The Names and Faces of WEF’s Young Global Leaders in Australia and New Zealand
There are at least 26 World Economic Forum (“WEF”) Young Global Leaders embedded in institutions, charities, and companies in Australia and New Zealand. Here is a list of their names and the institutions or companies that employ them.
Not all members and alumni are listed on the Young Global Leaders Community website. The website states they have more than 1,400 members and alumni worldwide however, currently, only 1,211 are listed.
As extracted from the website, below are the names and faces of the Young Global Leaders members and alumni in Australia and New Zealand.
Grace Tame moved to the United States in her early life, where she graduated from Santa Barbara City College with degrees in theatre arts and liberal arts. Which of course help with the public theatre she is engaged in now.
Institutions and companies where these Young Global Leaders are employed are shown below their images and include: government, the Australian Air Force, Boston Consulting and Future Super.
Background reading on WEF’s Young Global Leaders:
- Hidden Alliance of former WEF Young Global Leaders working in Lockstep to enforce the Great Reset
- Ernst Wolff: World Economic Forum, Young Global Leaders and Global Shapers Community
- Covid Canada: A Model of Planned Destruction That Can Be Applied to Most, Now, Ex-Democracies and Beyond (Part 2)
- Building an Empire – The United Nations Using the World Economic Forum to Roll Out Its Agenda
Young Global Leaders in Australia
Andrew Bragg, a Senator for new south Wales and Chair of the Senate Select Committee into FinTech and RegTech, joined the “class of 2021” Young Global Leaders as did pop singer Jessica Mauboy.
In June 2020, Bragg launched his latest book: Bad Egg: How to Fix Super. Australia’s superannuation system is not delivering and requires radical surgery, according to Bragg.
Geraldine Chin Moody founded the first Global Shapers community in Australia. “Her passion for climate action and business as a force for good has led her to the role of Non-Executive Director of Future Super,” her profile on the WEF website states. Future Super is an Australian retail superannuation fund that offers superannuation services.
The Managing Director of Future Super, Simon Sheikh, is also a Young Global Leader.
Geraldine’s husband James Chin Moody is also a Young Global Leader, in 2015 he was a member of the WEF’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Software & Society and co-author of a book: ‘The Sixth Wave: How to Succeed in a Resource Limited World’, published in 2010.
The Sixth Wave provides glimpses of a future in which the visions of “green-topia” and “digital-topia” are combined and realised by scientists and business – a dystopia more like.
“With the challenge of a planet running out of essential supplies and a population staring down the barrel of Malthus’ dire predictions, the sixth wave will see humanity finally make the break away from resource-dependence. Economic growth will no longer be tied to resource consumption or waste production (such as carbon) and industry will no longer think in terms of products but in terms of services. Everything, from the smallest leaf and light switch to the largest cities and online communities, will have a value that can be measured, so nothing is ever wasted … Traditional physical and geographical boundaries will mean nothing in a world where everything and everyone is online,” a book reviewer wrote summarising The Sixth Wave’s contents.
The above is a very brief account of only the first three in the Young Global Leaders listed on the Community’s website …
Young Global Leaders in New Zealand
By Rhoda Wilson
Haha, nice try. I’ve seen that conspiracy page too. As you can see, when you go to the actual, registered website, nothing comes up when you search my name: https://t.co/lArVAHCKs5 pic.twitter.com/84DN71WWlZ
— Grace Tame (@TamePunk) June 17, 2022
I wonder if you know that I declined the invitation to participate in the World Economic Forum, in favour of maintaining my independence.
— Grace Tame (@TamePunk) June 17, 2022
Ignorance is rife indeed.
Do your research. https://t.co/t54CtikSuV
Sarah Shakour
Second Meeting with Mellissa Gray - Executive Director, Department of Communities Tasmania
Danica Baker
CONTINUED:
Exposed: Klaus Schwab's Young Global Leaders
Economist Ernst Wolff believes that a hidden alliance of political and corporate leaders is exploiting the pandemic with the aim of crashing national economies and introducing a global digital currency.
How is it that more than 190 governments from all over the world ended up dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic in almost exactly the same manner, with lockdowns, mask mandates, and vaccination cards now being commonplace everywhere? The answer may lie in the Young Global Leaders school, which was established and managed by Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum, and that many of today’s prominent political and business leaders passed through on their way to the top.
The German economist, journalist, and author Ernst Wolff has revealed some facts about Schwab’s “Young Global Leaders” school that are relevant for understanding world events during the pandemic in a video from the German Corona Committee podcast. While Wolff is mainly known as a critic of the globalist financial system, recently he has focused on bringing to light what he sees as the hidden agenda behind the anti-Covid measures being enacted around the world.
Mysterious Beginnings
The story begins with the World Economic Forum (WEF), which is an NGO founded by Klaus Schwab, a German economist and mechanical engineer, in Switzerland in 1971, when he was only 32. The WEF is best-known to the public for the annual conferences it holds in Davos, Switzerland each January that aim to bring together political and business leaders from around the world to discuss the problems of the day. Today, it is one of the most important networks in the world for the globalist power elite, being funded by approximately a thousand multinational corporations.
