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RUBY:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ruby Jones - this is 7am

The 2021 Australian of the Year, Grace Tame, was recognised for her advocacy against sexual abuse. Since her appointment, she’s been outspoken in her criticism of the Morrison government. Now, the government has launched an urgent review of the Australia Day Council. It denies the review is linked to Grace Tame’s appointment, but it could result in the government having more decision making power over the position.

Today - Chief Political Correspondent for The Saturday Paper, Karen Middleton, on the recent history of the Australian of the Year Awards…And how they might change.

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RUBY:

Karen, the Australian of the Year awards have been around for decades, and for most of that time they've been a pretty standard affair - I would say perhaps even a little dry. But in the last few years, they've stirred up much more controversy. So what's changed?

KAREN:

Well, I guess we've had a range of different people who received these awards or are nominated as Australian of the Year, senior Australian, young Australian or local hero. So we've seen recipients right across a range of fields - sports people, scientists, public intellectuals, people who have a high profile in Australia for a particular reason because of their success, musicians, sometimes or people who've emerged, seemingly ordinary people who have emerged because of a particular incident or set of circumstances. And often they're uncontroversial, as you say. In recent years, they've been a few times when, because people have been advocating for a particular cause, there has been controversy around that. And if you go back to 2014, I think the three years from 2014, that was particularly the case.

Archival Tape -- Newsreader 1

“Andrew Bolt has slammed footballer Adam Goodes, claiming he's already let us down as Australian of the Year…”

KAREN:

We saw Adam Goodes, the AFL footballer who was a very strong campaigner against racism and in favour of Indigenous rights. He copped an enormous amount of abuse on and off the field for his campaign.

Archival Tape -- Alan Jones

“Y’know the man is always a victim! Then he became Australian of the Year and tells us that we’re all racists! Every time he speaks, ‘Australia is a racist nation’...”

KAREN:

We had Rosie Batty the year after him - now, she was what you might call a ‘regular Australian’ who came to prominence because of the terrible family violence that was wrought on her family in the death of her son.

Archival Tape -- Mark Latham

“There's a demonisation of men here where if you listen to Rosie Batty, every man is a potential wife basher. Every woman is potentially at risk. And I worry in the demonisation of men, that Rosie Batty is causing more harm than good.”

KAREN:

And David Morrison, the year after that, General Morrison, who had been the chief of the Defence Force.

Archival Tape -- Newsreader 1

“Former Army Chief David Morrison has hit back at members of the military community, who’ve criticised his appointment as Australian of the Year…”

KAREN:

David Morrison was advocating against misogyny, effectively, particularly within the Defence Force.
We had a quieter couple of years in the last couple of years, but then this year's winner Grace Tame has made this position a bit more controversial. She's speaking about a difficult issue, sexual assault. And she's also made some direct criticisms of the government, which, you know, it's caused a bit of discomfort, disquiet. And it's not ideal for the government to find itself being criticised in public by the person we've nominated for the highest public honour in the country.

RUBY:

Right. So going back to when Grace Tame was announced as Australian of the Year, I remember that coming out of the blue a bit, I wasn't even really aware that her name was in contention, if I'm totally honest, because young women aren't typically frontrunners for these types of things. So was her appointment a bit of a surprise to everyone?

KAREN:

I think it was, yes. I mean, amongst those people who bother to talk about these things in advance, I think that your expectation was that perhaps it was more likely that someone like Brendan Murphy, who was the ACT nominee and was the former Chief Medical Officer and now the Health Department secretary, might get the award as Australian of the Year. And Grace Tame was a surprise because she hadn't been prominent, as you say, until now. And also she's very young for the winner of Australian of the Year.

Archival Tape -- Prime Minister Scott Morrison

“2021 Australian of the Year is Grace Tame - ‘Let Her Speak’”

KAREN:

In advance of those awards being announced at that ceremony, Prime Minister Scott Morrison spoke there. He said that she was an inspiration and that she had moral courage and strength. So it was quite clear that he was speaking very warmly and in a congratulatory tone for what she had achieved.

Archival Tape -- Grace Tame

“PM, fellow nominees, mum, dad, Oscar, the rest of my family and friends…”

KAREN:

Grace Tame as the winner, as the declared Australian of the Year gave a very passionate and powerful speech.

