Brittany Higgins, a former political staffer and the victim of an alleged rape inside Parliament House, has made a surprise appearance at the Canberra rally.
“I speak to you today out of necessity. We are all here today not because we want to be here, because we have two be here. We fundamentally recognise the system is broken, the glass ceiling is still in place, and there are significant failings in the power structures within our institution. We are here because it is unfathomable that we are still having to fight this same stale, tired fight,” she said.
“As it has been said before, time can be used constructively or destructively. Human progress rarely relies on inevitability. It is through dedication and effort that we move forward. When we fall asleep at the wheel, what has to happen is that time becomes an ally of those who seek stagnation. We regress.
“It is the custodians of the status quo keeping the existing order alive. To see a real progress, we must seek it out. I am cognisant of all the women who continue to live in silence. The women who are faceless. The women who don’t have the mobility, the confidence, or the financial means to share their truth.
“Those who don’t see their images and stories reflected in their media, those who are sadly no longer with us. Those who have lost their sense of self-worth and are unable to break the silence, all of which is rooted in the shame and stigma of sexual assault.
“One out of every five women in Australia will be sexually assaulted or raped in their lifetime. If you are a woman of colour, the statistics are even higher. Thanks to Chanel Contos we now know how [common] this sort of behaviour is in our schools. There is a confronting sense of finality about sexual violence in our community.
“I was raped inside Parliament House by a colleague, and for so long it felt like the people around me neither cared because of what happened for what it might mean for them. It was so confusing because these people were my idols. I had dedicated my life to them. They were my social network, colleagues, and my family. As suddenly they treated me differently. I was not a person who had just gone through a lot of changes event, I was a political problem.
“Amanda Vanstone, a former ministerial level minister summed it up the other day, [saying] ‘If there was a young girl alleging she had been raped in a different office, would it be on the front page? No it would not’.
“I think Miss Vanstone is missing the point. There is a horrible societal acceptance of sexual violence experienced by women in Australia. My story was on the front page for the sole reason that it was a painful reminder to women that it can happen in Parliament House, and can truly happen anywhere.”
There are thousands of participants marching through Hyde Park in Sydney, well above the 1500-person exemption granted by NSW Health.
The state’s present limit for protests is 500 people.
The crowd is chanting: “What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now!”
NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean is one of the attendees. He said he came to the rally to say no to violence against women.
“This is not a Liberal issue or a Labor issue – it’s all of our issues,” Mr Kean said.
“And this is about saying no to violence against women and saying yes to equality across our community, and that’s something that we should all be a part of.
“But I’m thrilled to see a great cross-section of the community here – young and old, male or female, progressive and conservative are all coming together to say we support greater equality for women.
“We want to end violence against women … and we’ve all got to do our bit to make that happen.”
Here’s Australian of the Year Grace Tame at the Women’s March 4 Justice rally in Hobart.
Former political staffer Brittany Higgins has arrived at the Canberra rally as thousands of people massed on the lawn outside Parliament House brandishing signs such as Big Swinging Chicks, Enough is Enough, and From the Ditches Come the Witches.
The crowd, of mostly women wearing black, sung the feminist anthem I Am Woman before a Welcome to Country by Aunty Violet.
Some wore black masks saying enough is enough.
Indigenous elder Dr Tjanara Goreng Goreng sung a sacred song passed down by her ancestors and asked people to close their eyes for a moment of silence.
She said the song told the story of a big rain after people were not following the moral law and her ancestors sang the song to cleanse the earth.
“We wipe away all the morally wrong people in our country,” she said.
Politicians attending the rally included Ged Kearney, Penny Wong, Kristina Keneally, Tanya Plibersek and Anthony Albanese.
Liberal MPs and Senators Bridget Archer, Jane Hume and Sarah Henderson had also indicated they would attend.
MC Julia Zemiro said more Coalition MPs had attended than they thought.
Saxon Mullins said the voices of all who are brave enough to share their stories needed to be amplified.
“There have been so many awful events in recent weeks,” she said.
“We deserve a government that cares about us.”
Madhumitha Janagaraja said if politicians could not protect their own staff, there is no way they could do anything for the people they were elected to serve.
“Your prayers and condolences are not enough, they do nothing for survivors,” she said.
She called for meaningful legislative reform.
She also asked for the Disability Royal Commission to be extended until the end of next year.
“Survivors, we hear you, we see you, we believe you.”
ACTU president Sally McManus said: “We are here today for girls under covers listening to approaching footsteps. For every woman in a bar, street, in an office who feels that look, who feels that threat,”
“We say to men in this place who are drunk on power, ‘Don’t think you will get away with it’. We know you, we know every grope, every insult, every rape.“
She said she also wanted to remember cleaners late at night, caterers, journalists, everyone who walks into Parliament House.
“A young drunk girl left alone on a minister’s couch is called a lying cow,” she said
“Even when you are dead they try to discredit you and throw doubt.“
Ms McManus said laws were stacked against women seeking equality.
