Former Australian of the Year and current badass Grace Tame has slammed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his government online. She called the current government a bunch of “old, elected ableist toffs” and an “echo chamber of whitewashed white noise” and we see no lies there.
“Must be such a slog for these poor old, elected, ableist toffs to breathe in there, for all the privilege stifling the parliament,” Tame wrote in her now deleted Instagram story.
“What a crock of wank.
“The general public apologises for making any attempt to try and increase engagement with your elitist circle jerking.
“We’ll happily go back to ignoring your echo chamber of whitewashed white noise, if that’s what you’d prefer.”
Tame’s main concerns with the Albanese government revolved around two recent actions it took to exclude disabled people. Really it was a double-whammy of ableist shit — someone had to call out the nonsense and I’m glad it was Grace Tame.
Sure Albanese is six million times better than Scott Morrison will ever be, but that doesn’t mean he’s exempt from justifiable scrutiny.
Firstly, the Albanese government denied Senator David Pocock‘s request to have an AUSLAN interpreter on the parliament floor during his first speech to the Senate. The reasoning? Because this will set a precedent to allow any kind of “stranger” to enter parliament.
Absolute nonsense from the government right there.
“When I was asked by people in our community to have this First Speech live translated into Auslan, I didn’t hesitate to say yes,” Senator Pocock said in his maiden speech.
“I understand that the difference between Mandy being there in the broadcasting studio and here on the floor of the chamber is the difference between accessibility and inclusion.”
“Today we have achieved the former but not the latter. In future, I hope we can achieve both.”
Govt & Opp refused Sen Pocock’s request for Auslan interpreting at his maiden speech in Senate due to concern of “the precedent this may set”. What precedent: #accessibility and #inclusion? Obvs not a priority for our govt. @AuSenate @pocockdavid
Auslan: https://t.co/2TbSa1YRKi
— Deaf Australia (@deafaustralia) July 28, 2022
The second issue Tame brought up in her Instagram slam was that the government got together to shut down a motion to have Senator Jordan Steele-John become chair of the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
Steele-John is a disabled senator who would have been perfect for the role, but alas, we have an able-bodied person as the chair instead. Mess.
Our government quite literally assembled a bunch of (mostly) able-bodied people to shut down the idea of a disabled person in a position of leadership.
“The Albanese Government has a clear responsibility to make changes to our NDIS urgently, effectively, and alongside our incredible community,” Steele-John said, per News.com.au.
“But voting against this motion shows that their priorities do not include true transformation for our NDIS.
“This was a huge opportunity to start doing that. They failed to see that, and they have failed to act in [the] community interest.”
The Albanese government could be doing so much better than they currently are. You don’t get a pass for not being Scott Morrison.