Archival Tape -- Grace Tame

“I lost my virginity to a pedophile. I was 15, anorexic. He was 58. He was my teacher…”

KAREN:

She's a 26 year old from Tasmania and a campaigner against child sexual abuse, having been groomed and sexually abused herself as a teenager by a schoolteacher.

Archival Tape -- Grace Tame

“I remember him saying ‘Don't tell anybody’. I remember him saying, ‘Don't make a sound’. Well, hear me now.”

KAREN:

She was nominated for what she called the #LetHerSpeak campaign, which was a successful campaign to change the law in Tasmania, which up until then had said that victims, survivors of child sexual abuse, were not allowed to speak publicly about what had happened to them. She succeeded in changing that law and hence the name of her campaign.

Archival Tape -- Grace Tame

“All survivors of child sexual abuse - this is for us!”

RUBY:

Mm I remember watching that speech and subsequent speeches that- that Grace Tame gave as well. And her words, they had consequences that I don't think anyone could have predicted at the time.

Archival Tape -- Brittany Higgins

“I encourage each and every one of you to set boundaries for yourself and be ruthless in your defence of them.”

RUBY:

Another young woman, Brittany Higgins, has said that she was so inspired by what Grace Tame had said that she decided to make public an allegation that she was raped by a colleague in a ministerial office in Parliament House.

Archival Tape -- Brittany Higgins

“Speak up, share your truth, and know that you have a generation of women ready, willing and able to support you…”

RUBY:

And Brittany Higgins going public well I mean, that's had huge repercussions.

KAREN:

That's right. It's ended up causing a huge political headache for the government

Archival Tape -- Brittany Higgins

“By embracing legislative reform that enables survivors of sexual abuse to have a voice and be heard. We started it here!”

KAREN:

We saw a sustained public debate for two months about the issues around the treatment of women, particularly in Parliament House, but further afield

Archival Tape -- Newsreader 1

“A toxic culture not confined to the nation's capital.-...”

Archival Tape -- Vickie Chapman MP

“Allegations in recent weeks in Canberra have been profoundly disturbing…”

KAREN:

There was a national outcry about bullying, harassment, sexual assault...

Archival Tape -- Newsreader 2

“With more than 100,000 people expected to attend 40 rallies across Australia…”

KAREN:

We saw rallies organised around the country at very short notice, including at Parliament House itself.

Archival Tape -- Newsreader 3

“The crisis within Parliament House over the alleged sexual assault of a former staffer is deepening. A fourth woman has now come forward…”

KAREN:

So it became a very difficult issue for the government all around. And in the middle of all of that, we then saw allegations emerge against the then Attorney-General, Christian Porter - now, he has denied those allegations. But all of this came together to cause a big political problem for the government. And Grace Tame played an inadvertent role, I suppose, in all of that in her speech sparked off the Britney Higgins decision. But she has since then been outspoken and critical of the government quite directly.

Archival Tape -- Journalist 1

“What do you make of that? And what do you make of the rhetoric and the way he’s handled those allegations?”

Archival Tape -- Grace Tame

“It shouldn't take having children to have a conscience.”

KAREN:

She criticised the Prime Minister for some comments he made about his own daughters and his family, quoting his wife Jen, and suggesting that she had said that he should think about things from his daughter's point of view.

Archival Tape -- Grace Tame

“And actually, on top of that, having children doesn't guarantee a conscience.”

KAREN:

So she has positioned herself, I guess, as a politically controversial figure now in her own right.

RUBY:

Mm so when Scott Morrison called Grace Tame an inspiration, he probably didn't expect her to go on and use her profile as Australian of the Year to directly criticise him and his government's response to the issue of sexual assault.

KAREN:

I think that's right. He wouldn't have known. He couldn't have known that she was going to speak so provocatively and boldly in the months that followed. There's a very strong sense of disquiet around the government and perhaps a bit further afield about that selection of Grace Tame in light of how she's been so provocative and whether or not that was a good choice for the government, bearing in mind that it was made at arm's length. Interestingly, and the government says coincidentally, the government has commissioned an urgent review of the Australia Day Council and the way it operates, and potentially that could have an impact on how those decisions are made. And in the end, I guess, who is selected.

RUBY:

We'll be back in a moment.

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RUBY:

Karen, there’s a review process underway, launched by the government, which could impact how the Australian of the Year is decided. I want to ask you more about the details of that. But before I do, can you tell me how this actually works? Who decides who becomes the Australian of the Year?

