Abbott not sexist: wife

6 Oct 2012, 1:55 pm   -   Source: AAP
Share This
0 
+ Comment
4
Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says his wife may not be a political person but it won't stop her publicly defending him. (AAP)

Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says his wife may not be a political person but it won't stop her publicly defending him. (AAP)

Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says his wife may not be a political person but it won't stop her publicly defending him again if attacks on his attitude towards women continue.

RELATED

Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says his wife may not be a political person but it won't stop her publicly defending him again if attacks on his attitude towards women continue.

Margie Abbott made a rare appearance on breakfast television on Friday to hit back at claims her husband was a sexist.

She said Mr Abbott "gets women" - a point she repeated across News Ltd papers, at a business lunch in Sydney's west and on Sky News on Saturday morning.

The opposition leader said he was proud of her "absolutely cracking speech".

"I suspect that there will be a few people who say `Yay, Margie for PM' after yesterday," he told reporters in Sydney on Saturday.

"She's not a political person, she's married to a politician.

"But I think she felt that there had been some untruths put into the public arena and she thought it was important to correct the record."

Mr Abbott indicated his wife could be making more appearances in the lead-up to the next election, especially if the government keeps running a "destructive, negative, personal campaign".

"Certainly, I think if the Labor party persist in this idea that there's some kind of problem with women, well Margie will be out there correcting the record again," he said.

"This is the Labor party that gave us Michael Williamson, Craig Thomson, Peter Slipper, the Australia Day riot.

"These are the masters of negativity and they're also the masters of nasty personal politics, and I want to try to avoid that."

Mr Abbott also used Saturday's press conference to defend his love for the "marvellous" British series Downton Abbey, which he claims he loves more than football.

"I'm certainly not alone, I think quite a few millions of people in this country ... have fallen in love with that program and I can't wait for series three," he told reporters.

He said his favourite character was the dowager duchess, played by Maggie Smith.
 

Margie Abbott , Tony Abbott

  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube

Your Comments

the margie and tonie show.

oncewas - from bribie island, 8 months ago

Wow, the best thing that has happened to labor since kevin got done. with the abbott show trying to show tony in a good light, labor will probably win the next election. not that that necessarily is a good thing, but the alternative, under tony and margie is far worse. step up malcolm before all is lost. by the way, haven't seen julia hiding behind tim's skirts [ figuratively speaking ],have you?

Pot calling kettle black

mark - from moonta, 8 months ago

Abbott stands next to jones with boards saying ditch the witch.Abbott like most bullies turn out to be wimps.Poor precious tony abuses everyone but has to get the wife out to defend him.Abbott what a hypocrite he stands for nothing other than the religious right and corporate greed.Bring back turnbull and send abbott to naura. Libs lost my vote.

Abbott and Pell

Gregory - from Melbourne, 8 months ago

Margie knows as well as I do that women, including her and her daughters, have much less influence on Tony than his close friend and co-conspirator, Cardinal George "Wolsey" Pell. What are his attitudes towards women? I'll give you a clue: "Women must submit to their husbands!"

What a lovely couple.

colonial boy - from europe, 8 months ago

Isn`t that great, you sure got a good one there, good onya tony. ha ..more lies being spun by labor, did anyone think those lies might hurt his wife., no. Nor would they care either. The same liars are out there spinning Tony into Jones`s comments, while spinning sympathy for that feminist radical Gillard.

Join the Discussion

Name
City / Suburb E.g. Artarmon, Sydney
Title
Comment
You have characters remaining.
Validation
What's this?
This is a captcha-picture. It is used to prevent mass-access by robots.
All submitted comments become the property of SBS. They are moderated, so we reserve the right to edit comments and remove HTML tags. Not all submitted comments will be published. Publication does not mean we endorse the opinions expressed. Please read our terms and conditions for more information.