Grace Tame has attacked Scott Morrison’s government amid the Liberal Party’s campaign blitz as the countdown to the 2022 federal election begins.
The 2021 Australian of the Year took to Twitter on Wednesday to share a photo of Warringah Liberal candidate Katherine Deves and former Prime Minister John Howard.
Earlier in the day, Howard joined Deves, who has sparked controversy in recent weeks for insensitive comments about the transgender community, as he spoke to voters in Manly.
But Tame felt the stark contrast of the two very different-looking politicians side by side in a photograph taken at the event painted a metaphor for the LNP and its campaign.
Grace Tame has dealt another blow to Scott Morrison’s government as the LNP’s campaign blitz ahead of the election.
The former Australian of the Year shared a photo of John Howard and Liberal candidate Katherine Deves on Twitter on Wednesday (pictured).
“The packaging (right) vs. the actual contents (left),” she captioned the photo.
The tweet went viral, garnering more than 3,600 likes and 515 retweets, with many of Tame’s followers sharing their amusement in the comments.
Tame, an advocate and survivor of sexual assault, has been a long-standing critic of Morrison after he reportedly told her: “Well, gee, I bet it felt good to say that” during her powerful inaugural speech in Australia Day Awards. ceremony last year.
She has also been a staunch opponent of the Coalition’s handling of sexual violence allegations after Parliament was rocked by internal sexual assault allegations in early 2021.
The latest jab comes just days after Tame, who openly supports Labor leader Anthony Albanese, paid Morrison a backhanded compliment.
In an interview earlier this week, Tame praised the prime minister’s political intelligence, but then accused him of being a master manipulator and using his position of power to try to silence her.
“It’s pretty clever,” he admitted in the latest podcast from the team at cult parody website Betoota Advocate. ‘I’ll give you that.
But she claimed the “vindictive” prime minister used his government powers to try to silence her after the row over her frosty meeting with him in January.
Tame has been a long-term critic of Scott Morrison after he reportedly left an insensitive mark when she received his Australian of the Year award last year.
And she accused him of waging “petty vendettas,” calling him “self-centered” and “entitled.”
“I have no more right to anything than anyone else,” he said on the podcast.
‘The problem is Scott Morrison: his right. “I’m the Prime Minister and she should smile at me because I’m the Prime Minister.”
“I was with Scott Morrison, and I’m friends with Brittany (Higgins, who accused the government of covering up her alleged rape in Parliament).
And I say: I can’t smile at you. This is a bullshit.
“All these institutions that pretend to be good and that simply harbor abusers and cover them up, for what?”
But she claimed the prime minister responded to the row, which came on the final day of her reign as Australian of the Year, by turning the power of the establishment against her.
“The way he responded to me, because I called him and called a spade a spade, was to intimidate me with his resources,” he said.
“Is this how you want to use your resources as Prime Minister: to carry out your little vindictive vendettas?”
Former Australian of the Year Grace Tame has claimed “vindictive” Prime Minister Scott Morrison used his government powers to try to silence her after the row over her frosty meeting with him in January.
‘Yes cool. I hope you feel good about that,” she fumed.
‘While the country is in the middle of a pandemic, there are people dying in the floods and there are still people without their homes after the wildfires. Good job, Scott.
Ms Tame, 27, joined the podcast at the last minute after a planned interview with treasurer Josh Frydenberg reportedly fell through.
Tame compared the coalition government to former US President Donald Trump’s administration in the way it had targeted minorities for electoral benefits.
“I’m surprised and not surprised at the same time at the depths to which this particular group is willing to sink,” she said.
‘It never fails to impress me. It has nothing to do with partisan politics. I hope Australia realizes this now. It’s all about basic human decency.
He said the Prime Minister’s specific policy could cost him when those minorities give their verdict on his leadership at the weekend.
“Perhaps what Scott has forgotten, in the fog of his Canberra hive mind, is that during his tenure, he has thrown a large number of minorities under the bus,” he warned.
You could be half indifferent, if not completely indifferent, to everything that happens up there. But we don’t forget it here. And now she is starting to make sense.”
Tame also said the Prime Minister had “sacrificed” trans youth in his support for outspoken Warringah Liberal candidate Katherine Deves.
‘The Prime Minister is willing to sacrifice one of the most discriminated against minorities: LGBT youth. “They are the least advantaged,” he stated.
Who else are you willing to sacrifice? That’s not the Australian way. Nobody is left behind. Nobody.’