Key Points from Brittany Higgins & Grace Tames National Press Club Addresses
Can we talk about how INCREDIBLE it was to watch two National Press Cub addresses from two INCREDIBLE ladies yesterday? You know I couldn’t go past this with just an Instagram post it deserved a whole damn article.
Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins share many similarities- both are twenty-six, both sexual assault survivors, both are women working toward a better future for other women, by speaking about their experiences and not taking no for an answer.
Yesterday, 9th February 2022 Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame took to the stage at National Press Club in front of a room full of influential people and press, as well as their partners and leader of the opposition Anthony Albanese. Their speeches came as a right of reply to the formal apology that was made by Prime Minister Scott Morrison just the day before.
BRITTANY HIGGINS
The morning began with an address from Brittany Higgins- a name you should know well by now. Almost a year ago in March 2021, Ms. Higgins brought her sexual assault inside the ‘safety’ of Parliament House in Canberra to light. A Liberal Party Staffer, who began an incredible #MeToo movement inside the leadership house of Australia.
“Last year wasn’t a march for acknowledgment. It wasn’t a march for coverage. It wasn’t a march for language. It was a march for justice.”
Ms. Higgins referenced the momentum of the Women’s March 4 Justice- thousands of women marched in solidarity on March 14 and 15, 2021. They marched for gender equality, and for justice for the victims of sexual assault. Ms. Higgins gave a powerful speech at the March 4 Justice in Canberra where she told of the system is “broken.”
“I didn’t want his sympathy as a father. I wanted him to use his power as Prime Minister. I wanted him to wield the weight of his office and drive change in the party and our parliament, and out into the country. And one year later, I don’t care if the government has improved the way that they talk about these issues. I’m not interested in words anymore. I want to see action.”
Who could forget when Prime Minister Morrison needed his wife’s help to contextualise rape? Ms. Higgins didn’t do this for herself, she did this for all the future women of parliament who need to be safe from these evils. The PM missed that mark and instead of using his power as Prime Minister to do something about it, to make these women safer, he instead only offered his sympathy.
“I earnestly thank the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition for their statements of acknowledgment and apologies offered yesterday to victims of abuse in our national parliament. In addition, I’d like to acknowledge Zali Steggall, who enabled a handful of us to actually attend in person. It was encouraging, and an important sentiment, but I am cognisant that, at this point in time, they are still only words. Actions are what matter. And what will be the true test of whether the government is committed to creating systemic change.”
They are only words, words that have come far too late and have only come at all due to this being an election year and the PM wanting to save face. Without any action, these words are meaningless and unfortunately for Scott Morrison, I do believe many people can see that- that he is all talk and no action.
As someone who was publicly acknowledged in the speech, it does blow my mind that Brittany Higgins was not formally invited to be there in person and instead was only there because a member of parliament Zali Steggall made it possible.
“Any single one of these statistics should challenge us. They should confront us. They should spur us to do whatever it takes. But instead, they’ve become sort of this throat-clearing exercise that we all just kind of tolerate.”
Are we even surprised when people tell us the sexual assault and abuse statistics anymore? We simply expect them to be higher than the last time we heard them. We’re more surprised when they *if* they are lower than if they are exceptionally higher.
“The draft plan does not even directly acknowledge the fact that we’ve failed on our first account. Out one single measure for success, a target to see a significant and sustained reduction in violence against women and their children during the next 12 years, we failed.”
Ms. Higgins takes aim at the National Action Plan, which seems to have missed the pages with the actual “plan” on it. The plan is merely statistics and data that shows what the problem is and the targets that they want to hit and when. There is no mention of how this is going to be achieved, what is going to be implemented, what is going to be changed- what is going to drive that change.
“I want to close by saying that for all the fear and anger and sadness that my time in politics has brought me, it did not take away my belief in Australia, my faith in democracy.
I know our country can do better for women and girls. I know our Parliament will be a better, stronger place if more women are ministers and members and senators and staffers. I know change is possible, and as long as there are people like Grace Tame and Rosie Batty and the amazing team at PAN you global Institute for women’s leadership, I know that change is coming.
It is up to us to keep those in power up to account. To take up the challenge, we each have a responsibility to one another and have a role to play in making things better for the next generation of women.”
GRACE TAME
In 2021 Grace Tame was named Australian of the Year, in the one-year period since Ms. Tame has not strayed from her beliefs, her values, her stubbornness, and her blunt attitude. And it is fucking refreshing. Ms. Tame is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and fought hard for her right to be named as such because of the former Tasmanian gag order.
“But, sure, I was the predator. It was all my fault. If I can still be shamed into believing that today, it is no wonder that even amid this national reckoning, with all the empowerment it has generated for survivors, many still remain hesitant to publicly come forward with their stories. Sexual abuse and violence are all linked by this common thread of abuse with power, but each of these traumas is markedly different.”
Victim blaming. It is never the perpetrators' fault. It makes me so mad that a young girl can be told that her being taken advantage of by her high school teacher was HER fault. And yet- victim-blaming is rife, and you see so much of it, especially on social media. The victim is responsible for the actions of the criminal, they didn’t have to do anything different, they didn’t actively seek out being harmed.
