Warrnambool MP Roma Britnell has been the target of sexist comments from anonymous letter writers for years but on Tuesday she decided to call it out.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Over the past five years she has received dozens of letters calling her a "man hater", saying her "place was to be at home in the kitchen" and to "step aside and let a man do the job".
People have also sent obscene drawings in the mail to the South West Coast MP's electoral office.
The latest anonymous letter came this week - a Standard newspaper clipping with handwritten comments on the picture saying her hair style and "ill fitting top" were "not a good look".
So Ms Britnell called it out on Twitter.
She said it was a common for her to receive newspaper clippings with comments written on them.
"It's just ridiculous and should be called out," she said.
"To be honest, it's pretty much water off a duck's back, and I've been receiving stuff from that particular person for three or four years, the staff don't even show me often because I think they worry about the effects for me."
However, Ms Britnell said there were times when it had to be called out. The dozens of letters have been kept on file for security reasons and have been reported to Parliament.
"As a woman in a leadership role, if you don't call these things out then you're not standing up with your fellow female leaders and women in the community that shouldn't be subjected to that. It's just simply wrong," she said.
"I'm the first female MP in this region so I thought, 'hang on a minute, it's time for people to have a think about the way they treat people'."
She said there were calls for women to stand up for leadership roles, but when this happened you couldn't expect it not to have an effect.
"I've never played the woman card," she said.
Before entering state politics, Mrs Britnell said she had been very active in the male-dominated agriculture sector.
"I'm more than capable of holding my own. I think people know that. I'm pretty resilient, pretty tough," she said.
"Every human being is vulnerable at times and I think we should show some respect, particularly during a pandemic. We're all trying to pull together."
Mrs Britnell said sexist and nasty comments from the public didn't just arrive in the mail.
"There's the social media things that happen as well that we actually have to block because they're just so offensive. So no one else gets to see those," she said.
Mrs Britnell said she usually tried to understand what made people go out of their way to say such things, and often it was because they were hurt or in need of understanding.
"That's human beings. You've got to just remember that 90 per cent or more are very good, but the very small minority of people who are bad can be very ordinary," she said.
Her media and communications advisor, Jarrod Woolley, said many of the dozens of letters could be from the same person, but it was hard to tell because they didn't put their name to it.
Mr Woolley said many of the letters tell Ms Britnell to stop being a "whinging woman" and they call her "elderly".
"One of them was just before the election and it said 'step aside and let a man do the job'," he said.
But the attacks haven't soured Ms Britnell's sense of humour. "I laughed this morning because I agreed that the top looked terrible in the photo. It's one of my favourite tops. I absolutely love it on normally but in a photograph it photographs very badly," she laughed.
"I haven't worn it since that photo because I actually agree with them, I think it looks terrible in the photo."
Our COVID-19 news articles relating to public health and safety are free for anyone to access. However, we depend on subscription revenue to support our journalism. If you are able, please subscribe here. If you are already a subscriber, thank you for your support.