From On The Issues Magazine: Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard made international headlines (and garnered much admiration) last week when video of her smackdown of Tony Abbott, Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, went viral. Center-right Liberal Party leader Abbot had put forward a motion for parliamentary Speaker Peter Slipper to step down on the basis of some undeniably sexist text messages  the latter sent to his adviser. And indeed, Slipper (who has since resigned) is being sued for sexual harassment. Yet the real controversy stems from Abbot’s motivation for motioning that Slipper step down.