Rape survivor and Australian of the Year Grace Tame has slammed Scott Morrison’s new cabinet taskforce, labelling it as “calculated distractions posing as solutions.”
On Monday, the Prime Minister announced a new cabinet task force on women’s equality, safety, health, economics and wellbeing, a task force that is set to be co-chaired by Minister for Women Marise Payne.
Notably, the new cabinet includes a promotion for controversial senator Amanda Stoker, who is now the Assistant Minister for Women.
Following the announcement, Tame took to social media to criticise the new ministry, accusing Stoker of endorsing a “fake rape crisis tour” and failing to adequately support sexual assault victims.
“The new Assistant Minister for Women is someone who previously endorsed a “fake rape crisis” tour, aimed at falsifying instances of sexual abuse on school and university campuses across Australia,” Tame wrote.
“It goes without saying that this came at an immeasurable cost to already traumatised student survivors.”
“The new Assistant Minister also supported last year’s Australia Day Honour of a woman who gave a platform to the convicted pedophile who abused me – a woman who laughed with the pedophile while they discussed and defended crimes against children, including rape and possession of child pornography,” Tame wrote.
Tame’s comments refer to Stoker’s support of controversial men’s rights activist Bettina Arndt, who once interviewed Tame’s rapist *after* he was released from prison.
“Everyone makes mistakes,” Stoker said of Arndt in an address to Parliament at the time. “At some point we’ve all said dumb stuff or things that in time have come to be understood as wrong.”
Throughout her lengthy statement on Instagram, Tame called out the Prime Minister for being “ignorant” at best.
“In light of these facts, either the Prime Minister is ignorant of cultural issues at hand, or he understands them completely, and is making calculated moves to perpetuate them,” she wrote.
“If the latter is true, then what we’re seeing is further abuse of power, masterfully disguised as progress – the very same psychological manipulation at the heart of these recently exposed evils.”
The Prime Minister – and Senator Stoker – are yet to respond to Grace Tame’s statement.
Help is available.
If you require immediate assistance, please call 000.
If you’d like to speak to someone about sexual violence, please call the 1800 Respect hotline on 1800 737 732 or chat online.
Under 25? You can reach Kids Helpline at 1800 55 1800 or chat online.
