Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins ready for sold-out National Press Club speech

Will any Liberals be in the audience when Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins address the National Press Club?

Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame in Marie Clare magazine.

Will any Liberals be in the audience when Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins address the National Press Club on Wednesday? Scott Morrison is snubbing it.

The Prime Minister said he won’t be attending and will be too busy to watch the 2020 Australian of the Year and ex-Liberal staffer’s sold-out speech on TV.

“It’s going to be a busy week. I don’t get the opportunity to listen to all these speeches, but I’ll certainly ensure I am aware of what they’ve said,” ScoMo said. “I am certainly, like the rest of the country, very interested in the contribution they have made.

“I think the contribution they have made has brought forward some very important issues that we’ve had to deal with and we should deal with and were long overdue.”

Scott Morrison says he won’t have time to watch Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins at the National Press Club.

Higgins’ former boss Linda Reynolds won’t be there either.

The NDIS Minister tested positive for Covid-19 in Tasmania last week while on a work trip, and is lying low (read: still self-isolating). Conveniently, that meant she wasn’t in the Senate to hear the apology to those who have been bullied, harassed, assaulted and abused in Parliament House.

Higgins wasn’t invited by the government to watch Morrison say sorry, but independent Zali Steggall was able to secure her a spot in the Covid-closed public gallery.

(That said, Craig Kelly was able to sign several anti-vaxxers, and their camera crew, into the building for an “essential meeting”).

Craig Kelly and co.

Around this time last year Reynolds cancelled her own highly anticipated press club probe. She was admitted to hospital for a pre-existing heart condition.

Later, this paper revealed the then defence minister called Higgins a “lying cow”, a comment she was forced to retract publicly and pay an undisclosed sum in damages.

The ailing senator swiftly took leave … only to be spotted by one of Strewth’s spies wining and dining at an Italian restaurant in Goulburn.

Linda Reynolds and Michaelia Cash.

Watch and learn

Will any members of Morrison’s special Cabinet Women’s Taskforce be there?

For those who may have forgotten, it was created last March after Higgins went public with her rape allegations.

The PM said it would “drive my government’s agenda and response to these key issues involving women’s equality, women’s safety, women’s economic security, women’s health and wellbeing”.

It’s co-chaired by ScoMo and his “Prime Minister for Women” Marise Payne, and is scheduled to meet again later this month.

Strewth understands Payne is planning to attend the press club, if her meeting with the Lithuanians doesn’t run long. Women’s Safety Minister Anne Ruston will also be there, as will Women’s Economic Security Minister Jane Hume.

Marise Payne.

Nationals Senate leader Bridget McKenzie is unable to attend but said she’s committed to creating a safe and secure workplace. Assistant Minister for Women Amanda Stoker has back-to-back meetings, so won’t be making it either, and Science Minister Melissa Price is in Perth.

Attorney-General Michaelia Cash did not respond to our questions.

Lower house Tasmanian Bridget Archer, who has threatened to cross the floor and vote against the government’s religious discrimination bill, managed to secure a $90 ticket thanks to ABC host and former NPC President Sabra Lane. The child sex abuse survivor was reportedly told the decision on whether she could attend the speech was “up to the prime minister”.

Several Liberal backbenchers say pressure was being applied to pollies to not attend the Tame- Higgins double act, in order to avoid embarrassing the government – an allegation shrugged off by Finance Minister Simon Birmingham as a misunderstanding over parliamentary pairs.

According to the manager of opposition business, Tony Burke, there are 12 automatic pairs and the government hasn’t requested any extra. If it does, Labor will grant them, as it did during the March for Justice.

Anthony Albanese is heading to the press club with NSW senator Jenny McAllister.

Labor’s spokeswoman for women, Tanya Plibersek, was scheduled to attend, but is stuck in isolation after one of her kids caught Covid, and Senate leader Penny Wong is on leave following a planned medical procedure.

Can’t be tamed

One thing we do expect to see at the press club on Wednesday is the infamous Tame side eye … in real life or art form.

It has been immortalised by Brisbane-based artist Nordacious (aka James Hillier) and printed on a range of T-shirts, tote bags, phone cases, face masks, mugs and stickers, with $5 from each sale going to the Grace Tame Foundation.

Brisbane City Labor councillor Kara Cook has a poster of the portrait – which comes with the tag line “Not today Scotty” – hanging in her office.

Back in Council today channelling @TamePunk 💪

You can get yours from @nordacious with a donation from every sale going directly to the Grace Tame Foundation. pic.twitter.com/VQj2AzkyuQ

— Councillor Kara Cook (@CrKaraCook) February 8, 2022

Easy as 1, 2, 3

Spotted! Anthony Albanese sporting socks with the ABC logo at the traditional start-of-the- parliamentary-year church service.

A subtle sartorial nod to Communications Minister Paul Fletcher’s pre-election announcement that the national broadcaster’s funding would be restored?

There’s a simple origin story for the socks.

Anthony Albanese.

When the annual Aunty showcase – thrown by the Parliamentary Friends of the ABC co-chairs Nationals MP Darren Chester, Labor’s Mike Freelander, SA indie Rebekha Sharkie, Tassie indi Andrew Wilkie and Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young – was Covid-cancelled for the second year running in 2021, ABC managing director David Anderson decided to send out a swag bag of goodies to every federal politician.

Inside the reusable tote bag was: a Gardening Australia magazine featuring Costa Georgiadis and the gang, two Triple J stickers, socks and a water bottle.

For the book worms, there was an extra tome (RRP $34.99) – Black Summer, edited by Michael Rowland; Back Roads: The Scenic Road by Heather Ewart; or The Hard Quiz Book Of The World’s Hardest Arses, which has a foreword by TV host Tom Gleeson.

Will this gift translate to a less bumpy ride at the estimates next week? Unlikely!

Stop bringing it up

“I don’t think anyone’s sitting around the kitchen table talking about text messages. That’s Days of Our Life stuff” – Resources Minister Keith Pitt.

Keith Pitt.

The party is over

Things could be worse. Boris Johnson belted out Gloria Gaynor’s disco jam I Will Survive while welcoming his new chief spinner Guto Harri to Downing St.

Harri was hired after #partygate prompted a string of resignations (but still no word on who “ambushed” the British Prime Minister with a cake) and a reset by BoJo.

Harri’s first job? To inform the media that his boss is “not a complete clown” but ”a very likeable character” and “not the devil like some have mischaracterised him”.

Tough gig.

Boris Johnson.

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