The WEF, which was originally called the European Management Forum until 1987, succeeded in bringing together 440 executives from 31 nations already at its very first meeting in February 1971, which as Wolff points out was an unexpected achievement for someone like Schwab, who had very little international or professional experience prior to this. Wolff believes the reason may be due to the contacts Schwab made during his university education, including studying with no less a person than former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Wolff also points out that while Schwab was there, the Harvard Business School had been in the process of planning a management forum of their own, and it is possible that Harvard ended up delegating the task of organizing it to him.
The Forum initially only brought together people from the economic field, but before long, it began attracting politicians, prominent figures from the media (including from the BBC and CNN), and even celebrities.
Schwab’s Young Global Leaders: Incubator of the Great Reset?
In 1992 Schwab established a parallel institution, the Global Leaders for Tomorrow school, which was re-established as Young Global Leaders in 2004. Attendees at the school must apply for admission and are then subjected to a rigorous selection process. Members of the school’s very first class in 1992 already included many who went on to become important liberal political figures, such as Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Tony Blair. There are currently about 1,300 graduates of this school, and the list of alumni includes several names of those who went on to become leaders of the health institutions of their respective nations. Four of them are former and current health ministers for Germany, including Jens Spahn, who has been Federal Minister of Health since 2018. Philipp Rösler, who was Minister of Health from 2009 until 2011, was appointed the WEF’s Managing Director by Schwab in 2014.
Other notable names on the school’s roster are Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand whose stringent lockdown measures have been praised by global health authorities; Emmanuel Macron, the President of France; Sebastian Kurz, who was until recently the Chancellor of Austria; Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary; Jean-Claude Juncker, former Prime Minister of Luxembourg and President of the European Commission; and Annalena Baerbock, the leader of the German Greens who was the party’s first candidate for Chancellor in this year’s federal election, and who is still in the running to be Merkel’s successor. We also find California Governor Gavin Newsom on the list, who was selected for the class of 2005, as well as former presidential candidate and current US Secretary of Transportation Peter Buttigieg, who is a very recent alumnus, having been selected for the class of 2019. All of these politicians who were in office during the past two years have favored harsh responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, and which also happened to considerably increase their respective governments’ power.
But the school’s list of alumni is not limited to political leaders. We also find many of the captains of private industry there, including Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Virgin’s Richard Branson, and the Clinton Foundation’s Chelsea Clinton. Again, all of them expressed support for the global response to the pandemic, and many reaped considerable profits as a result of the measures.
Wolff believes that the people behind the WEF and the Global Leaders school are the ones who really determine who will become political leaders, although he stresses that he doesn’t believe that Schwab himself is the one making these decisions but is merely a facilitator. He further points out that the school’s alumni include not only Americans and Europeans, but also people from Asia, Africa, and South America, indicating that its reach is truly worldwide.
In 2012, Schwab and the WEF founded yet another institution, the “Global Shapers Community,” which brings together those identified by them as having leadership potential from around the world who are under 30. Approximately 10,000 participants have passed through this program to date, and they regularly hold meetings in 400 cities. Wolff believes that it is yet another proving ground where future political leaders are being selected, vetted, and groomed before being positioned in the world’s political apparatus.
Wolff points out that very few graduates of the Global Leaders school list it on their CVs. He says that he has only seen it listed on one: namely, that of the German economist Richard Werner, who is a known critic of the establishment. Wolff suggests that the school seems to like to include even critics of the system among its ranks, as another name among its graduates is Gregor Hackmack, the German chief of Change.org, who was in its 2010 class. Wolff believes this is because the organization wants to present itself as being fair and balanced, although it also wants to ensure that its critics are controlled opposition.
Another thing that the Global Leaders graduates have in common is that most of them have very sparse CVs apart from their participation in the program prior to being elevated to positions of power, which may indicate that it is their connection to Schwab’s institutions that is the decisive factor in launching their careers. This is most evident when the school’s alumni are publicly questioned about issues that they have not been instructed to talk about in advance, and their struggles to come up with answers are often quite evident. Wolff contends that their roles are only to act as mouthpieces for the talking points that those in the shadows behind them want discussed in public debate.
Schwab’s Yes Men in Action
Given the growing discontent with the anti-Covid measures put into practice by the school’s graduates who are now national leaders, Wolff believes it is possible that these people were selected due to their willingness to do whatever they are told, and that they are being set up to fail so that the subsequent backlash can be exploited to justify the creation of a new global form of government. Indeed, Wolff notes that politicians with unique personalities and strong, original views have become rare, and that the distinguishing character of the national leaders of the past 30 years has been their meekness and adherence to a strict globalist line dictated from above. This has been especially evident in most countries’ response to the pandemic, where politicians who knew nothing about viruses two years ago suddenly proclaimed that Covid was a severe health crisis that justified locking people up in their homes, shutting down their businesses, and wrecking entire economies.
Determining exactly how the school operates is difficult, but Wolff has managed to learn something about it. In the school’s early years, it involved the members of each class meeting several times over the course of a year, including a ten-day “executive training” session at the Harvard Business School. Wolff believes that, through meeting their classmates and becoming part of a wider network, the graduates then establish contacts who they rely on in their later careers. Today, the school’s program includes courses offered over the course of five years at irregular intervals, which in some cases may overlap with the beginnings of some of its participants’ political or professional careers – meaning they will be making regular visits to Davos. Emmanuel Macron and Peter Buttigieg, for example, were selected for the school less than five years ago, which means it is possible they have been regularly attending Young Global Leaders-related programs while in political office and may in fact still be attending them today.
