“Australia,we need to talk,” Ms Tame,the former Australian of the Year,says in starting the video.
She is joined by Ms Higgins,businesswomen Lucy Turnbull,Christine Holgate and Wendy McCarthy,Paralympian Madison de Rozario,youth activists Yasmin Poole and Chanel Contos,former MP Julia Banks,union leader Michele O’Neil,academic and Indigenous advocate Larissa Behrendt,and early childhood advocate Georgie Dent.
They released the video on the eve of International Women’s Day calling for nine steps to address persistent inequality in Australia.
They said 2021 was not the first year women were harassed,unsafe,ignored or disrespected,but it was different because more Australians started to listen to those who spoke up.
“The more people listened,the more familiar the story became,” Ms Holgate says in the video.
Women had been calling for change for decades and now was the time for action,she said on Sunday. “There have been countless reviews,inquiries,promises,conferences and bodies established to assess and report on the inequity and injustice women face,but there has been no meaningful change.”