Why 'ditch the witch' is back in politics

53.761 - 57.965 Amy Remeikis

Pauline Hanson thinks the Victorian Premier should just suck it up.

129.226 - 154.221 Sam Hawley

And when he stood next to that sign, which, you know, he later said, oh, that was a mistake. Obviously, it also fed into other, you know, quite sexist attacks against the first female prime minister, Julia Gillard, at the time. I think it was just such a shock to see somebody so senior in politics effectively, as it seemed, at least visually, to be endorsing these attacks.

154.201 - 168.586 Amy Remeikis

Yeah, absolutely. And she did. She suffered a lot as Prime Minister, as the first female Prime Minister. We even had, you know, the right-wing commentator, Alan Jones, saying that she should be stuffed in a chaff bag and thrown out to sea.

169.728 - 178.723 Pauline Hanson

The woman's off her tree. And quite frankly, they should shove her and Bob Brown in a chaff bag and take them as far out to sea as they can and tell them to swim home.

180.425 - 206.567 Sam Hawley

I mean, when Alan Jones, who was perhaps one of the most important voices in mainstream media at the time, made the comments, again, he was condemned. But he also said that he believed her father, John, had died of shame over Julia Gillard's political career. So it was quite a volatile time in politics. In 2013, which was a couple of years after

206.834 - 233.494 Sam Hawley

the Ditch the Witch and the Chafe Bag, there was an LNP fundraiser in Queensland where one of the fundraiser's menus had a satirical, inverted quotes, menu which was offering up what they were calling the Julia Gillard Quail, small breasts, huge thighs and a big red box, which was absolutely shocking when you consider... This was a mainstream political party.

588.403 - 603.096 Jacinta Allan

I don't have a problem if people have a different view, that's democracy. But what is wrong is when difference is used, is weaponised in a sexist, misogynist, hateful way. And I'll always call that out.

604.378 - 622.196 Amy Remeikis

But these sort of ditch the witch campaigns, who do they actually appeal to? I mean, it's not the first time a Victorian Premier has suffered some pretty intense and nasty campaigns, right? Because Dan Andrews, he also... face this sort of thing, although he is a man. But who does this actually appeal to? Surely not women.

622.518 - 647.494 Sam Hawley

No, but I think it appeals to angry people and that's genderless. So I think if you feel angry, if you feel aggrieved and you see the target of your anger being demeaned, even if you don't agree with it personally in your daily life, there is a sense of, yeah, yeah, they deserve it. They deserve it. They've created this situation. And that's when we start to get into really dangerous situations.

647.474 - 665.432 Sam Hawley

political territory because if you're only acting on the politics of grievance and the politics of anger where you start to set aside your own standards about discourse and how you talk to your people in your community your family your neighbors your colleagues all those sorts of things

665.632 - 689.766 Sam Hawley

If you put that to the side and say it's not going to count because it's a politician, that is the start of a very, very slippery slope. So I think that the politics of grievance, it does rely on people's anger. I mean, there's no particular solutions in Ditch the Witch. There's nothing that says, here's how we're going to make your life better. But it does say you have permission to be angry or