A Worldwide Network of Wealth & Influence
Graduates from the Young Global Leaders school, and Global Leaders for Tomorrow before them, find themselves very well-situated given that they then have access to the WEF’s network of contacts. The WEF’s current Board of Trustees includes such luminaries as Christine Lagarde, former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund and current President of the European Central Bank; Queen Rania of Jordan, who has been ranked by Forbes as one of the 100 most powerful women in the world; and Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the largest investment management corporation internationally and which handles approximately $9 trillion annually. By tracing the connections between the school’s graduates, Wolff claims that you can see that they continue to rely on each other for support for their initiatives long after they participated in the Global Leaders programs.
Wolff believes that many elite universities play a role in the process determined by the WEF, and that they should no longer be seen as operating outside of the fields of politics and economics. He cites the example of the Harvard Business School, which receives millions of dollars from donors each year, as well as the Harvard School of Public Health, which was renamed the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health after it received $350 million from the Hong Kong-born billionaire Gerald Chan. The same is true of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, which became the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health after media mogul Michael Bloomberg donated $1.8 billion to the school in 2018.
Wolff states that the WEF’s influence goes far beyond those who have passed through the Global Leaders and Global Shapers programs, however, as the number of people who participate in the annual Davos conferences is much larger than many suspect; he mentions being informed that approximately 1,500 private jets bring attendees to the event each year, overloading Switzerland’s airports.
The Alliance of Big Business & Government
The main goal of the WEF’s activities, Wolff believes, is to facilitate and further high-level cooperation between big business and national governments, something which we are already seeing take place. Viviane Fischer, another participant in the Corona Committee podcast, points out that the British-based company Serco processes migrants for the British government and also manages prisons around the world, among its many other activities. The pharmaceutical industry’s international reach is also considerable: Wolff mentions that Global Leaders alumnus Bill Gates, for example, had long been doing business with Pfizer, one of the main producers of the controversial mRNA anti-Covid vaccines, through his Foundation’s public health initiatives in Africa since long before the pandemic began. Perhaps not coincidentally, Gates has become one of the foremost champions of lockdowns and the Covid vaccines since they became available, and The Wall Street Journal has reported that his Foundation had made approximately $200 billion in “social benefits” from distributing vaccines before the pandemic had even begun. One can only imagine what its vaccine profits are today.
Digital technology, which is now all-pervasive, is also playing a prominent role in the elite’s global designs. Wolff highlights that BlackRock, run by Global Leaders alumnus Larry Fink, is presently the largest advisor to the world’s central banks and has been collecting data on the world financial system for more than 30 years now, and undoubtedly has a greater understanding of how the system works than the central banks themselves.
One of the goals of the current policies being pursued by many governments, Wolff believes, is to destroy the businesses of small- and medium-sized entrepreneurs so that multinational corporations based in the United States and China can monopolize business everywhere. Amazon, which was led until recently by Global Leaders alumnus Jeff Bezos, in particular has made enormous profits as a result of the lockdown measures that have devastated the middle class.
Wolff contends that the ultimate goal of this domination by large platforms is to see the introduction of digital bank currency. Just in the past few months, China’s International Finance Forum, which is similar to the WEF, proposed the introduction of the digital yuan, which could in turn be internationalized by the Diem blockchain-based currency network. Interestingly, Diem is the successor to Libra, a cryptocurrency that was first announced by Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook, indicating that a global currency that will transcend the power of either the dollar or the yuan, and managed through the cooperation of Chinese, European, and American business networks, is currently being discussed. The International Finance Forum’s supervisory board includes such names as the WEF’s Christine Lagarde; Jean-Claude Trichet, the former President of the European Central Bank; and Horst Köhler, the former Head of the International Monetary Fund.
Wolff further explains that the lockdowns and subsequent bailouts that were seen around the world over the past two years left many nations on the verge of bankruptcy. In order to avoid an economic catastrophe, the governments of the world resorted to drawing on 650 billion special drawing rights, or SDRs, which are supplementary foreign exchange reserve assets managed by the International Monetary Fund. When these eventually come due, it will leave these same governments in dire straits, which is why it may be that the introduction of digital currency has become a sudden priority – and this may have been the hidden purpose of the lockdowns all along.
Wolff says that two European countries are already prepared to begin using digital currency: Sweden and Switzerland. Perhaps not coincidentally, Sweden has had virtually no lockdown restrictions due to the pandemic, and Switzerland has taken only very light measures. Wolff believes that the reason for this may be that the two countries did not need to crash their economies through lockdown measures because they were already prepared to begin using digital currency before the pandemic began. He contends that a new round of lockdowns may be being prepared that will finish off the world’s economies for good, leading to massive unemployment and in turn the introduction of Universal Basic Income and the use of a digital currency managed by a central bank. This currency might be restricted, both in terms of what individuals can spend it on as well as in the time frame that one has to spend it in.
