It’s the first time she’s spoken publicly since Tony Abbott was ousted from the top job last week, and tonight Peta Credlin slammed critics, saying cabinet ministers “intimidated” by her “maybe don’t deserve their jobs”.
The former prime minister’s Chief of Staff spoke at The Weekly’s Women of the Future awards this evening, discussing the challenges facing young women with Jesinta Campbell, Annabel Crabb and The Weekly’s Helen McCabe.
“I refuse to be defined by insider gossip from unnamed sources when no one has the guts to put their name to it,” said Credlin.
“And if you’re a cabinet minister, or a journalist, and you’re intimidated by the Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister, then maybe you don’t deserve your job.
“If I was a guy, I wouldn’t be bossy, I would be strong. If I was a guy, I wouldn’t be a micromanager, I’d be across my brief. If I wasn’t strong, determined, controlling, and got them into government from opposition, might I add, then I would be weak and not up to it and should have to go and could be replaced.”
Credlin announced she will not be running for a political seat as “she wants to have her own voice”.
But while she lets her career take the backseat for a while, Abbott’s former Chief of Staff hopes other women will continue fighting for their seat at the table.
“You will want to have people like me in politics. You will want to have women like me sitting in seats of authority, whether it’s in departments, or it’s writing policy documents, or it’s in the media.
“You want women in places where they can make a difference. 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 its boardrooms, government boards, politics – if you don’t have women there, we will not exist.”
