It shouldn’t take children to have a conscience: rape survivor Grace Tame says sexual abuse ‘not unique to parliament’, lashes PM

Australian of the Year lashes PM’s response to alleged rape, saying ‘it shouldn’t take children to have a conscience’.

Australian of the Year and rape survivor Grace Tame at the National Press Club in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage.

Australian of the Year Grace Tame has lashed Scott Morrison’s response to the alleged rape of a former Liberal Party staffer, declaring “it shouldn’t take having children to have a conscience”.

Allegations of sexual assault have engulfed the Morrison government in recent weeks. On Wednesday afternoon, Christian Porter revealed that he is the ­senior cabinet minister accused of a historic 1988 rape, and vehemently denied the allegation.

Last month, former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins said she was raped by a colleague at Parliament House in March 2019.

Ms Higgins cited the Prime Minister’s public congratulation of Ms Tame when she was named Australian of the Year as a reason for her decision to speak out.

A day after the allegation was reported in the media, the Prime Minister said his wife Jenny had helped him in “clarifying” his perception on the allegation by asking him to think as a “father first” and consider if the alleged assault happened to his daughters.

In a speech to the National Press Club on Wednesday, Ms Tame took aim at the Prime Minister’s comments about viewing the alleged rape through the lens of a being father.

“It shouldn’t take having children to have a conscience,” she said. “On top of that, having children doesn’t guarantee a conscience.”

Asked if Mr Morrison’s previous statement in 2019 that rape survivors should be believed rung true in light of his current rhetoric, Ms Tame said “clearly not”.

Mr Morrison has been facing pressure to take action against his cabinet minister — now revealed as Mr Porter — who is accused of raping a woman when he was a teenager in 1988.

Mr Porter said the incident never happened and he categorically denied the allegation.

Ms Tame said she was not surprised about the allegations of sexual assault in federal parliament but stressed that they occurred in all workplaces.

“Cover-up culture, the abuse of power, is not unique to parliament,” she said. “It’s not necessarily individual cases. It’s the issue itself that is going to inspire me to do this work. I was doing (it) before it dominated the national stage.”

Ms Tame also used her speech to call for national reform on education and policy to tackle sexual assault and the barriers to survivors coming forward.

“It is so important for our ­nation, the whole world, in fact, to listen to survivors’ stories,” she said. “The more we come out and speak about this, the more the conversation will be normalised.”

She said Australia needed to implement a national standard of consent to ensure it is taught in schools across the country. She also pushed for a national framework that supported survivors.

She stressed a national conversation was needed to raise public understanding of the grooming process in child sexual abuse.

Ms Tame, who is a rape survivor, campaigned to change Tasmania’s sexual assault laws which prevented her from legally speaking about her assault, which had occurred when she was teenager by one of her schoolteachers.