“One of the more complex challenges I have based in my work is walking the fine line between sexual assault and child abuse survivor advocacy. Sexual assault is a distinctly gendered issue, and while I happily lent my voice to it, I am not just an advocate for women.
I am an advocate for all survivors of child sexual abuse, many of whom are male. We must preserve that nuance. Every nuance in our discussions. We cannot forget our boys, and we cannot forget our men, not only as welcome, equal participants in this ongoing conversation, and without ignoring many negative patriarchal customs, we cannot forget our boys and men who are fellow survivors of abuse.”
Ms. Tame pointed this out and it was a very important note. She is an advocate for child sexual abuse, something that is not gendered specific. Girls and boys are taken advantage of and harmed, this issue is not just for the ladies- it is for everyone.
“For instance, certain members of the commentary have consistently labeled me as politically divisive, failing to mention that I spent most of last year having frank, productive meetings with politicians on all sides at both the state and federal level. So, after a year of being re-victimised, commodified, objectified, sensationalised, delegitimise, gas-lit, thrown under the bus by the biased, mainstream media, despite my inclusive messaging.
I would like to take this opportunity to take a glass of water and remind you that I really have nothing to lose.”
It was at this moment that I knew something incredible was about to come out, something that would probably leave the Morrison government in tatters and I was ready for it.
“On the 17 August last year, not five months after being named Australian of the Year, I received a threatening fine call from a senior member of a government-funded organisation, asking for my word that I would not say anything examining about the Prime Minister on the evening of the next Australian of the Year Awards.
“You are an influential person. He will have a fear,” they said. A fear? What kind of fear – I asked myself. I fear for our nation’s most vulnerable? A fear for the future of our plan? And then I heard the words,” with an election coming soon…”
And it crystallised a fear — eight fear for himself and no-one else, a fear that himself and no-one else, a fear he might lose his position or, more to the point, his power.”
AND THERE IT WAS. A government-funded organisation trying to shut the Australian of the Year up because of an election.
“Not long afterward, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet conducted a review into the National Australia Day Council — a selection process for the Australian of the Year Awards, a transparent intimidation tactic, designed to rattle the cage of an organisation whose funding it mostly comes from the Federal Government.”
A blatantly obvious attempt at once again silencing a woman who has ideas that do not align with some of what our government does. This scare tactic obviously didn’t work for Ms. Tame, but who else has been scared into submission and silence by our government? Who have we not heard from because the government has said “okay, let’s not talk about this.”
“In any event, I would rather go down as a disappointment to an institution than sell out as a pandering political puppet to the corrupt forces that coercively control it. Repeatedly this year, I have seen the patterns of deception and deceit performed by predators mimicked in our halls of power. And that’s just it.
The federal government’s approach to social issues seems to consist of nothing but empty announcements, placatory platitudes, superficial last-minute acknowledgments, and carefully staged photo ops. Facades and false hope. Reviews, reports, delays, and distractions — if not downright denials. All deliberate spin tactics designed to satiate the press and the general public.”
MIC. DROP.
“Lest I mention the symbolism of promoting an alleged rapist, protecting him from an independent inquiry, and then allowing him to receive a million dollars worth of anonymous donations.”
Here is looking at you Christian Porter.
“The federal government is prepared to spend over $90 billion of taxpayers’ money on submarines that might be ready by 2040 to combat a potential offshore threat. $2.4 billion of that has already been wasted — gone.
Compare that to what they’re prepared to spend on the very real epidemic of violence against women and children affecting 1 in 4 today here at home. Just $1.1 billion in total. And if we just single out prevention education — which is where the real hope for change is — the numbers are even sadder.”
Violence against women in children is an issue NOW, not something that has the potential to be an issue sometime in the future. The money being wasted on submarines that MIGHT one day come in handy could have been better spent on SO MANY other things- the issue of violence against women and children included.
“And the third ask is for national, consistent, legislative change.
Still today, perpetrators of abuse find safety in outdated, inconsistent legislation which both protects them and perpetuates social ignorance.
For example, the man who abused me who I spoke about before was convicted of maintaining a sexual relationship with a person under the age of 17. In other jurisdictions, this exact same offence was called “the persistent sexual abuse of a child”.
The former charge implies consent, while the latter reflects the gravity and the truth of an unlawful criminal act committed against an innocent child victim.”
People who deserve to be punished, to be put in prison, to be subject to the consequences of their actions are continually finding loopholes that prevent the course of justice from being held. Victims are seeing no justice because the legislation is not consistent, this third ask from Ms. Tame is an incredibly important one.
“But in saying all of this, before we end today, we mustn’t forget how far we’ve come.
In just 12 short months, we’ve collectively shifted the dial towards survivor voices. We have amplified lived experience to unprecedented levels and, in doing so, restored courage and hope back to a previously disempowered community.
We are on the path to achieving nationwide safety, equity, and respect. An advocate is only as powerful as their supporters.
You see me here standing tall if a little bit broken. Standing on the shoulders of giants. Side by side with Brittany. Side by side with all of you. Together, making change. Making history. But above all else, making noise!”
Two incredible women. Two incredible speeches. Well done Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame.
