Taylor’s Tame remarks

Councillor clarifies comments on social media

A TOOWOOMBA councillor has clarified comments she made about Australian of the Year and anti-sexual assault advocate Grace Tame on social media, after she called her a “noisy voice” for taking aim at the Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Councillor Carol Taylor posted on her personal Facebook page this week, saying she was becoming “disillusioned” with her.

Her comments come after Ms Tame took aim at Mr Morhow rison for his speech at the National Summit on Women’s Safety, where he disclosed the experiences of one sexual assault survivor who had written to him privately.

Ms Tame took to Twitter, accused the Prime Minister of using the story to “leverage his own image”.

Mrs Taylor took issue with the statement, saying Ms Tame was trying to score “political points”.

“Is anyone else becoming disillusioned with our Australian of the Year Grace Tame?” she wrote.

“I was in awe of her courage last year, but she doesn’t seem to be focused on anyone but the Prime Minister.

“He also quoted from a private letter to him by someone in their 70s, informing that despite the passage of years, rape, the hurt and the consequences of violence never go away. His letter, his prerogative.

“Grace is becoming another noisy voice trying to score political points and is not what I expect of an Australian of the Year. (It’s) becoming irrelevant!”

When questioned by The Chronicle about the post, Mrs Taylor said she was not personally attacking Ms Tame, but rather trying to highlight that the issue of systemic sexism and sexual assault should be a bipartisan issue.

“It’s not entirely focused on Grace Tame, it’s focused on women can’t join together, instead of becoming politically aligned with one side or the other,” she said.

“Her target is the prime minister — I believe she has every right to talk about it, but so does he.

“I just think that we women need to stick together instead of fragmenting politically.

“What’s happened since then, I’m a little disappointed that women’s issues have become this partisan issue.

“This isn’t only in one side of parliament, and we need to stamp it out.”