Former prime minister Tony Abbott has spoken out about Julia Gillard’s incendiary misogyny speech, declaring it “pretty over the top”.

Gillard was PM in 2012 when she delivered the famous speech, which made headlines around the world.

Abbott, then opposition leader and now federal Liberal Party president, was the target.

“I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man. I will not. The government will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man – not now, not ever,” Gillard famously said in the 15-minute, unscripted speech in response to a motion moved by Abbott about then House speaker Peter Slipper.

Abbott has told ABC iview’s I Was Actually There podcast that he’d known Gillard for a long time and considered her a “formidable politician”.

But he acknowledged that respect was “fraying” ahead of the now-historic moment 14 years ago.

“I thought it was a pretty over the top and unjustified attack,” he said.

“Given that, I say, I am not conscious of ever treating women differently simply by virtue of them being women, I certainly am not conscious of ever having treated women in a lesser way.”

Abbott said he thought most of the accusations raised by Gillard were “over the top”.

“Gillard trotted out a whole lot of things where I was regarded as having acted in, I guess, an old-fashioned, ham-fisted, insensitive way,” he said.

“But again, I think most of those accusations were either over the top or slightly unfair.”

Among other things, Gillard’s criticised Abbott’s historical comments about women’s roles, abortion stances and his proximity to offensive public protests – including 2011’s infamous “ditch the witch” sign at a Canberra protest – while calling out his failure to address derogatory conduct within his own party and front bench.

Abbott and other Coalition MPs in front of the infamous “Ditch the witch’ protest sign. Photo: AAP

Gillard addressed Abbott’s claim that people who hold sexist or misogynistic views are unfit for high office, saying: “Well I hope the leader of the opposition has got a piece of paper and he is writing out his resignation.

She also said that if he wanted to understand misogyny in modern Australia, he did not need a parliamentary motion – he only needed to “look in a mirror”.

Gillard – who knew she would be targeted in parliament that day – told the podcast that, while the speech was off the cuff, she had asked her team to compile a list of Abbott’s “most sexist quotes”.

“What was completely ironic about this attack, is Tony Abbott was almost, you know, rent-a-gaffe about sexism issues,” she told I Was Actually There.

“It’s almost like a game of cards, ‘I’ll not only see you, I’ll raise you because you definitely said this’.”

In the years after the speech, Gillard said she wished she had called out sexist media coverage earlier, saying she “didn’t realise it was going to get as mad as it did”.

She said she was initially “confused and amused” by the overwhelming response to the speech, including from media around the world, and even resentful that her years of parliamentary work had come down to one moment. However, she had since made peace with it.

“At the end of the day, if it’s the only thing people overseas know about Australian politics — and it often is — it’s a pretty good one thing to know,” she told the Harvard Business Review in 2019.

Abbott also acknowledged the life the speech had taken since the day it was given.

“It was an effective parliamentary tactic on the day, but I had no real reason to think that it would become some iconic feminist moment,” he said.

“I dare say for some people this is, if you like, the rhetorical version of Helen Reddy’s great song, I Am Woman.”

He said Gillard had put “into practice the old doctrine that attack is the best form of defence”.

“Obviously, the prime minister had made what was a highly theatrical, politically powerful piece of drama,” Abbott said.

“But the fact that by the end of the day the speaker had resigned, I thought was a complete vindication of everything that I’d said in the parliament.”