Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan decries sexist Melbourne billboard

Victorian premier Jacinta Allan says a mobile billboard seen in the Melbourne CBD featuring a doctored image of herself alongside the phrase "ditch the witch", is sexist and part of a "corrosive" political debate. "A billboard truck using sexist language has been driving around Melbourne as part of a secret and well-funded political campaign," Ms Allan said on Sunday. "People are entitled to disagree with me. That's democracy. But I care that this attacks women." The premier said political debate had become "corrosive" in the last few years and behaviour that once would have been condemned is now "just another part of life". The same derogatory phrase was infamously used on a sign, which then federal Opposition leader Tony Abbott stood beside, during a protest against former prime minister Julia Gillard in 2011. Ms Gillard released a statement saying she was "disgusted" by the use of the same slogan 15 years later. "It was roundly condemned then. In the years since, my view has been that things were slowly improving for women in politics," she said via Instagram. "I am saddened to see that improvement cast aside and this tired old trope resurrected." Ms Gillard labelled those responsible for funding the anti-Allan signs "sexists" and called for the signs to be removed. "Why should women and girls in Victoria be subjected to such visible misogyny?" she said.Other federal and state Labor MPs have criticised the signs since yesterday, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. "No matter who you support in politics, it is completely unacceptable to demean, objectify, belittle or offend women," he wrote on X. Federal deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume on Monday echoed the prime minister and premier's statements. "Sexism has no place in politics," she told Sky News. "It's perfectly fair and reasonable to criticise a policy, it's perfectly fair and reasonable to criticise a party, it's perfectly fair and reasonable to criticise a politician, but you don't need to go to gender in order to do that." The Victorian Opposition said on Sunday it was not behind the ad campaign. "The Liberals and Nationals will never take that kind of attitude, we don't believe in that type of thing," Liberal MP David Southwick told reporters. "We don't condone that kind of behaviour. Our thoughts are certainly focus on the government because the government are the problem, not the individual."