Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Congratulations on your new role, Mr Deputy Speaker Scott. In amongst the deliberate, personal and confected smear campaign levelled against the Leader of the Opposition, the government have made many false and malicious claims about sexism and misogyny, looking for angles and stories that simply do not exist. And every time they continue with these baseless accusations they shift the focus away from the real sexism that occurs in the world, like the extreme sexism that we see from the Taliban in Pakistan—the kind of sexism that saw a 14-year-old girl shot in the head.

In an unbelievable act of cowardice and true misogyny the Pakistani Taliban shot Malala Yousafzai for simply riding the bus to school. I do not think I have heard of a more vile, disgusting or abhorrent act in all my life.

This little girl is now fighting for her life in a Pakistani hospital. Her crime? Simply wanting an education. And what makes this matter worse is that the Taliban are proud of their act and have threatened similar attacks in the future.

Malala came to the attention of the Taliban as an 11-year-old, after blogging about some of the atrocities carried out by this violent group whose views on women come from the Dark Ages. For that, Malala was recognised with the Pakistani National Peace Award and nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize.

I pay tribute to Malala and those women and men who support her, for fighting for her rights and the rights of other women to get an education.

Let us never forget that every moment spent on invented sexism and misogyny is a moment lost to fight real sexism and misogyny. (Time expired)