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‘A tsunami is coming’: Tame, Higgins, McManus, Banks fire up the crowds

March 15, 2021 — 1.06pm

Angry, impassioned and demanding real change. Here are some of the speakers who addressed the Women’s March 4 Justice rallies across the country, or were interviewed at the protests.

Canberra

Brittany Higgins, former political staffer and the victim of an alleged rape: “I watched as the Prime Minister of Australia publicly apologised to me through the media, while privately the media team actively undermined and discredited my loved ones. I tuned into Question Time to see my former bosses – people that I had dedicated my life to – downplay my lived experience.”

“If they aren’t committed to addressing these issues in their own offices, what confidence can the women of Australia have that they will be proactive in addressing this issue in the broader community?”

“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 side-stepping accountability. It’s time we actually address the problem.”

Michele O’Neil, ACTU president: “We are here today for the girls hiding under the covers listening to the approaching footsteps. We are here for every woman in a bar, on a street, at her desk, in a factory, in a classroom, in an office who feels that look, who perceives that threat... We say to the men inside this place who are drunk on power and those around the country who wield their power more privately, ‘Don’t think you have or you will get away with it.’ ... Change is coming, it’s coming like a tsunami.”

Saxon Mullins, co-director of advocacy at Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy: “One in five women have experienced sexual violence. Men, where do you think these perpetrators are hiding? They are your friends. They are your co-workers. They are your football mates, and they are your friends from school.”

Tanya Plibersek hugs Saxon Mullins at the March 4 Justice protest.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

Madhumitha Janagaraja, Australian National University student association president: “Your [politicians’] prayers and condolences are not enough, they do nothing for survivors.”

Madeleine Chia, education officer at ANU student association: “I know a lot of students are angry. University students have been fighting for an end to sexual violence and institutional betrayal for so many years.”

Katchmirr Russell, Madeleine Chia, Avan Daruwalla and Aoibhinn Crimmins ahead of the rally.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Biff Ward, founding member in 1970 of Canberra Women’s Liberation Group: “This sense that over half the women in Australia have suddenly gone ‘Shit, what is all this? No more’. It’s just ridiculous that women aren’t safe in public places, even in their workplaces. It’s suddenly arrived at some huge turning point. That’s what it looks like to me and I am very excited.”

Melbourne

Julia Banks, former Liberal MP: “This is one of the most defining moments for Australian women because it’s driven by the most powerful force that makes up 51 per cent of our population: women.”

Huong Truong, former Victorian Greens MP: “Vote ’em out. Replace them and do not flinch. Double down. Stand witness. Let’s give them hell.”

Wil Stracke, assistant secretary of the Victorian Trades Hall Council: “We are angry. And we are hurting. It’s not just that we are not safe. It’s not just that we are not respected. We are still not equal ... we still don’t have equal pay. We are right to be angry.”

Korra Koperu, 19, trans activist: “I am not just scared to walk home at night. I am scared to walk anywhere.”

Hobart

Grace Tame, Australian of the Year: “Ten years next month, actually, that I made a choice to stand up against a man who repeatedly raped me and used to boast to me about other girls that he had raped before he raped me. I’m not going to name him – he doesn’t deserve any air time. But I was afraid of doing something until a different kind of fear usurped that fear, and that was the fear of doing nothing. The fear of doing nothing should outweigh your fear of doing something.”

“You know, as is often the case when an issue that has been shrouded in darkness for such a long time is suddenly thrust into the light, there’s widespread shock and disbelief over how something so evil could happen, and not just happen, but happen so ubiquitously. And the answer is plain and simple – silence. Evil thrives in silence. Behaviour unspoken, behaviour ignored, is behaviour endorsed.”

Sydney

Dhanya Mani, former NSW Liberal staffer: “I’m so angry as well standing in front of this building because it isn’t just about Scott Morrison, it isn’t just about men, it is about every person in a parliamentary building who stood by and did nothing.”

Matt Kean, NSW Environment Minister: “This is not a Liberal issue or a Labor issue – it’s all of our issues. And this is about saying no to violence against women and saying yes to equality across our community, and that’s something that we should all be a part of.”

Brisbane

Debbie Fletcher, Kalkadoon woman and social justice advocate: “I’m a grandmother, I am a mother, I am a sister and an auntie and a daughter ... I’ve been a fighter all my life, I make no apologies for that. I will continue to raise my voice while women in Australia continue to be abused, raped and murdered.”

Torquay

Laura Connor, one of the surf coast event organisers: “I just felt that he [Prime Minister Scott Morrison] failed to see that this was about every woman and girl in Australia. I just feel that we need to be taken seriously. And our safety and our right to a safe workplace is vital, for us to feel valued and respected.”

If you find any of the day’s coverage distressing and need to speak to someone, there’s always help available at Lifeline: (13 11 14 and lifeline.org.au)

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