Further, Wolff indicates that the inflation currently being seen around the world is an inevitable consequence of the fact that national governments, after taking loans from the central banks, have introduced approximately $20 trillion into the global economy in less than two years. Whereas previous bailouts were directed into the markets, this latest round has gone to ordinary people, and as a result, this is driving up the prices of products that ordinary people spend their money on, such as food.
Democracy Has Been Cancelled
The ultimate conclusion one must draw from all of this, according to Wolff, is that democracy as we knew it has been silently cancelled, and that although the appearance of democratic processes is being maintained in our countries, the fact is that an examination of how governance around the world works today shows that an elite of super-wealthy and powerful individuals effectively control everything that goes on in politics, as has been especially evident in relation to the pandemic response.
The best way to combat their designs, Wolff says, is simply to educate people about what is happening, and for them to realize that the narrative of the “super-dangerous virus” is a lie that has been designed to manipulate them into accepting things that run contrary to their own interests. If even 10% of ordinary citizens become aware of this and decide to take action, it could thwart the elite’s plans and perhaps open a window for ordinary citizens to take back control over their own destinies.
Video Interviews
Ernst Wolff is interviewed in this series of videos by Dr. Reiner Fuellmich, a German lawyer and politician who hosts a podcast called Corona Ausschuss (Corona Committee), which critically examines the German government’s response to the pandemic. These videos are taken from one of their podcasts. Also on the group chat are Viviane Fischer, a business attorney and economist based in Berlin who is a regular participant on the Corona Committee; and Wolfgang Wodarg, a former German Member of Parliament for the Social Democratic Party who has been vocal in opposing the German government’s lockdown and vaccination measures.
Part I
Part II
Part III
By Michael Lord
CONTINUED:
Great Reset
Globalist Klaus Schwab Explains Govt Takeover of Industry in Unearthed Video
Video from 2017 features World Economic Forum’s Klaus Schwab bragging about “penetrating” govt cabinets and other dangerous globalist schemes.
“Fourth Industrial Revolution” and “Great Reset” architect Klaus Schwab discussed the World Economic Forum’s ongoing private sector takeover, called for a Universal Basic Income, promoted “transhumanism” and celebrated his “Young Global Leaders” infiltrating government cabinets in an unearthed video from September 20, 2017.
The World Economic Forum leader’s comments bragging about “penetrating” government cabinets through his Young Global Leaders program received the most attention, but there was much more to his comments in the full video featured below.
Klaus Schwab’s remarks were made during the 2017 Malcolm H. Wiener Lecture on International Political Economy titled “Strengthening Collaboration in a Fractured World” at the Harvard Kennedy School (Hashtag #SchwabForum). One quick look at the Malcolm Wiener Center website reveals that Harvard University is unapologetically and militantly radical left.
The discussion, which also featured globalist cellist Yo-Yo Ma (a Board Member at the World Economic Forum), was moderated by David R. Gergen. Gergen is a founding director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government who has served under several presidents.
Government Takeover of Industry
Dean of Faculty Doug Elmendorf introduced Klaus Schwab, explaining that the “mission” of the World Economic Forum is “about improving the state of the world through public private cooperation.”
The World Economic Forum is the driver of the concept of “stakeholders” (i.e. socialism) as opposed to “shareholders” in corporations. This removes a company’s profit motive and pushes industry naturally toward the government, who rewards compliance with leftist narratives.
Klaus Schwab’s stakeholder movement makes companies beholden to governments and squashes small businesses, which are unable to compete with corporations that have the backing of the taxpayer.
“The forum’s mission statement is about improving the state of the world through public private cooperation,” Doug Elmendorf says in his introduction. “The forum explains that organizations are accountable to stakeholders in all parts of society. And the forum brings together people from around the world, from the public and private sectors, from international organizations and from academic institutions.”
In what has been deemed a “public/private partnership”, corporations across the globe are now tightly intertwined with governments. This dangerous partnership picks winners (cronies) in industry. A very important example of this is epitomized in the so-called “First Movers Coalition“.
“I conceptualized probably for the first time what is called now the multistakeholder concept,” Schwab said in his remarks. “Which means that business leaders should not only be accountable to and serve shareholders, but stakeholders, which means all those communities who have a stake in the company. And here, of course, you have governments, you have employees, you have trade unions, you have civil society, and so on. And that’s the concept on which the World Economic Forum is built.”
Klaus Schwab’s blandly named “multistakeholder concept” is exactly why so many large companies are now propaganda arms for the left.
Young Global Leaders ‘Penetrate’ Cabinets
The comments that gained attention on social media relate directly to Klaus Schwab’s Young Global Leaders school (discussed in detail at RAIR Foundation USA here and here). Schwab references Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin as former “Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum”.
Further, Schwab brags that he is “very proud” that the World Economic Forum “penetrate the cabinets” of Justin Trudeau and then President of Argentina Mauricio Macri. Schwab explained that at a “reception” for Trudeau, he noted that “even more than half of his cabinet are actually Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum.” David Gergen and Klaus Schwab also pointed out that Young Global Leaders have “penetrated” the cabinets in Argentina and also the President of France Emmanuel Macron.
