Grace Tame reveals she was not consulted on the government’s sex abuse strategy

Australian of the Year and sex assault survivor left out of Scott Morrison’s national strategy, despite ‘it being my job’.

Australian of the Year Grace Tame has joined forces with the Australian Federal Police to tackle the stigma around child abuse.

Australian of the Year and sexual assault survivor Grace Tame says she was not consulted on the federal government’s national strategy for the prevention of child sexual abuse.

The 10-year plan, which will establish a co-ordinated and ­nationally consistent approach to preventing abuse, will be released next week, four years after it was recommended by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse.

Ms Tame, who has long campaigned for prioritising abuse prevention, told the ABC on Friday she had not been involved in the drafting of the strategy, but would have liked to have been.

“No, I haven’t. I haven’t been involved in the drafting of that,” she said. “I mean, that’s my job and I’ve been banging on about it all year. That we should be focusing on prevention.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison with Australian of the Year Award winner Grace Tame. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

However, Ms Tame said she did not want to complain about not being invited to participate.

“I think it’s really important that we are teaching kids as early as possible to know their rights and also to be aware of these ­behaviours,” she said.

“It’s not the responsibility of children to stop abuse. You know, that’s not fair.

“It’s the responsibility of adults, it’s the responsibility of the whole community to tackle the issue of child sexual abuse.”

Ms Tame called for a multi­faceted approach that would ­include input from survivors, ­experts and policy makers.

“We need to hear from victim survivors, we need to hear from experts, we need the input of policy and decision-makers, we need educators, everyone needs to be involved and the focus should be on prevention,” she said. “Knowledge is power and we need to be equipping kids as early as possible.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday told 2GB that the government and legal authorities needed to “go after” perpetrators of childhood sexual assault with “everything we’ve got”.

Mr Morrison told question time on Thursday that the government’s strategy would include a 10-year plan and “deliver ambitious and world-leading measures to prevent and respond to all forms of child sexual abuse”. He said the government had set aside $146m for the first four years of the strategy.

The government was con­tacted for comment.