She said the federal government continued to sit on 55 recommendations in the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Respect@Work report of the National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces 2020..
“Change is coming, it’s coming like a tsunami,” she said.
Saxon Mullins, Co-Director of Advocacy at Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy, has taken to the stage at the rally in Canberra outside Australia’s Parliament House.
Mullin’s five-year court ordeal and appearance in Four Corners story I Am That Girl, led to consent law reform in NSW.
Here’s some of her speech today:
“One in five women have experienced sexual violence. Men, where do you think these perpetrators are hiding?
“They are your friends. They are your co-workers. They are your football mates, and they are your friends from school.
“It is not enough to say I would never rape someone, you would need to think about your behaviours.
“Do you look the other way when your mate yells at his girlfriend on a night out? Do you complain that people are too sensitive when someone calls out ‘you’re racist’ or ‘you’re transphobic’ remarks?
“If any of this rings a bell, I remind you, you do not need to imagine that you know someone who perpetrates such an act.
“Because you don’t just know them, you helped them, you helped to create a toxic culture of misogyny, a culture of misogyny and transphobia and racism that has allowed them to thrive.”
Sydney’s rally has begun at Town Hall with a Welcome to Country followed by a series of speeches.
NSW state politicians are among the attendees, including Opposition Leader Jodi McKay who said “enough is enough”.
“I think it’s really important that we stand together as women, young and old, and say that what is happening in this country has to stop,” she said.
“I’m really proud to stand with all these incredible women and men, and say enough is enough.”
Michael Bradley, the lawyer for Christian Porter’s accuser, addressed the crowd.
“I’m here today for Kate. I’m not speaking for Kate. Kate spoke for herself, and as you can see, she has been heard,” he said.
“Law is just a tool. If there is no justice then the law has failed.
“It is on all of us to stand up and force change … The law is blind but it is not deaf. If we speak loudly enough we will be heard.”
Greens member for Newtown Jenny Leong said the thousands of people gathered highlighted the scale of the problem for women.
“What we need to be really, really clear about is that sexual assault and sexual harassment is not something that just infects one political party or one political stripe. It infects all of our democracy,” she said.
Thousands of women have clapped in unison at the Women’s March 4 Justice rally at Treasury Gardens in Melbourne.
Organiser Marcella Brassett has declared the crowd is larger than the 5000 permitted.
“Guess what, we’re more than 5000 people,” she said to cheers. She implored the crowd to keep masks on and keep their distance.
At the front of the crowd, one supporter unfurled a metres-long banner with the names of 500 women and children who have been killed by men.
Placards at the rally include “Hey dick swingers: women vote”. This is a reference to former senior federal Liberal MP Julie Bishop’s claims that a group of male Liberal MPs who called themselves the ‘big swinging dicks’ tried to stymie her career.
Canberra political reporter Katina Curtis reports there are about a dozen coalition MPs at the rally in Canberra, including ministers Jane Hume and Zed Seselja, and Nationals senate leader Bridget McKenzie.
ACT Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee is also present, along with other ACT Liberals.
The aerial shots of the Sydney rally show full streets and plenty of passion. We’ll let this livestream run for a little while.
We asked you earlier in the blog if you were planning to attend one of the 40 rallies around the country. Here are some of your responses:
“Absolutely. I’m sick of crying every time I hear about the victims of our misogynistic systems. I’m angry and pissed off. The whole system has to change. Consent laws have to be based around a question asked and an informed “yes” obtained. People have to be safe in their work places. In particular our political system needs a good kick up the backside. My vote is my most important weapon; I intend to use it wisely.” Margaret
“Yes I will be attending the Sydney march because I feel strongly about how women have been treated appallingly by the Liberal government. Also the issue surrounding the AG has triggered a recurring issue for a very good friend of mine who was sexually assaulted as a child by a friend of the family and she wasn’t believed by her father.” Ron Bogan
“I’m a bloke on school pick-up duty today. I wish I could be marching, such a great thing to see happening. My mum taught me and my brother as boys in the 1980s and 90s to respect girls and women – especially her and our sister! So I am fortunate to have lived and breathed her feminism (which today just looks like common sense fairness and humanity, funny that), and to find today’s changes afoot plainly needed and – unlike many more powerful men than me – no great challenge to my values or self-concept. Thanks Mum xx.” Dr Matthew Roberts
“Sexually violated, abused, silenced and gaslighted throughout my life as result of systemic misogyny. Enough!!!” Marie
“I will be marching because it is time that we all become equal and that all girls and women can be safe and feel safe at anytime of the day anywhere. All men need to take notice, including politicians.” Lats Hoffman
“Yes, I’ll be marching, with my wife. She was raped by her step father, and my mother was raped by my father. And Morrison still thinks its 1952.” Liam
“I will be attending, enough is enough. We will no longer be shut down. We need an independent inquiry to ascertain whether Christian Porter is a fit and proper person to sit in the Parliament.” Christine Parker
Source: | This article originally belongs to smh.com.au
