The man who wants to wrest control of New England from Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce insists he wasn't being sexist when he said that former Tony Abbott chief of staff Peta Credlin "always made a nice cup of tea."
Tony Windsor, who is currently trailing behind his Nationals rival 51 per cent to 49 per cent on a two-party preferred basis, used Twitter on Tuesday to respond to Ms Credlin's claims that he was a politician who "played it pretty dirty."
This morning, Mr Windsor appeared on ABC News Breakfast to reject claims he was ridiculing the former political advisor.
"It was meant as a compliment," Mr Windsor said.
"Because one of the things I remember about Peta Credlin quite well actually ... during the negotiations in the 17 days when we were negotiating the formation of the minority government, is that she always made the tea, and she made a very, very good cup of tea."
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But ABC Breakfast host Virginia Trioli was skeptical.
"You're asking me to seriously believe ... that comment you made on Twitter was not a sexist and demeaning put-down?" she asked.
"Because I've got to say that's exactly how I read it. As a woman, and as someone who would have held a senior position, I would have read it that way."
"Not at all," replied Mr Windsor.
"And one of the things that really impressed me about Peta Credlin in her position, because she was in a very important position ... was that she did go and make a cup of tea for us."
Ms Credlin, who has two legal qualifications and a political career spanning more than a decade, is now a Sky News contributor and News Corp columnist.
Mr Windsor described his relationship with Ms Credlin as "always professional", adding that he had previously declined requests from media sources "looking for me to make some ... negative comments."
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