I am just gob-smacked by the total stupidity and incivility that is lashing our nation at the moment. Some call it the gender wars, others misogyny. I call it insanity.

It started with the Prime Minister's divisive call to women to support her because a vote for the Opposition was a vote for male supremacy and an end to abortion. The most bizarre part of that speech was the claim that the Opposition was dominated by men wearing blue ties as if blue ties were a scary instrument of torture.

Then we had the claim that at a fund-raising dinner, a candidate for Parliament had produced an offensive menu describing various parts of the Prime Minister's anatomy. It turns out that the offending menu had not been distributed at the event and the candidate had had nothing to do with its production. The restaurant owner had printed it for his own amusement.

Yesterday the army revealed that over 100 officers were being investigated over photos and emails that were denigrating to women.

And just when you think people cannot stoop any lower, a radio announcer in Perth asks the P.M. whether her boyfriend is gay because he's a hairdresser. I'm no fan of Julia Gillard, but that sort of disrespect to anyone let alone the leader of our Government is just beyond the realm of acceptable discourse.

A lot of this can be laid at the feet of the Prime Minister herself. I'm not suggesting that she is responsible for the gutter creeps that lurk in the military, nor for the behaviour of a radio announcer justified by her behaviour. But she has presided over a Government that is nasty, insulting and rude to its opponents. The lower they have sunk in the opinion polls, the worse they have got. Lacking decent policy or the competence to handle the national finances, all they have had is insults.

The infamous misogyny speech last year released the hounds. The Prime Minister personally attacked the Opposition Leader with accusations and insults that had no foundation in truth, but her cheer squad applauded her for being brave. Now she is reaping the harvest.

We desperately need a return to reasoned debate about policy in our Parliament. We need national leaders to talk about policy and issues not just insults.

It's too late for the current Government to learn new behaviour. We can just pray that after September 14th the new Government can lead by example and show the nation again how to be respectful to one another.