Grace Tame says her speaking engagements have dried up for the rest of the year due to what she called an “ongoing national smear campaign against” her.
Tame, a child sexual abuse advocate and Australian of the Year winner, spoke of the situation during an appearance at the No to Violence conference in Hobart today.
“This is my last presentation of the year and it’s only March… due to an ongoing national smear campaign,” Tame said at the anti-domestic violence event, per the Sydney Morning Herald.
“I have lost all my speaking for the foreseeable future. So many cowardly others capitulated,” she added.
Tame said she believes the withdrawn speaking engagements are “just a blip”, adding that she’s “up against a well-oiled political machine” but will remain “tough” in her ongoing advocacy.
It comes after Tame drew criticism over her attendance at the anti-Isaac Herzog rally in Sydney last month, where she chanted the phrase “Globalise the Intifada”.
The slogan is used by Palestinian supporters to advocate for Palestinian resistance against Israeli occupation, but governments worldwide — including the Australian state and federal governments — view it as hate speech.
Tame’s use of the phrase was later criticised by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese when he apologised for labelling her “difficult” at a press event.
“There are other issues, such as the language that Grace Tame used, that I disagree with, at the demonstration that was held in Sydney,” Albanese said.
Tame stressed she is against violence, antisemitism, Islamophobia, injustice and racism “in all its forms” when opening her speech at the No to Violence conference earlier today. She also discussed her ongoing work around legal reforms allowing victim-survivors of child sexual abuse to speak publicly about their experiences.
Last week, Tame revealed on social media that she’d “lost three speaking engagements” as a result of efforts to have her removed from various scheduled appearances.
One such effort was led by the Australian Jewish Association, which last month wrote to the organiser of the Bendigo Women’s Day breakfast asking for Tame’s planned speaking engagement to be axed.
The event ultimately went ahead with Tame as a speaker, but the media didn’t attend.
In a statement to the Sydney Morning Herald, No to Violence’s CEO Phillip Ripper claimed there’d been a coordinated effort to drop Tame from the lineup.
He said the organisation had received letters and phone calls, and that other speakers had been approached, to have Tame removed, but did not specify where the pressure came from.
Ripper urged any organisation which had removed Tame from its events to reinstate her.
“Grace Tame is and always will be Grace Tame. She doesn’t have the protection of an organisation around her, and it takes great courage to speak out. She has demonstrated that courage through all of her life,” Ripper told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“She has spoken truth to power at great personal cost and, tragically, that personal cost continues. Today we call on organisations that support victim-survivors, who claim to centre the voice of victim-survivors, to continue to support Grace.”
Tame received an outpouring of support following Albanese’s comment last month, including from Greens leader Larissa Waters, journalist Narelda Jacobs and influencer Kath Ebbs.
Lead images: Getty Images
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