source : the age
Former Australian of the Year Grace Tame has said she will not appear at any more paid speaking events in 2026 after losing the rest of the year’s bookings due to what she has called a continuing smear campaign against her.
Speaking at the No to Violence conference in Hobart on Thursday, Tame said, “this is my last presentation for the year … due to an ongoing national smear campaign”.
Her appearance at the event by the national organisation and sector leader working with men to end violence against women went ahead despite demands she be removed from the program.
“I have lost all my speaking for the foreseeable future. So many cowardly others capitulated. I think this will be a blip, and I’m tough; they can’t outrun me, literally,” she said.
Tame said on Instagram last week that she had lost three engagements to speak about child safety.
The 31-year-old drew criticism this year for her pro-Palestinian advocacy after she chanted “From Gadigal to Gaza, globalise the intifada” – a phrase the NSW Labor government is planning to ban. She again made headlines last month when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese labelled her “difficult” at a News Corp event in Melbourne.
In February, the Australian Jewish Association wrote to the organiser of the Bendigo Women’s Day breakfast asking for Tame to be removed as a speaker. However, the event went ahead, being held in private and without media attendance.
Tame, a survivor of child sexual abuse by a 58-year-old teacher, opened her keynote speech on Thursday about responses to and prevention of such abuse by saying she opposes all forms of violence, antisemitism, injustice and racism “in all its forms”.
At both events, Tame discussed her work to promote legal reform to allow victim-survivors of child sexual abuse to speak publicly, something which was banned in her home state of Tasmania before a campaign to allow survivors to be identified.
Phillip Ripper, chief executive of No to Violence, said there had been an organised effort in the form of letter-writing, phone calls and approaches to other speakers at the conference to drop Tame from the event, but did not specify where the pressure had come from.
He called on bodies which have withdrawn bookings to have Tame speak to re-instate her.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 said.
“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.”
Ripper said No to Violence took Tame’s comments at the Sydney Palestine rally in the context of her whole speech, which advocated for peaceful means to fight injustice. She also spoke about people being scared to speak up.
Ripper said the community was making a choice whether to listen to or to silence Tame as a survivor of child sexual abuse, “and we stand with Grace to tell her story and to keep being Grace because she has no other choice”.
Tame spoke at the No to Violence event about systemic failure to identify child abusers, and how institutions enabled them to continue abuse by ignoring whistleblowers, as happened when her parents and a teacher raised concerns about the perpetrator in her case.
“The cost [of extended sexual abuse] to me has been immense. I am still moving through layers of trauma,” Tame said.
She also described the physical impact of being raped repeatedly as a girl by a man 187 centimetres tall, and how she still has internal tissue and muscle damage.
“Child abuse is the most under-reported crime in Australia; the conviction rate is 0.3 per cent. Out of every 1000 reports of child sexual abuse, 100 are represented [in court], six will result in conviction and three will be overturned on appeal,” she said.
If you or anyone you know needs support, call Lifeline on 131 114, beyondblue on 1800 512 348, Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
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Wendy Tuohy is a senior writer focusing on social issues and those impacting women and girls.Connect via X or email.
