Fury as Prime Minister Scott Morrison ‘too busy’ to attend March4Justice
If Prime Minister Scott Morrison was hoping women might lose interest in the cause that brought thousands of them to the streets, he might be disappointed.
Fury over the prime minister’s inaction and lack of leadership on women’s issues continues to grow, with tens of thousands of people taking to the streets yesterday to protest gendered violence and yet again, call for equality for women.
Those who protested at the March 4 Justice demonstrations yesterday have vowed to keep reminding Prime Minister Scott Morrison of what they want.
Jess Hill, author of See What You Made Me Do and domestic violence advocate and journalist, called on the crowd to make the protest “stick”.
“Right now the Morrison government is banking on the media losing interest, but we will not be silenced … let’s make this stick,” she told the crowd in Sydney.
And it appears people are keeping it at the forefront of the PM’s mind — and at the top of his social media feed.
.@ScottMorrisonMP We’re not going away. https://t.co/UcuiAJjrT7
— Julia Zemiro (@julia_zemiro) March 15, 2021
Morning @ScottMorrisonMP we are still here!!!
— Alison Telford (@alisonjtelford) March 15, 2021
@ScottMorrisonMP Still not going away
— Jan Darr (@jan_darr) March 15, 2021
. @ScottMorrisonMP Morning! It's still not going away.
— Marieke Hardy (@mariekehardy) March 15, 2021
@ScottMorrisonMP we're not going away#EnoughisEnougthhttps://t.co/3bWOrjOtRc
— some lady (@songstargame) March 15, 2021
Despite calls for Scott Morrison to attend yesterday’s March 4 Justice rally in Canberra, the PM insisted he was too busy, instead offering a private sit-down to the protest’s organisers.
Minister for Women, Marise Payne, was also a no-show.
“Throughout the year we meet hundreds and hundreds of people. I don’t normally attend marches, the Prime Minister does not normally attend marches, but we are very, very willing to engage on the issues,” Ms Payne told ABC’s 7.30 yesterday.
There were 40 marches across Australia yesterday, with the largest held in Sydney and Canberra.
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Camilla Nelson, Associate Professor in Media at Notre Dame University, attended the Sydney rally and said the lack of attendance from Australia’s leaders showed “callous indifference”.
“By refusing to step outside the parliament to answer women’s justified concerns, the prime minister has demonstrated callous indifference,” she wrote in a piece for The Conversation.
“It looks like he is prioritising media management — the risk someone will snap an unflattering photograph as he embarks on his next campaign — above humanity.
“Minister for Women Marise Payne drew further attention to the government’s contempt by similarly signalling her intention to remain absent today.”
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Ms Nelson said it felt as if women were starting the fight again, after a number of failures from the government.
“The government’s apparent inability to adequately listen or respond to the serious concerns of women suggests a deep, underlying cultural reason for its policy failures,” she said.
“The gains that older women, and women of my own generation thought we had won, seem to be evaporating.
“Or perhaps the real problem is that at a cultural level, they were never really won at all. And so the fight begins again.”
Mr Morrison has apologised to Ms Higgins for how her rape allegation was handled.
He also announced an investigation into workplace culture in Parliament House and the process of handling allegations of sexual harassment and assault would be led by sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins.
Special Minister of State Simon Birmingham said the inquiry would examine how to change the culture and practices within parliament to ensure future assaults were prevented, after accusations the Morrison government failed to respond to Ms Higgins’ claims properly.
“The parliament of Australia should reflect best practice in the prevention of, and response to, any instances of bullying, sexual harassment, or sexual assault,” he said.
“The Prime Minister asked me to work across party lines to develop a review that would be truly at arm’s length of government, and that would be truly independent.”
Mr Morrison added to the fury yesterday when he told Question Time it was “good and right” that people were able to gather but that marches in other places were “met with bullets”.
“It is good and right, Mr Speaker, that so many are able to gather here in this way, whether in our capital or elsewhere, and to do so peacefully to express their concerns and their very genuine and real frustrations,” he said.
“This is a vibrant liberal democracy, Mr Speaker, not far from here, such marches, even now, are being met with bullets, but not here in this country.”
ACTU Secretary Sally McManus, who attended the Canberra rally, told the ABC the PM’s comments were “tone deaf”.
“I think that I really question whether he actually gets it — whether he actually really understands how at least half of the population, probably more, feel at this moment? We feel as though enough is enough. We want change.
“This is about violence. This is about violence towards women and towards children and towards some men. And so, the fact that he would then say — if you’re at a rally elsewhere, you would get shot, it was like tone deaf.
“Just completely out of step with the feeling. And really, it would be much better to listen, to have empathy, to understand and to act.”
A number of recent alleged incidents lit the fire for the March 4 Justice rallies, including former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins going public with her alleged rape in Defence Minister Linda Reynolds’ office.
Ms Higgins attended and spoke at the Canberra rally, lashing the prime minister and her former Liberal colleagues for undermining her.
“I watched as the Prime Minister of Australia publicly apologised to me through the media, while privately his media team actively undermined and discredited my loved ones,” she told the crowd of thousands.
“I tuned into Question Time to see my former bosses, people that I had dedicated my life to, downplay my lived experience.
“This isn’t a political problem. This is a human problem. We’ve all learned over the past few weeks just how common gendered violence is in this country.
“It’s time our leaders on both sides of politics stop avoiding the public and sidestepping accountability. It’s time we actually address the problem.”
Attorney-General Christian Porter is also accused of raping a 16-year-old girl in the late 1980s, an allegation he strongly denies.
Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie told Today she believed the PM’s lack of attendance was him backing away from a tough conversation.
“This is what I’ve said all the way along for Scott Morrison — when the going gets tough the tough gets going and unfortunately it takes a lot of courage to stand out in front of those women and he did not show he had the courage,” she said.
“It would have looked better for him to say ‘I’m out here, I’ve listened’.”
Former opposition leader Bill Shorten, who lost the federal election to Mr Morrison in 2019, said he believed the PM had “pulled the wrong rein”.
“Sometimes when you’re a leader you have to front up even if you don’t think they will be giving you a bunch of flowers,” he said.
“What the people were saying yesterday, and the men supporters, is they’ve had enough, talking about the same problems decade in and decade out.”
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