Why Lainie Anderson is taking part in part in March 4 Justice

On Monday, tens of thousands of women will protest gendered violence in the March 4 Justice. Lainie Anderson would normally sit it out. Not this time.

Women will take to the streets in Adelaide and across Australia tomorrow to March 4 Justice – and in any other year I’d have left my sisters to it in their fight for equality and an end to gendered violence. Not this year. And here’s why …

1. I’m marching because I cannot get my head around Prime Minister Scott Morrison saying he did not read a letter detailing the historical rape accusation against Attorney-General Christian Porter, but that he had personally asked his cabinet minister about the allegations and he “absolutely” denied them.

Indeed, in recent days Mr Morrison has gone so far as to say Mr Porter is “an innocent man under our law”.

Woman march in Melbourne for the 2019 International Women’s Day rally. Picture: AAP / Ellen Smith

Guilt or innocence aside, how deeply sad that the nation’s highest office holder has signalled to victims of sexual assault that their voices do not matter.

2. I’m marching in opposition to double standards around mental health that portray Mr Porter in a sympathetic light because he’s taken mental health leave, yet the woman at the centre of these allegations who took her own life is portrayed in a diminished light because she suffered mental turmoil.

3. I’m marching because our Prime Minister needed to reference his own daughters to empathise with Brittany Higgins, the staffer allegedly raped in a parliamentary office. (Kudos to Australian of the Year and sexual assault survivor Grace Tame for calling out Mr Morrison on this.)

4. I’m marching because one in three women experiences physical or sexual violence and, on average, one woman is murdered every week by a current or former partner.

5. I’m marching because in 2021 Australian women still receive less pay to do the same work as men; and predominantly female roles such as those in childcare and aged care are still so pitifully paid; and because of the endemic underrepresentation of women in leadership, on boards and in politics.

6. I’m marching because the Federal Government thinks Mr Porter should return to his role as the nation’s chief law officer, and we’re expected to suck it up.

7. I’m marching because I don’t have any confidence things would be better if the roles were reversed and Labor leader Anthony Albanese was in power, and Mr Morrison were demanding an independent inquiry. (And because the idea of a female PM any time soon seems so despairingly unlikely.)

8. I’m marching against claims this is “trial by media” of the likes we’ve never seen before, despite the ferocious (and often politically sanctioned) treatment of former prime minister Julia Gillard by some sections of the media.

9. I’m marching to refute the gaslighting that an independent examination by a retired judge into the allegations against Mr Porter would somehow erode his presumption of innocence and the rule of law. It would do neither, and nor should we want it to. It would simply allow the claims to be tested and the alleged victim’s voice to be heard. And it would show that our national leaders place integrity before politics.

10. I’m marching because my life is blessed, but so many lives aren’t – and the loyal friends of the dead woman at the centre of these historical rape allegations have shown us all that sometimes you’ve just got to stand up.