KAREN:

So it’s kind of a two-stage process. The National Australia Day Council is the central body that oversees the Australian of the Year awards every January 25, they're announced the day before Australia Day traditionally. And the way it works is people nominate someone as Australian of the Year. And those nominations come from the states and territories and ultimately the winner is selected by the central body. So in Victoria, in New South Wales, South Australia and right across the country, each one chooses an Australian of the Year from that state. And those are put in to the central body. And the council board then chooses the ultimate winner. So that final council board is made up of people who come from the different jurisdictions, who come from different walks of life, who also represent Indigenous interests, multicultural interests. You know, they try to get a spread of business experience. There's one representative that's directly from the Federal Government who is a deputy secretary in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, and all of them are appointed by Federal Cabinet, and the chair leads the whole process. And the current chair is Danielle Roche. She's a former Olympian hockey player, a medallist, and she is overseeing that process as chair of the council.

RUBY:

Mm and the review itself. Do we know where it originated from and who's running it?

KAREN:

It's been commissioned through the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, and it's being headed by a Former Secretary of the Health Department, Glenys Beecham, who retired from the public service last year. And my understanding is she's been given a very tight time frame to complete it and hand the results to the government.

RUBY:

What is the goal here? Is this about the government wanting more influence over how this process works and over who is made Australian of the Year?

KAREN:

Well, that's what some people think. The government is insisting that it's not connected to the announcement of this year's recipients, but it is acknowledging that it wants to look at the way the processes operate and make sure that the membership of the board is appropriately representative.

Now, I've had lots of conversations with people about these processes. It may be, for example, the government wants more representation from someone with financial expertise or with legal expertise. We don't know yet, but the speculation is that it's likely that the government will want to change maybe the numbers on the board, certainly the kinds of people on the board. And that obviously suggests that there could be different outcomes in future if there are more people there, certainly with a direct representation of the Commonwealth's interests. And they will argue that that's appropriate because they are funding the awards. And there's been quite a significant increase in budget funding in the past few years. So they may say in the end, look we’re the Commonwealth, we're funding them. We've got an interest in overseeing the spending of taxpayers' money. We want a greater say in the board's processes. But of course, if they get a greater say, that means they are more able to steer and guide the decisions to perhaps get a person that they might prefer, who might be less controversial and not seen as divisive.

RUBY:

OK, so Karen, has a review like this happened before? Is this a response to Grace Tame and the fact that she has made life politically uncomfortable for the government? Or is it, just a coincidence?

KAREN:

Well, I can't answer whether it is a response to Grace Tame or not. We have to take what the government says. It says that it's not. There are other people who think it's a big coincidence that it's happening now. I've not found anyone who can point to a similar review in recent times. So it is unusual that a review like this would be ordered. It's also surprising that it's being ordered at such a tight time frame. The government has lined up the dates for turnover of the board to the 31st of March. I think there are a couple of people who've just left. So it is now time to renew those positions. And the suggestion from the government is that that's all this is. It's just taking the opportunity when there are already going to be some change over to make sure that they've got the right representation.

RUBY:

Mm and setting aside Grace Tame, do you think it is a sign perhaps that we might see, I guess, less quote unquote, controversial choices for Australian of the Year?

KAREN:

Well, it's possible. I think, you know, the government would say it probably prefers to have people who don't ignite unhappiness in parts of the community. Now, I'm not sure that Grace Tame has ignited unhappiness in parts of the community, but she's given rise and given voice to an issue that is difficult and people often find hard to talk about. Now it's caused political problems for the government, ultimately that this subject matter is being debated so passionately and so publicly and intensely for the last few months. Whether that ends up influencing the way that these choices are made in the future isn't clear. But, you know, the word ‘safe’ gets bandied around in sort of government circles and a bit wider afield in terms of whether somebody who's chosen is likely to be politically contentious or not. So maybe the government's inclination would be that we would have people who will speak about their chosen field, but not necessarily ignite ferocious public debate that could cause difficulties for a future government.

RUBY:

Karen, thank you so much for your time today.

KAREN:

Thanks, Ruby.

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RUBY:

Also in the news...

Tasmania’s Liberal Premier Peter Gutwein has claimed victory following the weekend’s state election.Counting is still underway but Liberal Party has claimed at least 12 seats, with Labor picking up four and the Greens two.

I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am see you tomorrow.

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