(Start at around the 1:07:44 minute mark):
David Gergen: “…we want to thank you not only for what you’ve done for this school, but for what you’ve done for the world. You’ve devoted your life to making the world a better place. Something which goes to the heart of what the Kennedy School is all about. It’s been striking to us as we’ve had the pleasure, and this goes back to Dean Ellwood, that when you brought the Young Global Leaders program here [at Harvard University] for executive education and then the Schwab fellows, but there are two countries in the world now in which the Young Global Leaders have emerged… in terms of the governance.
Schwab: “Yes, actually, there’s this notion to integrate young leaders as part of the World Economic Forum since many years. And I have to say, when I mentioned now names like Mrs. [Angela] Merkel, even Vladimir Putin, and so on, they all have been Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum. But what we are very proud of now, the young generation like Prime Minister Trudeau, president of Argentina [Mauricio Macri], and so on, that we penetrate the cabinets. So, yesterday, I was at a reception for Prime Minister Trudeau, and I know that half of his cabinet or even more than half of his cabinet are actually Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Form.”
Schwab’s comments rightfully generated outrage on social media, but Klaus Schwab made other notable comments during his presentation which also deserve attention. Importantly, he credits the Kennedy School as being “an essential pillar” in the existence of the World Economic Forum.
And I think the Kennedy School is an essential pillar in the build up of the World Economic Forum. And even if I go back, many people ask me, why is the World Economic Forum in existence? It’s the Kennedy School.
Universities have been irrevocably compromised, like most of America’s institutions.
The event was featured at the Harvard Crimson at the time, which focused on Klaus Schwab’s prediction of a “universal basic income” and his “optimistic” comments on Schwab’s so-called “fourth industrial revolution“.
Blockchain
Klaus Schwab praised himself for his role in foreseeing the power of blockchain. “Two years ago I had to explain to everybody what blockchain is,” he said. “Today every major bank has a research team to look how blockchain could impact the business model.” A 2019 article at MIT pointed out some very real dangers of blockchain:
Blockchain is used in a variety of industries, but what will happen if and when it’s used to record something a person would rather not have around forever?
Schwab is obsessed with technology, and claims that movements such as BREXIT are happening due to the “technological wave” that “most people do not understand”.
Just look at how the Internet has already changed, or big data is now changing the behavior of people. So, say affect our identity. And when we look for an explanation of the problems we have now in terms of BREXIT, or whatever you take, I think a lot has to do with the search of identity in a situation where you are confronted with the technology which most people do not always, technological wave, and changes which most people do not understand.
Can blockchain be used to monitor everything a person does? Only if bad actors have control of the information. But who is interested in blockchain and why? Could it be used in conjunction with digital IDs for all in order to create social credit scores that can shut down movements that contradict the authoritarian left?
The MIT report observed:
The trouble is blockchain itself is just a piece of data; it doesn’t do anything. It’s the software and the use of the software that makes the blockchain useful. Blockchain itself might be secure, but the use of the blockchain is where all of these weaknesses come through.
Klaus Schwab Wants To Put Chips in Your Brain
As reported at RAIR, Klaus Schwab said in 2016 that his so-called “Fourth Industrial Revolution” will “lead to a fusion of our physical, digital and biological identities:”
The so-called “technological wave” includes the Internet of Things, which connects household items and will eventually be connected to individuals through their clothes, skin, and even brains, according to Schwab.
Also in 2016, Schwab explained that this fusion will ultimately lead to chips being put in people’s brains. This concept is largely known as “transhumanism“:
During his remarks at the Harvard Kennedy School, Klaus reiterated this sentiment:
“If we look at this revolution,” he said, “it’s not characterized by one technologies – you have so many technologies. You have nano technology, brain research, you have, I mean, you name it. In essence, in the long run, what is very essential is to see if this new revolution will lead to a fusion of our biological, our digital, and our material existence.”
Watch the whole thing (it starts at the 50:44 minute mark):
By Renee Nal
CONTINUED:
Grace Tame is back in headlines for an old bong photo
What actually happened?
A 2014 photo showing Tame sitting near a bong has sparked high-profile confessions and calls for a debate about legalising cannabis
The 2021 Australian of the Year, Grace Tame, has once again been dragged into the media cycle, this time for *checks notes* sitting in close proximity to a bong eight years ago.
Let’s break down what actually happened, and if this is really a big deal.
What happened?
Well, the news site Daily Mail Australia on Monday unearthed a photo that appears to imply that when Tame – a dedicated advocate for sexual assault education and a survivor herself – was 19, she hung out with people who possibly smoked weed and may even have partaken herself.
The Instagram photo – which, in true 2014 style, has a heavy sepia filter over it – shows a young Tame sitting on a couch with a large weed smoking device, next to a man who appears to be rolling a cigarette with what may or may not be (whispers) marijuana.
Some real buzzkills seemed to have spent their time scrolling back far enough in Tame’s Instagram feed, finding the photos and commenting: “Australian of the year?”
The photo was deleted shortly afterwards, but not before the Daily Mail grabbed a screenshot and published an article.
Did anyone care?
It really doesn’t seem like it, no. Besides the original commenters quoted in the article, and the editorial team at the Daily Mail who felt this was newsworthy to begin with, the reception to the photo has been surprisingly un-boomers-ish.
