Tony Abbott and the Great Big New Fact

"I also think that if you want to put a price on carbon, why not just do it with a simple tax? Why not ask motorists to pay more? Why not ask electricity consumers to pay more? And then at the end of the year, you can take your invoices to the tax office and get a rebate of the carbon tax you've paid. It would be burdensome - all taxes are burdensome, but it would certainly change the price of carbon, raise the price of carbon, without in any way increasing the price of overall tax burden ..."

Saucer of milk to the Senate estimates, please!

"CAN'T take the heat, get out of the kitchen." This tired, old adage was bounced around this week in response to the furore caused when Tasmanian Senator David Bushby cat-called at Senator Penny Wong during Senate Estimates. Translated from Ignoramus Speak, this means: "You chose to enter the male-dominated Parliament, so reap what you sew, lie in the bed you made, suck it up Princess. Sexism is OK if you chose to go there."

So, it would seem that Penny Wong deserves to tolerate sexist behaviour by grown men who hope to represent you and I and run our country. The theory is not dissimilar to that of Canadian police constable Michael Sanguinetti, who told school students that if they didn't want to get raped they should avoid dressing like sluts.

"Can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen," has the added advantage of implying that Senator Wong shouldn't be there in the first place. How dare she? A mere woman in a male-dominated Parliament. And not even a real woman at that with her short hair, man pants, lady lover, intelligence and earning capacity that puts Joe Aussie to shame. While women the nation over cheered her, men's genitals shrivelled at her perceived threat to their manhood. And while women felt a thrill at Senator Wong's prolonged, withering glare at the offending buffoon, men were genuinely terrified by it and hid their fear behind a macho bluster of self-righteousness - "You see? It's true! Lesos who cut their hair short and take men's jobs are evil glaring witches. Pretty, long-tressed, heterosexual housewives who don't question our superiority are the embodiment of all that is woman. Amen."

When they realise they just told a woman "to get out of the kitchen" their heads will fairly explode with the paradox.

Is misogyny endemic in the Australian Liberal National Party or is it just an isolated incident? You be the judge:

Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, believes that a woman should not have the right to deny her husband sex, women should not have sex before marriage, is anti-abortion, called for the unmarried Prime Minister  to make "an honest woman" of herself, and uses rape jokes for political gain.

"Are you suggesting to me that when it comes from Julia, 'No' doesn't mean 'No'? When she said 'No' I thought she meant 'No' ... I believed her. You can't change the rules just because you are in trouble."

And then, of course, there's this:

Barbara Ramjan, now a social worker, who defeated Mr Abbott for the SRC presidency that year, remembers the night of September 7, 1977 when officer elections were held.

Two letters she wrote then to Honi Soit, a student newspaper, outlined her version of the evening. One letter described how throughout the evening Mr Abbott and his mates, including a dentistry student, harassed and insulted the women standing for election.

Outside the meeting, one woman "was confronted by J [the dentistry student], who decided to 'have a bit of fun' and exposed his genitalia to her as well as urinating against a tree," Ms Ramjan wrote.

"He dropped his pants [perhaps for Abbott's entertainment, he seemed highly amused] and bowed in Abbott's direction, flashing his bum towards the woman," the letter said.

Tony Abbott also defended the Liberal candidate for Dawson, George Christensen, who wrote:

"My thoughts? The truth is women are stupid and that's that .... you're lucky God gave women no bloody brains."

Tony Abbott passed this off as "colourful material from most people's university days. He's a good bloke and I stand by him." (Later, prompted only by public outrage, he disendorsed him).

Christensen would have been understandably confused. Surely he was just being one of the blokes? Just like Senator Bill Heffernan who described the Prime Minister as being "unfit" to lead the country because she's "deliberately barren".

Or Christopher Pyne, who accused the Prime Minister of operating with  back alley bitchiness and called her a 'harridan' which, as Newcastle Herald journo Joanne McCarthy points out, means: "You disreputable, violent woman/vicious, old hag".