Our Prime Minister Scott Morrison has long tiptoed around the plight of victims of sexual assault.
Why wait until now to publicly apologise to victims of sexual assault and Brittany Higgins – 12 months after she bravely came forward, stating she was a victim of rape that happened in an office in parliament house?
Why would it take his wife telling him to imagine if what happened to Higgins happened to his daughters, for him to appreciate how traumatising rape is for someone?
Why would he say he couldn’t attend Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins’s press club speeches yesterday because he was “too busy”?
All this could finally catch up to him given their scathing remarks on Morrison…
Amy Remeikis is the Guardian’s federal political correspondent. You may remember her for rightly calling out panellist Peter van Onselen on Ten’s The Project for penning an article labelling Grace Tame’s frosty behaviour towards the Prime Minister at this years Australian Of The Year ceremony “ungracious, rude and childish.”
“You’re an influential person, he’ll have a fear they said. What kind of fear I asked myself! … And then I heard the words you know there’s an election coming soon. And it crystalised. A fear! A fear for himself and no one else. A fear that he might lose his position or more to the point his power.”
– Grace Tame, mentioned a threatening phone call she received from a government-funded organisation telling her not to talk about the Prime Minister.
Remeikis joins Jan Fran on today’s Briefing to break down how the most powerful speeches of 2022 from two incredibly high-profile Australian public figures, both victims of sexual violence, will implicate Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s favour during the next federal election.
Click the link below to listen!