Tony Abbott has attracted worldwide ridicule for himself and our country (not for the first time of course) with his infamous wink incident this week.

In fact, people repeatedly sharing this incident on social media are not really adding much to the national debate. Anybody who's opinion actually matters already knew Tony Abbott is not fit to even lead a scout group, let alone a whole country.

What is far more insightful than the wink is the story of the grandmother who had called him up on talk back radio and in particular, her feeling that she was forced into sex work due to the woefully inadequate level of welfare and pension funding in Australia.

Looking abroad, there are plenty of similar examples. One of the most disturbing trends is that of female students selling their virginity on eBay to avoid debt. A more elaborate example is that of the the call girl Belle de Jour who blogged about her experiences and even won a publishing deal. It was later revealed that she is a scientist who used the sex work to subsidise her PhD program in London.

Given that Tony Abbott is also the Minister for Women, it will be no surprise if such practices become the norm in Australia. In between smoking Cuban cigars, it will be no surprise if members of parliament are enjoying the services of women in these situations while cutting off any other options for women to avoid such measures to balance their own budgets.