Grace Tame has said \u201cwe\u2019re living in an Orwellian nightmare\u201d in a scathing critique of the prime minister and his government\u2019s position on the war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
In an essay published in Crikey<\/a> on Friday, the advocate for sexual abuse survivors and human rights activist accused Anthony Albanese of being a \u201ccoward\u201d and a \u201cturncoat\u201d for refusing to condemn the US-Israel strikes on Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n It was her most comprehensive rebuke of the PM since he called her \u201cdifficult\u201d<\/a> at a News Corp event when he was asked to describe public figures in one word. He later claimed he meant to describe her \u201cdifficult life\u201d.<\/p>\n Tame, who was named Australian of the Year in 2021, said she had come up against a \u201cwell-oiled, well funded political propaganda machine\u201d in recent months, adding the only reason Albanese found her \u201cdifficult\u201d was because she had been \u201coutspoken about Australia\u2019s toxic alliance with the US and Israel\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAnthony Albanese has let us all down by capitulating to foreign powers who crave hegemony, profit from endless chaos, and whose interests conflict with our own,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was recently reinforced by how quickly the government moved to show support for the Iran war initiated by the US and Israel without congressional approval and in direct violation of international law.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think Albanese is a bumbling misogynist. I think he\u2019s a savvy political operator keen to appease Washington and Tel Aviv. It\u2019s a badge of honour to weigh on his conscience.\u201d<\/p>\n Tame contrasted Albanese\u2019s historical advocacy for Palestine and critique of Australia\u2019s involvement in the Iraq war with his current position on Iran, alleging as a \u201crelatively defenceless Pacific middle power, Australia cannot afford to cut its military ties with the US and Israel\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in a geopolitical chokehold,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cTo Albanese, I am difficult because I am both aware of this reality and unafraid to scream it at the top of my lungs, much to his obvious chagrin.<\/p>\n Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWhile he might feel safe describing me as such in the false comfort of a conservative bubble, I sincerely doubt he would say it to my face.\u201d<\/p>\n The federal government has endorsed the war<\/a> by stating that \u201cAustralia supports action to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent Iran from continuing to threaten international peace and security\u201d.<\/p>\n Tame has faced major backlash from some conservative politicians and media outlets since her appearance at a pro-Palestine rally<\/a> outside Sydney\u2019s Town Hall last month, in which she led chants of the controversial phrase \u201cglobalise the intifada\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThat day, the press and our so-called leaders needed a soundbite,\u201d Tame said. \u201cThey needed a scapegoat to distract from the broadcast footage of unprovoked police brutality that erupted that very evening. I was the obvious, easy target.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the weeks following, countless headlines, opinion pieces, talk-show segments and radio interviews have been churned out, framing me as an antisemite and terrorist sympathiser who promotes violence. Never mind that I have spent half my life trying to protect children.\u201d<\/p>\n Tame said there was a \u201cdisconnect\u201d between the \u201cvalues of everyday voters and desires of influential powerbrokers\u201d, which was placing the Australian government and some media outlets out of step with its people.<\/p>\n \u201cThe tide of public consciousness has turned in Australia,\u201d she said. \u201cThe game is up; we don\u2019t buy the propaganda anymore. Just as we don\u2019t buy Albanese\u2019s defence for calling me difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n In an Instagram post earlier this month, Tame said she had lost three speaking engagements on the theme of child safety due to an \u201congoing media campaign\u201d.<\/p>\n Albanese was approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grace Tame has said \u201cwe\u2019re living in an Orwellian nightmare\u201d in a scathing critique of the prime minister…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-537569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}