KATE EMERY: Idea PM should’ve chucked sexual abuse survivor Grace Tame out of event for a silly top is absurd

Three things can be true at the same time.

1. Grace Tame’s decision to wear a rude T-shirt to an Australian of the Year award was attention seeking.

2. Ms Tame lives in a country where we pride ourselves on being allowed to call powerful people dickheads — or worse — without fear of retribution, whether those people are politicians, corporate leaders or media organisations.

3. Removing a child rape victim from a high-profile event to which she’d been invited would have been a seriously bad idea.

The story so far: former Australian of the Year Ms Tame turned up to a prime ministerial morning tea on Saturday wearing a T-shirt that said “F..k Murdoch”. The event was a curtain-raiser before the next Australian of the Year was announced, which is why she was invited.

Ms Tame’s choice of wardrobe has angered two different but overlapping groups of people: those who think she was an idiot to do so and those who think Mr Albanese should have chucked her out.

Those in the latter camp need to have their heads professionally examined if they think the Prime Minister’s office should have thrown a sexual abuse survivor out of an event for wearing a T-shirt criticising the free press.

I’ve never met Rupert Murdoch but I don’t think he needs Mr Albanese’s protection, nor an A.A-monogrammed hanky to dry his tears over a T-shirt worn by a woman who has been outspoken in her criticism of Australian media.

And the idea that it’s the job of the Prime Minister to defend a media organisation whose job is — or should be — to speak truth to power is absurd.

Mr Albanese had no choice but to shake Ms Tame’s hand and act the way any gracious host would when faced with an invited guest running short on manners, regardless of whether he clocked her t-shirt at the time (which he says he did not).

Mr Albanese, now in Perth to secure that all-important WA vote, has since called Ms Tame’s stunt “disrespectful” and “clearly designed to get attention”.

“I don’t intend to add to that attention because I do think that it takes away from what the day should be about, which is the amazing people who are nominated as the Australians of the Year,” he said.

“We do have in this country, people are allowed to express themselves, but I thought it was disrespectful of the event and of the people for who the event was primarily for.”

Ms Tame, who has used her own trauma to become a frankly pretty courageous advocate for women’s rights, consent laws and tackling sexual abuse, clearly has no regrets.

“(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,” Ms Tame later told media.

“For far too long this world and its resources have been undemocratically controlled by a small number of morbidly wealthy oligarchs. . . Speaking truth to power starts at the grassroots level with simple, effective messages. It’s one of my favourite shirts.”

Ms Tame’s relationship with the media is a complex one.

On the one hand, her experience and her story was championed by many news organisations, including those owned by Mr Murdoch. She owes at least part of her platform to the media that elevated her profile.

At the same time, she has been the subject of at-times intrusive media reporting on her personal life. In 2017 social commentator Bettina Arndt, who has been regularly published in the Australian media, did an interview with Ms Tame’s rapist in which he claimed “sexually provocative behaviour from female students”.

The dumbest thing about this whole palaver is that none of how this played out should be a surprise to anybody.

Ms Tame has been transparent about her willingness not to “play nice” with politicians and to use her platform to advocate for the causes she believes in.

It’s only three years since Ms Tame’s infamous “side-eye” at then prime minister Scott Morrison made headlines after she attended the exact same event in 2022.

Mr Albanese appeared to reference that incident during a brief exchange at the Lodge when he asked if she was “reliving memories”.

“Yeah, reliving some trauma maybe,” she is reported to have said in response.

Ms Tame used her platform at this year’s event to get people talking, which they are.

Mr Albanese has since used his platform to criticise that decision.

The press is now using its platform to debate the pros and cons of all of the above.

Like it or not this is actually the circle of life in a somewhat healthy democracy, albeit one inclined to pay a little too much attention to a fairly silly T-shirt.