When Prime Minister Tony Abbott shuffled the government's ministry at the weekend he should have blackballed himself as minister for women.

The demotion would be performance based. He is out of date and behind the times when it comes to women and the modern family.

Tony Abbott should have demoted himself. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

His appointment of himself as the Minister for Women was always seen as a cynical PR stunt, designed to compensate for the many gaffes he has made about women over the years, including the gobsmacking comment in 2010 that what "housewives of Australia need to understand as they do the ironing is that if they get it done commercially it's going to go up in price, and their own power bills when they switch the iron on are going to go up".

He has desperately tried to curb his old-fashioned views about women because pre-election polling showed it was hurting him. But a question on breakfast television on Monday morning shows his attitude hasn't changed at all. Asked what his biggest achievement as Minister for Women was, he replied getting rid of the carbon tax because "as many of us know, women are particularly focused on the household budget".