Condemnation of his actions has been widespread among Opposition political parties and media commentators - and even some members of his own party have been scathing in their comments.
The Age correspondent Jacqueline Maley wasted no time in heading her column: ''We thought you knew women Tony, but then you do this''.
''We've talked about this time and time again, and we thought it was resolved. After you made the quip about the ironing and the housewives of Australia, remember? And those tricky historical abortion comments that kept cropping up and you couldn't quite explain away? And the time you seemed to imply our unmarried female prime minister was somehow living in sin,'' she wrote.
Mr Abbott appointed Julie Bishop as the only female minister in his 19-member Cabinet. Admittedly, Mr Abbott was hindered by one of his senior female MPs, Sophie Mirabella, ruling herself out of contention because she was at risk of losing her seat in the election. And it can be understood, in some ways, why he was reluctant to promote any first-term MP to the Cabinet table, although New Zealand seems relaxed enough about those decisions.
In fact, Australia now has fewer women Cabinet ministers than war-torn Afghanistan, a country not particularly welcoming to women in public, let alone public office. Canada has 12 women in its Cabinet, Indonesia has seven, Germany and New Zealand each have six and the United States has three. There are four women in the 22-member Cabinet of Conservative British Prime Minister David Cameron, who failed to meet a self-set target of appointing women to one-third of ministerial positions.
Mr Abbott has not been universally condemned by female politicians. Former Liberal cabinet minister Amanda Vanstone defended Mr Abbott, saying she would rather have competent government than ministerial gender equality. The former senator said having more women in the Cabinet should not be an end in itself. The interesting comment from Ms Vanstone was when she said the ''die had been cast'' for Mr Abbott's male-dominated Cabinet a long time ago.
The new Government spent six years in Opposition, but it appears Mr Abbott and his senior advisers did not use any of that time to prepare the best and brightest of their female colleagues to be high-ranking MPs. At best, Mr Abbott would have had only two female Cabinet ministers if Ms Mirabella had not ruled herself out.
In New Zealand, the Labour Party was criticised for suggesting a ''man ban'' on candidate selection for next year's election. At the time, then leader David Shearer overruled the party before finding himself without enough support to remain in the position. New Labour leader David Cunliffe appears to support the idea of Labour's list comprising 50% women.
If that proposal is supported at the party conference later this year, deputy leader David Parker and Shane Jones, both list MPs, may find themselves pushed right down the list to make way for women if the 50% is on equal ranking. A case can also be made for quotas, and the New Zealand Green Party has strict selection rules about its top 10 list positions. But in the end, it comes down to having the right people in the right job.
A recent Institute of Directors survey showed that female directors represented 19.9% of all directors, an increase from 17.3% last year. Women were highly represented on non-profit boards (42%) and under-represented on private company boards (13%). Employers, from prime ministers to chief executives, have a duty of care to ensure women are given equal opportunity to make their way along their chosen career path.
Diversity is a much used word and it usually defines ethnic representation. But using diversity to encourage more women in high-powered political and corporate positions would give New Zealand and Australia a legacy the rest of the world would envy.