In fact, dozens of people, including some in public office, have come to Tame’s defence by exposing their own teenage run-ins with the wacky-tobaccy.
Despite the Liberal party’s previous stance on drug testing welfare recipients, federal MP Dave Sharma chimed in, stating he felt “this stuff isn’t remotely in the public interest”, and that he was sure there was a “photo of [him] like that”.
I am sure there is a photo of me like that.
— Dave Sharma (@DaveSharma) February 14, 2022
I don’t think this stuff is remotely in the public interest.
Oh no! Grace Tame once smoked a bong?!?!?
— Cr Tim Baxter 🏳️⚧️ (@BaxterTim) February 14, 2022
I'm the Deputy Mayor and I smoked bongs as a teenager. And I've still never been as cool as Grace Tame.
Others, including former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s son, Alex Turnbull, were quick to point out that they knew people currently in politics who had dabbled with much more serious substances; understandably, they weren’t as forthcoming with specific names.
Going after Grace Take for drug use is extremely risky for any LNP members under 40 especially some people in the house and senate. I’ll leave it at that.
— Alex Turnbull (@alexbhturnbull) February 14, 2022
Don’t start stuff you can’t finish.
And of course, some showed their solidarity in a less political and more practical way.
Bonging on for Grace Tame pic.twitter.com/crQEXaAZDX
— Frenzal Rhomb (@Frenzalofficial) February 14, 2022
How has Grace Tame reacted?
Despite deleting the photograph at first, Tame appears to have taken Bong-gate in her stride, using the bizarre situation as an opportunity to poke fun at Scott Morrison for allegedly soiling himself at an Engadine McDonald’s restaurant after the 1997 NRL grand final.
(I’m legally obliged to remind you there is no actual evidence to back up this longstanding urban legend sparked by a joke tweet in 2018).
“But did she shit herself at Maccas after the ‘97 NRL GF?” one Twitter user asked.
“Quite possibly, I would’ve been 2 years old. I shit myself a lot back then,” Tame replied.
Quite possibly, I would’ve been 2 years old. I shit myself a lot back then. https://t.co/PaF3fF0gIX
— Grace Tame (@TamePunk) February 14, 2022
She later suggested she was actually playing a “cover of April Sun in Cuba. On the oboe,” referencing the prime minister’s widely mocked ukulele rendition on 60 Minutes on Sunday night.
Alright, I confess, we were doing a cover of ‘April Sun in Cuba’. On the oboe. pic.twitter.com/MKKsm7EF3y
— Grace Tame (@TamePunk) February 15, 2022
So how does Australia feel about weed?
If this whole ordeal shows us anything, it’s that Australian society doesn’t really view cannabis use as a moral crime any more. The Daily Mail has seemingly backpedalled on its bong coverage, publishing articles showing the glowing response Tame received on social media.
Even the regular conservative think pieces on the photo have been rather reserved.
According to data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 36% of Australians aged 14 and over had used cannabis in their lifetime, 11.6% in the last year.
And the latest National Drug Strategy Household Survey showed that 41.1% of respondents supported the legalisation of cannabis for personal use in 2019 – a significant rise from 25.5% in 2013, though health experts are wary, warning of the potential risks associated with cannabis use.
Cannabis-related arrests have been on the rise, growing by 30% in the last decade according to the Australian Crime Commission’s 2019-2020 report. In the 2019-20 financial year, Australian police made 76,669 weed-related arrests, the third-highest number on record.
But with the photo prompting many high-profile figures to publicly engage in discussions about the normality of cannabis use in Australian life, some have suggested this could be the beginning of a larger conversation.
Grace Tame might be Australian of the decade if she manages to end the war on drugs as a follow on from legalising the right of abuse victims speaking up.#GraceTame
— Nathan Lee (@NathanLee) February 14, 2022
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Peter van Onselen reveals he was sexually assaulted as a child in Twitter clash with Grace Tame
The Project co-host Peter van Onselen has revealed during a late-night clash on social media with Grace Tame he was sexually assaulted as a child by a teacher on a school camp.
The veteran journalist reluctantly revealed that despite previously claiming he was “lucky” and had attracted the attention of a notorious paedophile but was not abused, that this was in fact not the case.
Dr van Onselen said he was forced to make the traumatic disclosure after Ms Tame accused him of co-opting other victims stories.
“You have made me say this which is incredibly distressing but there you go,’’ Dr van Onselen said. “The police knew of three other boys he raped who didn’t want to testify. I was one of them.
“Like lots of survivors I have sought to not go public about what happened to me. I spoke to the police about exactly that as my abuser was being sentenced. Please please stop shaming me for not having your courage to choose to go public.”
The journalist’s remarks followed a late night argument on Twitter that continued until after midnight after Ms Tame questioned his claim of being a child sex abuse survivor.
“He was convicted, but not of crimes against you,’’ she wrote. “Co-opting other survivors’ experiences is a whole new low, mate. Especially to undermine an actual paedophilia and multiple rape survivor.
“I’m not denying the trauma of what you went through, just your integrity and intent.”
In a deleted tweet, she said “If you’re going to tell me your story Peter, I will listen,’’ she said. “I’ve got all day.
