The statement comes in the wake of controversy over Mr Abbott winking at an ABC radio host when a pensioner called to ask him about the budget and said she was forced to work on a sex hotline to make ends meet.
Caller Gloria said, “I’m a 67-year-old pensioner. Three chronic incurable medical conditions, two life threatening. I just survive on around $400 a fortnight after I pay my rent,” Gloria said. “I work on an adult sex line to make ends meet. That’s the only way I can do it.”
In a statement released on Thursday, Senator Larissa Waters, the Greens’ spokesperson for women said, ”The Prime Minister’s latest gender faux pas, dismissing an elderly woman’s work on a sex line to cope with financial burden, by winking inappropriately, is further evidence that he is not a fit Minister for Women.
”We need a Minister for Women who is actually a woman and who is prepared to stand up for women – not simply dismiss their problems with a wink and a smirk.”
The moment when Tony Abbott winked at Jon Faine.
The moment when Tony Abbott winked at Jon Faine.
The moment when Tony Abbott winked at Jon Faine.
In other calls for the Prime Minister to resign from the position, feminist group Destroy the Joint is encouraging members to replace their Facebook profile pictures with the words “He’s not my Minister for Women”.
Mr Abbott says he will not resign from the position.
The wink comes on the back of news that Mr Abbott’s daughter Frances received a $60,000 design degree scholarship from an institution with close links to a Liberal donor.
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