What would Grace Tame do?


Don’t expect Tolstoy from me today, this is a thinly veiled ad for a T-shirt disguised as a column, but I will try. 

Over the weekend, Grace Tame, former Australian of the Year and close friend of The Shot, wore our Fuck Murdoch T-shirt, I shit you not, to meet the Prime Minister. I forget his name. 

Firstly, that’s cool as shit. 

Secondly, how fucking funny?! GT is rightly lauded for her fearless advocacy and passionate communication, but let’s also acknowledge, please, how fucking funny this is.

I asked Grace on the phone why she felt compelled to wear such a badass, stylish, ethically produced and reasonably affordable T-shirt to meet the Prime Minister.  

‘Isn’t it just fucking obvious? It surprises me how little people know about Rupert Murdoch. He doesn’t just own the news. He’s an oil baron. He sits on boards with defence contractors. For 50 years he has owned the biggest chunk of the public consciousness and contorted it in his own cruel image. I find Murdoch’s assault on our democracy far more offensive and disrespectful than swear words on a T-shirt.’ 

Amen.

In order to make this worth reading further, can we learn anything from this moment? Anything other than where to buy these snazzy, Zeitgeist-y as fuck T-shirts that are both comfortable, and made in Australia using sustainable practices? 

Firstly, RIGHT HERE.

Secondly, maybe? But it’s equally as likely that’s a question for another day. Maybe, just maybe the real question we need to ask ourselves is: What would Grace Tame do? 

WWGTD?

There are lots of potential role models out there for people to admire, but in a world afflicted with cowardice and self-serving acquiescence, we could all do a lot worse than asking ourselves what Grace Tame would do. 

Fortunately, we know what she’d do. Because she did it already. She’d wear these Fuck Murdoch T-shirts to a meeting with the Prime Minister. A Prime Minister who has been handed, on a silver platter, a petition with 501,128 signatures demanding a Royal Commission into the Murdoch media cesspool. 

Albanese, that’s it!!

This was the largest single petition in the history of parliament. And it was handed to good ol‘ tory fighter’ Albanese, whose spine – the texture of which I assume sits somewhere between gelatinous and cartilage – could not carry the weight and seriousness of the task demanded of him by the conscientious CONCERNED-FOR-THEIR-DEMOCRACY people of Australia.

Instead, he did nothing. Instead, he thought he’d be able to charm the editors and owners of The Fuckwit Factory if he just dropped some casual transphobia in interviews, kept the coal pumping, hung out with Kyle Sandilands a bit and called out Grace Tame for actually having conviction in her beliefs.

The Prime Minister told the Sydney Morning Herald: ‘I clearly disagree. I want debate to be respectful … and that’s a choice that she made. People are allowed to express themselves, but I thought it was disrespectful of the event and of the people who that event was primarily for.’ 

In Opposition, it’s hard to imagine Albanese reacting in the same way. But this is the nature of politics and politicians when there is something to lose and they are faced with true forms of power: oligarchical backlash, and people-led rebellion. 

Maybe if I do everything the bully wants me to, he’ll finally respect me? Albanese clearly thought to himself, gelatinously.

In life, you will be faced with moments of conscience over and over again. As a hypothetical example, you might one day be faced with the option of backing a royal commission against a vicious asshole eroding the quality of life on this earth, or not doing that, and instead meeting in secret with said asshole to kiss his ring. When faced with these crossroads, don’t be an Anthony, be a Grace.  

There, we did find something to say!

Anyway, buy the T-shirt.

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