fit of absent mindedness people elect Labor Governments.” Upon what basis do you characterise these election results as absent-minded?
9. You have just said in relation to breaking pre-election promises. “I accept that there are some commitments that we gave in the campaign that we have not been able to keep….I think the Australian public understand that when circumstances change sometimes Governments have got to adjust to those changing circumstances.” As opposition leader you were dogged in your criticism of Julia Gillard’s broken promises and campaigned strongly against governments saying one thing before an election and doing something else. Why do you expect the public to treat your broken promises any differently?