I saw Gillard’s speech live on television and registered that it was important. But I looked again on YouTube this week to see how it might appear to the casual viewer, local or international, days, weeks, even years from now. What I think I missed the first time is how the reaction of the Opposition Leader adds to the tension and, in turn, validates what Gillard is saying. Every man would recognise the flicker of panic in Abbott’s eyes, when he switches from blokey guffaw to “hang on, she might have a point”. This is the son being told off by the mother, the partner being given the ultimatum. The moment can never be re-created, but the clip doesn’t suffer from replay because of the uniqueness of the moment. This is about both of them. The personal context matters because Abbott and Gillard were old-school political buddies before they faced off at the 2010 federal election. Scroll down the page on YouTube and there is a clip titled “Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard flirting”, which was uploaded in 2007. It is a cut and paste of an appearance on the Nine Network’s Today show and is jarring with the hindsight of their mutual loathing as leaders. (It has had more views than Rudd’s apology speech.) What Gillard’s speech clarified is that Abbott doesn’t understand his opponent, even if he once got on well with her. He mistook her silence before last week as weakness. She didn’t react to the taunts because she didn’t want to seem shrill. He kept pressing, expecting that she would eventually crack. But she was biding her time, waiting for the opportunity when he over-reached. There was another look that crossed his face - exhaustion. He seemed to shrink as she approached her finale. Then, with a gesture that could never be scripted, she mocked him as he glanced at his watch. Abbott threw his hands up, the child protesting to the mother that he wasn’t guilty of that too. The theatre was the story; an irony given the self-serving critique that the press gallery has faced on social media.
— George Melaogenes from The Australian on Julia Gillard’s Feminist Troll Moment
