'Fired up' Gilliard blasts 'sexist and mysoginist' Oz opposition leader during parliamentary showdo

Sydney, Oct. 9 (ANI): Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has blasted Leader of Opposition, Tony Abbott, calling him a 'sexist' and a 'misogynist' in the parliament as the Coalition Government failed to have Speaker Peter Slipper immediately sacked.

A fired up Gillard was responding to a motion put forward by Tony Abbott to sack Speaker Peter Slipper, who has survived a no confidence motion by one vote with key independent MPs backing his position.

Slipper was accused of sending text messages to his former staffer James Ashby, which make crude references to the female genitalia and also attack Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella.

"If he wants to know what misogyny looks like in modern Australia he doesn't need a motion in the House of Representatives, he needs a mirror ," the Herald Sun quoted Gilliard, as saying, as she opposed the Coalition's motion.

Gillard also for the first time lashed out at Alan Jones for saying her father had "died of shame," and linked it Abbott's often used phrase that the government was "dying of shame."

"The government is not dying of shame, my father did not die of shame, what the Opposition Leader should be ashamed of is his performance in parliament," she said.

Gillard also said that Abbott was "big on lectures of responsibility, light on accepting responsibility himself for the vile conduct of members of his political party".

Abbott responded back by saying that Gillard's defence of Slipper was "another day of shame" for the Parliament.

"The speaker has failed the character test. The prime minister has failed the judgment test. This whole sorry Slipper saga just illustrates the ethical bankruptcy of this government," Abbott told Parliament. (ANI)

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