I am saddened to see that improvement cast aside
In Melbourne, a six-week campaign of truck-mounted billboards depicting Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan as an AI-generated witch has reopened a wound that Australian public life has never fully closed. The slogan 'ditch the witch' — last heard at a rally against Prime Minister Julia Gillard fifteen years ago — has returned, prompting condemnation from the nation's highest offices and a quiet reckoning with how little the landscape for women in power has truly changed. What is being debated is not merely the vulgarity of one campaign, but whether the slow progress toward dignity in political life is now moving in reverse.
- For six weeks, AI-generated images of Premier Allan as a warty witch circled Melbourne on trucks, sandwiched between brothel advertisements — a combination that sharpened the campaign's contempt.
- The slogan's reappearance struck Julia Gillard like an echo of her own parliamentary ordeal, prompting her to mourn aloud that the modest gains women had made in politics now appeared to be unravelling.
- Prime Minister Albanese condemned the campaign as having 'no place in public life,' linking it to a wider surge in threats against politicians and a political culture increasingly driven by personal attack over policy.
- Allan named the campaign 'secret and well-funded,' while a brothel owner later identified as a backer dismissed the slogan as simply 'how people are feeling' — a defence that drew its own wave of criticism.
- Across the political spectrum, condemnation was nearly universal — with the notable exception of One Nation's Pauline Hanson, who told Allan to 'suck it up, sweetheart,' reframing the episode as ordinary political combat rather than gendered abuse.
For six weeks, trucks carrying AI-generated images of Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan — pointed hat, warty chin — alongside the slogan 'ditch the witch' have circled Melbourne. The same three words were once directed at Julia Gillard during her time as prime minister, shouted at a rally where Tony Abbott stood before a sign bearing the phrase. Gillard's parliamentary response to that moment became one of the most watched speeches in Australian political history. Now, seeing the slogan revived, she wrote that she had believed things were slowly improving for women in politics — 'less ferocious in the political mainstream' — and expressed sadness that this progress appeared to be cast aside.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the campaign 'totally unacceptable,' framing it as part of a broader deterioration in public discourse. He spoke of rising threats against politicians and called for the temperature to drop, arguing that disagreement should be about policy, not personal denigration. Allan herself named the campaign 'secret and well-funded,' and while accepting that political disagreement is democracy's right, said her concern was for what it signals to women more broadly — and for who might be targeted next.
The Age identified brothel owner Franco Puleo as a funder of the trucks. He denied the slogan was sexist, describing it as an expression of public frustration rather than a political advertisement. The Victorian opposition distanced itself from the billboards, calling the language inappropriate. Only Pauline Hanson broke from the consensus, telling Allan to 'suck it up' and noting she had faced the same label long before Allan entered politics — a framing that treated the episode as unremarkable political roughness rather than a symptom of something more corrosive.
For six weeks, mobile billboards have circled Melbourne carrying an image of Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan rendered by artificial intelligence—pointed hat, warty chin, the works—alongside three words: "ditch the witch." The trucks also sandwiched these images between advertisements for a local brothel. On Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the campaign "totally unacceptable and has no place in public life." Former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who heard those same three words shouted at her fifteen years ago, said she was "disgusted."
The slogan is not new to Australian politics. In 2011, when Gillard held the top job, opposition leader Tony Abbott stood in front of a rally poster bearing the phrase. Another sign nearby called her something worse. Gillard later referenced that moment in a parliamentary speech about misogyny that ricocheted around the world—a moment Guardian Australia readers would eventually vote the most unforgettable in Australian television history. She had said then: "I was offended when the leader of the opposition went outside in the front of parliament and stood next to a sign that said 'Ditch the witch.'" Now, in a social media statement, she reflected on what she thought had changed. "In the years since, my view has been that things were slowly improving for women in politics," she wrote. "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."
Albanese framed the campaign as part of a broader deterioration in political discourse. "We want to encourage women to enter public life and it should be a contest of ideas, not personal attacks," he told reporters in Canberra. He spoke of an uptick in threats against politicians and called for the temperature to drop. He also criticized how "mainstream media" has characterized public figures in personal rather than policy-focused ways, though he offered no 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," he said.
Allan herself released a statement after one of the AI images appeared in the Herald Sun newspaper alongside reporting about a possible leadership challenge against her. "A truck using sexist language has been driving around Melbourne as part of a secret and well-funded political campaign," she said. "People are entitled to disagree with me. That's democracy. But I care that this attacks women. And I care about who's next." Several Victorian Labor MPs echoed her concern. Attorney General Sonya Kilkenny wrote on social media: "Women in public life should not have to accept abuse and misogyny as part of the job. You can disagree with a politician. You can disagree with a government. That's democracy. Reducing a woman to a sexist slur is not."
The Age newspaper reported that Franco Puleo, owner of the Gotham City brothel in South Melbourne, had helped fund the trucks. When asked about the campaign, Puleo denied the slogan was sexist. "[Allan] doesn't answer questions. She's not accountable to everything," he said, according to reporting. "It's just how people are feeling. That's what they're resorting to. That's not a political ad. It's basically what the Victorian public feel." The opposition leader, Jess Wilson, said her party had no involvement in the billboards and called them "inappropriate." "That sort of language, that sort of discourse, should never be used in politics. We shouldn't see this happening on our streets," she said.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson took a different line. Speaking on Sky News, she told Allan to "suck it up, sweetheart," noting that she herself had been called a witch long before Allan entered politics, including by other politicians. "Besides, Jacinta, I'll tell you something: I've heard on the grapevine you won't be there in a couple of weeks," Hanson added. The remark seemed to suggest the campaign was less about gender and more about the ordinary cut of political combat—a view that stood apart from the broader condemnation the trucks had drawn from across the political spectrum.
Notable Quotes
I am saddened to see that improvement cast aside and this tired old trope resurrected.— Julia Gillard
Women in public life should not have to accept abuse and misogyny as part of the job.— Victorian Attorney General Sonya Kilkenny
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does a slogan from fifteen years ago matter so much that Gillard felt compelled to speak out now?
Because it signals something she thought had shifted. She wasn't just objecting to the words themselves—she was saying that the political culture had been slowly moving away from this kind of thing. Seeing it resurface, especially in AI-generated form, felt like a reversal.
Albanese mentioned threats against politicians. Is he suggesting the billboard campaign is connected to that?
He's drawing a line between the temperature of political discourse and real-world danger. He's not saying the billboards caused threats, but that they're part of a climate where personal attacks have replaced policy debate, and that climate makes politicians vulnerable.
Puleo says it's just what people are feeling. Is he right?
He's claiming to speak for public sentiment, but he's also funding the trucks. There's a difference between reflecting what people feel and manufacturing and amplifying it. The fact that it's "secret and well-funded," as Allan said, suggests it's not organic grassroots anger.
Why did Hanson's response stand out so differently from everyone else's?
She refused the frame that this is about gender. She treated it as ordinary political rough-and-tumble, something she's endured herself. But that move—normalizing the abuse—is itself a kind of argument about what women in politics should accept.
What does Allan mean when she says "I care about who's next"?
She's saying this isn't just about her. It's about whether women entering politics will face this same gauntlet. If the standard for female politicians is to absorb sexist attacks as part of the job, fewer women will run.