Why federal MP Nicolle Flint is wearing a garbage bag

Liberal MP Nicolle Flint has stripped down to a garbage bag saying it’s time women in public life are judged on what they stand for, “not what they look like”.

POLITICIANS from across the political divide have backed Liberal MP Nicolle Flint’s stand against sexism.

In a new video posted on her social media accounts, Ms Flint has stripped down to a garbage bag.

The federal member for Boothby made headlines during the 2019 election campaign after police charged a man with stalking her and her campaign office was vandalised with graffiti calling her a “prostitute”.

But in the online video she hits out at ABC Radio Adelaide host Peter Goers for making comments about her appearance in a Sunday Mail column.

“I’ve put up with a lot as a woman in politics,” Ms Flint says in the video.

“Police charged a creepy old man with stalking me.”

Are you sick of sexist garbage?I sure am, which is why I’m not putting up with ABC Adelaide’s Peter Goers rubbish...

Posted by Nicolle Flint Member for Boothby on Sunday, July 26, 2020

Ms Flint goes on to highlight a tweet where she says former journalist Mike Carlton wrote that singer Jimmy Barnes showed “great restraint” in an episode of Q+A for not leaping from his chair and “strangling” her.

But in the latest attack from Mr Goers, she says he criticised her for wearing stiletto heels, tight black pants “that show my ankles”, pearl earrings and colourful jackets and smiling.

“So Mr Goers, what I want to know is what should a woman in politics wear? How about a garbage bag to match your garbage views,” Ms Flint says as she strips off a black coat to reveal the black bag underneath.

In her post accompanying the video on Facebook, Ms Flint wrote: “It’s time women in public life are judged on what they stand for, not what they look like.”

The broader context in which Mike Carlton said he was impressed @JimmyBarnes hadn’t strangled me on @QandA... @SharriMarkson @mirandadevine pic.twitter.com/t8GO5j0dVy

— Nicolle Flint MP (@NicolleFlint) June 8, 2020

Fellow South Australian politician Sarah Hanson-Young was this year awarded $120,000 in compensation after former senator David Leyonhjelm was found to have defamed her by calling her a misandrist.

Senator Hanson-Young commended Ms Flint for standing up and calling out the “constant sexism dished out to women in politics”.

“Doesn’t matter what side you are on, no woman should have to put up with sexism in the workplace,” she wrote in a tweet.

SA Labor Senator Marielle Smith wrote she was “rarely in furious agreement” with Ms Flint but was 100 per cent behind her decision to call out gendered nonsense.

Labor MPs Anika Wells, Madeleine King, Peta Murphy and Milton Dick also backed Ms Flint’s move.

Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne, and Liberal colleagues Jane Hume, Sarah Henderson, Jason Falinski, and Rowan Ramsey.