I used to deeply admire Grace Tame

I remember when Grace Tame burst into the public consciousness in 2021. We had endured years of Scott Morrison, who often felt like the most dysfunctional prime minister imaginable. The state and the federal governments were constantly blaming each other for the sloppy vaccine rollout and there was this heavy sense that the lockdowns might stretch on forever.

Into that void stepped Grace Tame. She was a year younger than me, articulate, fierce and so refreshing. A child sexual abuse survivor who had become a fearless advocate for others.

I loved her immediately, her badass energy, her refusal to be intimidated, and the famous moment where she scowled at Morrison in that photo and basically told him to rack off in the most Australian way possible.

Tame felt like my kind of role model. A young woman who had already done extraordinary things in such a short life, pushing for better protections for all children and bravely speaking about child sex abuse and grooming.

I thought she represented something new, someone brave and uncompromising.