We Marched For Change. Anthony Albanese Talked For Himself.
Over the weekend an incredible amount of people, around 100,000 of them, came together to say “Enough is Enough” at rallies held all over Australia. Men, women, and children - no matter who they were or what they had planned, they came together to march for change.
The No More: National Rally Against Violence saw 17 cities and towns across the country take part in demanding change.
Now, these rallies were organised by What Were You Wearing Australia, ‘a community organisation fighting to end sexual violence’ through advocacy, awareness and education. Sarah Williams is the person behind WWYW?, she is a First Nations woman and survivor of domestic and sexual violence. Sarah and her team worked tirelessly to bring this all together, to raise awareness, to demand change.
And what did Anthony Albanese, the Prime Minister of this country do? He managed to make it all about himself.
The day before the Canberra rally he posted a statement to Instagram that read: “Violence against women is an epidemic. We must do better. Governments need to do better and as a society, we need to do better. Tomorrow I will walk with women across the country to say enough is enough.”
The day after the rally, you would have seen many headlines across the media, but very few of them focused on the rallies themselves nor on the demands of the rallies. Instead, they were focused on Anthony Albanese. It was his actions at the rally that caused this.
Around 5000 people gathered in Canberra for the rally, which Albanese stood up to address after being heckled. Sarah asked the crowd “Should we let him speak?” to which he allegedly replied, “I’m the Prime Minister of the country, I run this country.”
He said “We did ask to speak, myself and Katy and we were told that’s not possible.” referring to Katy Gallagher, the Finance Minister who attended with the PM. In the video you can hear Sarah, clearly shocked, say that this was a lie before she turned away and burst into tears.
In her statement, posted to Instagram she writes: “The Prime Minister of Australia lied to his country today. Representatives from Gallagher and Albanese’s offices both said this morning that they were sure Katy would be happy to speak. Not the prime minister. Albanese’s office made it clear he was just walking and was not interested in speaking. Myself and WWYW never denied him from speaking. He never asked to speak.”
All eyes were on that Canberra rally, and yet the leader of the country blatantly abused his power and scared young, vulnerable women into allowing him to do what he wanted. Can you fucking believe that? That this is the example that the Prime Minister of the country is setting?
None of the demands of the rally were committed too. Instead, the PM called a national cabinet meeting set for tomorrow and has said that the sole agenda item will be on the gendered violence crisis in Australia. But, is it enough? I don’t think so.
I want to thank Sarah and the whole team at What Were You Wearing? for the tireless work they have put in and continue to put in. They are true heroes.