“We both know what you wrote … about being nearly abused. I was molested at 6 and raped more times than I care to tell you about. If there’s more I don’t know, let’s hear it.”
Dr van Onselen accused her of shaming him and said he had been abused.
“Sorry I haven’t been prepared to be public about the real details of what happened to me,’’ he replied.
“I have not shamed you, not once,’’ Ms Tame replied. “You’re manipulating this entire situation. I have pointed out exactly what I have known to be true.”
Dr van Onselen previously wrote in The Australian newspaper that he was one of the “lucky ones” and had been groomed by a paedophile but not abused.
“To be very clear from the outset, I was not sexually abused, I am one of the lucky ones,’’ he wrote. “But only just. A teacher … tried to sexually assault me on a school trip. He was convicted for doing so to three other boys on that same trip.”
“We both know what you wrote … about being nearly abused. I was molested at 6 and raped more times than I care to tell you about. If there’s more I don’t know, let’s hear it.”
Dr van Onselen accused her of shaming him and said he had been abused.
“Sorry I haven’t been prepared to be public about the real details of what happened to me,’’ he replied.
“I have not shamed you, not once,’’ Ms Tame replied. “You’re manipulating this entire situation. I have pointed out exactly what I have known to be true.”
Dr van Onselen previously wrote in The Australian newspaper that he was one of the “lucky ones” and had been groomed by a paedophile but not abused.
“To be very clear from the outset, I was not sexually abused, I am one of the lucky ones,’’ he wrote. “But only just. A teacher … tried to sexually assault me on a school trip. He was convicted for doing so to three other boys on that same trip.”
“Those of us ready to give our testimony in court ultimately didn’t have to,’’ he said.
“Case closed, guilty as charged. Closure for the boys who lived with being attacked all those decades ago, at last. For years I didn’t even realise he had tried to assault me.”
However, Dr van Onselen also wrote that he may have “dissociated” during the abuse.
“While I am confident my memory is accurate I would be lying to say I don’t have some doubts. Not so much about the details of what he did to groom students on the trip. I guess a small part of me wonders if in some dissociative state I have blocked out more that happened,’’ he wrote.
“Turning myself into some sort of hero who fought away the now convicted paedophile. I really don’t think so.
“I do think about the three boys who were assaulted, and, unless my memory is playing tricks on me, armed with the knowledge I have now of what happened to them I can see changes in their personalities that follow on from that trip.
“Presumably because of what they experienced.”
Dr van Onselen wrote the teacher told the boys they shouldn’t wear underpants in bed and it was only years later that his wife raised concerns about what the teacher had said.
“He would tell us that it was dangerous to wear underwear to bed. “It cuts off the circulation,” I would recite years later having assumed it to be true that whole time,’’ he wrote.
“When I told my wife that supposed factoid she questioned where on earth I got that from. It was the first time I reflected on what had happened, what it might have represented.”
The argument between Ms Tame and the Channel 10 journalist started after Dr van Onselen criticised a Canberra academic over a disagreement she had with a local GP over wearing a preferred Covid mask.
Ms Tame shared his critical Tweet, accusing him of “victimising a vulnerable person”.
Dr van Onselen replied: “That’s how I felt when, as a survivor myself of child sexual abuse (he was convicted), she (the academic) accused me of being a threat to my wife.
“Unfortunately you then helped her raise money when I had the temerity to ask her to apologise. Thanks for all your support.”
Dr van Onselen had previously threatened to sue the academic after she criticised him on Twitter.
After he threatened to sue, Ms Tame promoted a GoFund me that has raised $250,000 to defend the case and educate women’s groups about defamation laws.
Last week, former attorney-general Christian Porter personally thanked Dr van Onselen for his support when “the mob” came after him over allegations he sexually assaulted a teenage girl on a debating club trip.
Mr Porter denies the allegation.
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Come on, Aussie blokes: close the gender gap
“Losing to team GB is bad enough … but NZ?” This is the kind of headline that typically accompanies an Australian sporting defeat. Which makes me wonder whether we need to appeal to the competitive spirit of Australian men on a more important issue, and challenge them to move us ahead of New Zealand at closing the gender gap. Australia is ranked 24 on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2014, 11 places behind New Zealand, at 13. It’s #heforshe AU v NZ.
A closer look at the report shows Australia is ranked equal first on educational attainment, however this does not translate into equal economic participation and opportunity, on which it ranks 14th, nor political empowerment, where it comes in at a lowly 53rd.
“People and their talents are two of the core drivers of sustainable, long-term economic growth. If half of these talents are underdeveloped or underutilized, the economy will never grow as it could.”
Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman, World Economic Forum
Professor Schwab’s comments are consistent with Australian findings: Goldman Sachs’ chief economist, Tim Toohey, estimates in his report, Australia’s Hidden Resource: The Economic Case for Increasing Female Participation, that closing the gap between female and male participation would increase economic activity in the country by $195 billion.The economic business case makes sense.
Yet there is a fork in the road: at the age where men and women are entering junior to middle management (25-34 years old), 86% of men work on a full-time basis, compared with just 64% of women. Moreover, the gaps widens as they grow older, with men maintaining 88% full-time employment and women reducing their hours to around 53%.
