Howard backers taunted a sacked Mum with cries of "Get a job" when she took her case to federal parliament.
While their leader refused to make eye contact with the dumped childcare worker, last week, Liberal MPs left little doubt where their sympathies lay.
Emily O'Connor accused John Howard of dishonesty and cowardice, after he played the Sergeant Schultz card, in response to questions about her dismissal.
Howard told Parliament he neither knew, nor could be expected to know, of the highly-publicised case in which a Canberra employer boasted WorkChoices meant she didn't have to advance a reason for O'Connor's sacking.
According to bewildered parents, Blinky Bill child care centre manager, Anna Maria French, told them she had taken "full advantage" of the new industrial relations laws in dismissing O'Connor.
"He pretended he didn't know," said O'Connor, who was in the gallery when the Prime Minister was asked if he could "look Emily O'Connor in the eye?"
"He knew exactly who I was. Doesn't he watch TV or read the papers?
"He just dodged the issue. Any decent person would find this situation shocking. I think he has lost sight of what the Australian people want. It was a gutless thing to do."
O'Connor was shocked at the reaction of Liberal politicians when her case was raised in parliament. With Andrew Laming, Liberal member for Bowman, waving a paper at her and telling her to "find a new job".
"I felt like they were going 'look at this girl, she's nothing, she's nobody'," O'Connor said.
O'Connor says she came forward because of the large number of people being affected by the new laws who were too scared to speak up. She has been buoyed by the support from her community and the LHMU.
"It's important people speak up. Just because it's legal doesn't make it right," she said.
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