Politics

Grace Tame Has Revealed How ScoMo Reacted To Her Powerful ‘Australian Of The Year’ Speech

“Do you know what he said to me right after I finished that speech and we were in front of a wall of media?”

by Elfy Scott  24 May 2021

Want more Junkee in your life? Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook so you always know where to find us.

Grace Tame has spoken to The Betoota Advocate about how her life has changed since receiving the 2021 Australian of the Year award, and Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s response to her powerful speech at the award ceremony. But one particular moment from the podcast is gaining a lot of attention.

During the podcast, the conversation turns to the moment of winning Australian of the Year and how “visibly uncomfortable” Morrison looked on stage as Tame delivered her hard-hitting acceptance speech.

“Do you know what he said to me right after I finished that speech and we were in front of a wall of media?” she said. “I shit you not, he leant over and right in my ear he goes, ‘Well, gee, I bet it felt good to get that out'”.

Betoota‘s Clancy Overell and Errol Parker responded to the story laughing, and noted that he could have just said “thank you” instead.

Tame followed up the anecdote by saying that her manager’s mother — an elderly lifetime Liberal voter — commented on Morrison’s reaction with: “That man does nothing right”.

In parliament today, Labor’s Tania Plibersek asked Morrison if Tame’s retelling of the story was accurate and if that actually was what he said in response “to this brave woman’s extraordinary speech”.

Morrison said he couldn’t “recall the exact words” he used but did reinforce that it was roughly his recollection of what he said on the day and he stood by the sentiment of the comment, saying it was a proud moment for Tame.

During the podcast, Tame also discusses the mobilisation of the women’s movement in Australia since the beginning of the year and the ways that she’s going to continue to try and enact meaningful change as an advocate for survivors of sexual assault over the coming year.

“I think that a lot of people in positions of power who just kind of want this to go away, they want people to get really angry for a little while and they just tire themselves out and sort give up,” she said. “So, I’m just kind of encouraging people to be a little bit more measured and consistent, persistent in your agitation.”