Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This is 31-year-old Grace Tame. She’s a sexual assault survivor and an advocate for other victims. I’m not here to discuss that or take anything away from the work she’s done in that area.
In 2021, she was named Australian of the Year for helping to overturn a gag law preventing sexual assault survivors from speaking out. A year later, she refused to smile in a now-infamous photo with then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Regarding the encounter, she said: “The survival of abuse culture is dependent on submissive smiles and self-defeating surrenders. It is dependent on hypocrisy.”
She also has autism, with the ABC reporting that while it can be a risk factor for abuse, she finds the condition empowering. But again, that’s not what I’m here to talk about. According to her Instagram, TamePunk, she’s also a serious athlete; in one 60km ultramarathon, she was the first female to cross the line and came sixth overall.
On paper, she’s a high-achiever who has done a lot of heavy lifting. However, she has a history of using polite, official functions to make a scene—or a statement—depending on your point of view. In 2025, at an Australian of the Year morning tea at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s residence, while she managed a smile, she did it while wearing a T-shirt that read, “F**k Murdoch,” referring to billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Defending the choice, she said: “The T-shirt is clearly not just about Murdoch, it’s the obscene greed, inhumanity and disconnection that he symbolises, which are destroying our planet. For far too long this world and its resources have been undemocratically controlled by a small number of morbidly wealthy oligarchs. If we want to dismantle this corrupt system… resisting forces like Murdoch is a good starting point.”
Here she is hanging out with Garbage singer Shirley Manson late last year. If you remember, Manson made headlines in December 2025 for openly berating a lifelong fan at a concert in Melbourne. She called the man “middle-aged,” questioned his masculinity, and even encouraged the audience to “punch him in the f**king face”—all because he was holding a small beach ball.
As they say, you are the company you keep.
And as is quite fashionable nowadays, it probably comes as no surprise that Ms. Tame is also a pro-Palestinian activist.
At a protest of questionable legality earlier this week at Sydney Town Hall—following a failed Supreme Court bid to authorise the march—Ms. Tame was a keynote speaker. You can watch the speech in full on Instagram if you’re a glutton for punishment.
She referred to Australia as a “so-called democracy,” screaming into the microphone that the country “funds genocide” and “punishes peaceful protesters like us.” She didn’t hold back on international relations either, calling Israel a “right-wing fascist state” that has nothing left but “lies, bombs, and bloodlust,” to much applause and cheers from the fawning crowd. And in front of an Aboriginal flag, she described Australia as a “spineless colony of the United States.”
She finally led the crowd in a chant: “From Gadigal to Gaza, globalise the intifada!” For the uninitiated, ‘intifada’ is the Arabic word for uprising or rebellion. While her supporters call it “resistance,” to many others—including the NSW Government, which recently moved to ban the phrase—it is a direct call for violence.
Of course, Ms. Tame made the news as she probably hoped for. The ABC reported: “Call for Grace Tame to be stripped of Australian of the Year title over intifada chant.”
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce agreed that she should have her title removed, saying, “Yes, 100 per cent… You have a responsibility, when given an honour by the Australian people, to basically conduct yourself in a way that inspires the harmonious nature of Australia. We do not inspire this sort of division, this hate.”
She was defiant, of course. She published the video on her social media under the headline: “FROM GADIGAL TO GAZA.” Naturally, she concluded her diatribe by declaring that Australia doesn’t actually belong to us. She wrote: “Thank you to the organisers, to everyone who attended, and to all the local elders who welcomed us and gave us permission to come together on these here stolen lands.”
Of course, you’re not allowed to comment on her posts, because you know, she doesn’t actually believe in your right to free speech—unless you’re following her script.
So there you go. So-called ‘Australian of the Year’ Grace Tame doesn’t particularly care for the country she represents, preferring to view the nation that honoured her as nothing more than a ‘spineless colony’ on stolen land. Apparently, being a ‘high-achiever’ is out, and being a professional agitator is in.
MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn
This is 31-year-old Grace Tame. She’s a sexual assault survivor and an advocate for other victims. I’m not here to discuss that or take anything away from the work she’s done in that area.
In 2021, she was named Australian of the Year for helping to overturn a gag law preventing sexual assault survivors from speaking out. A year later, she refused to smile in a now-infamous photo with then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Regarding the encounter, she said: “The survival of abuse culture is dependent on submissive smiles and self-defeating surrenders. It is dependent on hypocrisy.”
She also has autism, with the ABC reporting that while it can be a risk factor for abuse, she finds the condition empowering. But again, that’s not what I’m here to talk about. According to her Instagram, TamePunk, she’s also a serious athlete; in one 60km ultramarathon, she was the first female to cross the line and came sixth overall.
On paper, she’s a high-achiever who has done a lot of heavy lifting. However, she has a history of using polite, official functions to make a scene—or a statement—depending on your point of view. In 2025, at an Australian of the Year morning tea at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s residence, while she managed a smile, she did it while wearing a T-shirt that read, “F**k Murdoch,” referring to billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Defending the choice, she said: “The T-shirt is clearly not just about Murdoch, it’s the obscene greed, inhumanity and disconnection that he symbolises, which are destroying our planet. For far too long this world and its resources have been undemocratically controlled by a small number of morbidly wealthy oligarchs. If we want to dismantle this corrupt system… resisting forces like Murdoch is a good starting point.”
Here she is hanging out with Garbage singer Shirley Manson late last year. If you remember, Manson made headlines in December 2025 for openly berating a lifelong fan at a concert in Melbourne. She called the man “middle-aged,” questioned his masculinity, and even encouraged the audience to “punch him in the f**king face”—all because he was holding a small beach ball.
As they say, you are the company you keep.
And as is quite fashionable nowadays, it probably comes as no surprise that Ms. Tame is also a pro-Palestinian activist.
At a protest of questionable legality earlier this week at Sydney Town Hall—following a failed Supreme Court bid to authorise the march—Ms. Tame was a keynote speaker. You can watch the speech in full on Instagram if you’re a glutton for punishment.
She referred to Australia as a “so-called democracy,” screaming into the microphone that the country “funds genocide” and “punishes peaceful protesters like us.” She didn’t hold back on international relations either, calling Israel a “right-wing fascist state” that has nothing left but “lies, bombs, and bloodlust,” to much applause and cheers from the fawning crowd. And in front of an Aboriginal flag, she described Australia as a “spineless colony of the United States.”
She finally led the crowd in a chant: “From Gadigal to Gaza, globalise the intifada!” For the uninitiated, ‘intifada’ is the Arabic word for uprising or rebellion. While her supporters call it “resistance,” to many others—including the NSW Government, which recently moved to ban the phrase—it is a direct call for violence.
Of course, Ms. Tame made the news as she probably hoped for. The ABC reported: “Call for Grace Tame to be stripped of Australian of the Year title over intifada chant.”
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce agreed that she should have her title removed, saying, “Yes, 100 per cent… You have a responsibility, when given an honour by the Australian people, to basically conduct yourself in a way that inspires the harmonious nature of Australia. We do not inspire this sort of division, this hate.”
She was defiant, of course. She published the video on her social media under the headline: “FROM GADIGAL TO GAZA.” Naturally, she concluded her diatribe by declaring that Australia doesn’t actually belong to us. She wrote: “Thank you to the organisers, to everyone who attended, and to all the local elders who welcomed us and gave us permission to come together on these here stolen lands.”
Of course, you’re not allowed to comment on her posts, because you know, she doesn’t actually believe in your right to free speech—unless you’re following her script.
So there you go. So-called ‘Australian of the Year’ Grace Tame doesn’t particularly care for the country she represents, preferring to view the nation that honoured her as nothing more than a ‘spineless colony’ on stolen land. Apparently, being a ‘high-achiever’ is out, and being a professional agitator is in.
MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn
