Opinion: Petty snipe at PM does Grace Tame no favours
Since when does being Australian of the Year give you licence to personally attack our prime minister, asks Kylie Lang.
Kylie Lang
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Grace Tame has done some wonderful things, but publicly slamming the Prime Minister and questioning his cabinet reshuffle aren’t among them.
Since when did the Australian of the Year honour come with a licence to personally attack our nation’s leader?
Ms Tame, a rape survivor, was awarded her 2021 title because she is an agent of change, particularly in regards to women who’ve been sexually assaulted.
The 26-year-old should be applauded for that, most definitely.
Through the #LetHerSpeak campaign with journalist Nina Funnel, Ms Tame achieved an overdue amendment to Tasmanian legislation that prevented sexual assault survivors from publicly speaking out.
It took guts, courage and a fiery spirit.
But Ms Tame would do well to restrain from overreaching if she wants to continue to make a positive difference.
This week, while being interviewed by unapologetic leftist Kerry O’Brien at Griffith University, she derided Scott Morrison’s appointment of Queensland senator Amanda Stoker to the newly created position of assistant minister for women.
Ms Tame said Senator Stoker had supported a “fake rape crisis tour” and was an advocate for “falsifying all counts of sexual abuse on campuses across the nation”.
Many don’t see it this way, including Senator Stoker, who has called out university disciplinary codes that lack the rigours of criminal law.
Writing in The Australian in 2019, Senator Stoker said students were subject to codes that purport to “adjudicate on the facts of the allegation without many of the safeguards that ensure fairness in the criminal justice system”.
She said both victims and accused people deserved better than kangaroo courts to determine serious matters such as allegations of sexual assault – and that seems an entirely appropriate ask.
However, from where Ms Tame sits, Senator Stoker is unfit for her newly appointed role, and this week she took aim at the Prime Minister on social media as well over his decision.
“Either the Prime Minister is ignorant of the cultural issues at hand, or he understands them completely, and is making calculated moves to perpetuate them,’’ Ms Tame said.
“If the latter is true, then what we are seeing is further abuse of power, masterfully disguised as progress, the very same psychological manipulation at the heart of these recently exposed evils.”
A more productive approach for Ms Tame might have been to acknowledge that the Prime Minister is addressing the Liberal National Party’s poor record on female representation in Parliament.
Lifting the number of women to seven out of 23 isn’t earth-shattering, but it is an improvement, and people should always be appointed on merit and not to fill a quota.
Mr Morrison also established a taskforce for women to tackle equality, safety and economic wellbeing, but instead of welcoming it, Ms Tame sniped that she thought of it first.
She said when she met the Prime Minister at morning tea on 25 January she “spoke directly of the need for a permanent taskforce to tackle issues pertaining to sexual abuse”.
“He dismissively insisted that such infrastructure already existed and functioned well,” she said.
“Two months later, in an attempt to repair his political standing following explosive allegations of sexual assault, discrimination and misconduct in parliament, he has rearranged his cabinet and created a taskforce on women’s equality, safety, economic security, health and wellbeing.”
Ms Tame, any decision by government can be seen in a purely political context, as can decisions in business and other fields. This doesn’t automatically mean good outcomes are not being achieved at the same time.
If positive changes in response to society’s feedback are to be dismissed in this way, then we can say goodbye to the public’s right to be heard and to the duty of governments of any persuasion to respond.
Mr Morrison said while he didn’t share Ms Tame’s view on his ministerial reshuffle, “I respect Grace and I once again congratulate her on her strong advocacy”.
“There’s nothing wrong with disagreeing with each other, but I think we’ve got to find better ways to disagree and this comes and builds from a culture of respect in this country.”
Well said, Prime Minister.
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