This results in a long-term social and economic penalty, not just for the women who don’t fully participate in the workforce, but for business. Corporate Australia suffers, as qualified workers (over 60% of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and diplomas are earned by women) drop out of the talent pipeline, and business continues to repeat the cycle of drawing 90% of leaders from just 50% of the workforce – the male half.
Which is why, in April 2010, Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick set about engaging the support of the most powerful and influential men in Australian business and government, resulting in 22 Male Champions of Change (MMCs), including the chief of the defence force and CEOs of banks and mining companies.
The Champions of Change have publicly committed to actively advancing gender equality across their businesses and acting as public advocates. They will act as role models and influence the workplace norms that prevent businesses from capitalizing on women’s full potential. They are investing in resources and programmes, changing policies and procedures, and in many cases setting quotas for female representation at leadership levels. What gets measured is more likely to get done. As one Champion publicly announced: “In many cases, we have to change the rules – they have been invented by men, for men.
Since the initiative began, Australia’s position on economic participation in the Gender Gap Report has moved from 24th to 14th. But now is not the time to rest on our laurels, for there is still a long way to go to achieve gender parity in the workplace: which won’t happen globally until 2095, according to World Economic Forum projections.
The Forum projections are supported by our own data, which highlights the existence of what Elizabeth Broderick refers to as “gender asbestos”: a toxic, lingering legacy. That is, despite being outlawed since 1984, gender-equality strategies are too often undermined by a culture of pervasive discrimination and harassment. Elements of this include the following:
- The equal pay gap stands at 18.2%.
- 1 in 2 women experiences discrimination while pregnant, on maternity leave or returning to work
- 1 in 5 women over the age of 15 experiences sexual harassment in the workplace.
The key to unlocking the potential of a talented and highly educated female workforce is leaders who can re-envision the route to equality. We need those in power to acknowledge their own resistance, to encourage others to share their thoughts and, ultimately, to commit to turnarounds. As Warren Buffet said, “resistance among the powerful is natural when change clashes with their self-interest … After all, who wants to double the number of competitors for top positions?” This is also particularly relevant to those in Australian politics, where women hold only 69 seats in the federal parliament, out of 226. Just one member of the executive is a woman.
All these statistics tell us that the current business case for gender equality is too narrow, and does not adequately embrace the full socio-economic spectrum. An argument focused solely on the economic benefits of gender equality is but one part of the equation: the self-serving part.
We need a business case that challenges the traditional stereotypes to which men and women revert when they have children. And we need a case that demands an end to domestic violence and to pornographic material that perpetuates violent and degrading attitudes towards women. We need a business case that values the unpaid work of carers, and acknowledges that men and women can have different career cycles, and delivers on CEO promises of equal pay for equal work.
Finally, we need more female voices in government decision-making, to drive an equitable distribution of government resources to women’s social and financial needs – something that would, no doubt, improve Australia’s rankings in both health and survivorship.
Then, and only then, will leaders be able to capture the hearts and minds of everyone, which is what is needed to drive real social change. Only then will we see the right socio-economic policies enacted to support those who are most affected by discrimination and sexism, such as working parents juggling the combined demands of young children and elderly parents.
The Global Gender Report sets a benchmark for best practice and, despite our efforts, Australia continues to fall well short as a nation. We must do better. And in highlighting those countries substantially closer to closing the gender gap, we know that if this is our best, we have failed. So at the very least, let’s capitalize on the friendly rivalry between us and our Kiwi neighbour, and set a clear target for next year’s report.
Author: Prue Gilbert is one of the principals at PGC, an organization which promotes gender equality in Australian business.
By Prue Gilbert
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Anthony Albanese sparks emotional reaction from Grace Tame during interview
Labor leader Anthony Albanese brought former Australian of the Year Grace Tame to tears while being interviewed by the sexual assault survivor.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese sparked an emotional reaction from former Australian of the Year Grace Tame during a poignant conversation about being raised by a single mum.
Ms Tame probed Mr Albanese in an interview for InStyle Australia for an example of who shaped his “views on gender issues and policy”, with his response bringing the 27-year-old to tears.
Mr Albanese shared how when his mum fell pregnant out of wedlock in 1963, it was “the fashion of the day” that babies would not be kept by either parent.
“She was going to have got the news that my father had died and then lost the baby and I was going to be adopted out,” he told Ms Tame.
“Because in 1963, when I was born, it was acceptable to be a widow but it wasn’t acceptable to be an unmarried mother.”
His mum, despite challenges that lay ahead, made the decision to give him the last name of his dad and raise him on her own. His dad told her he planned to marry someone from his Italian home town.
“Now, she was a strong woman who made the decision to have me, and to raise me by herself,” Mr Albanese said.
“She worked originally when I was a bub, cleaning office buildings at night, looking after me during the day, she then had rheumatoid arthritis and was really crippled up.”
He went on to detail how his quaint family-of-two, like many others, was “particularly close”.
“So it was just me and her — and a two-person family, I think, is particularly close. It’s one of the things that has focused me and a part of who I am,” he said.
“She always respected everyone and I grew up with the confidence of having a mum who lived a lot of her aspirations through me. She couldn’t work. And so she’s the most important role model in my life and she’s very much still part of who I am today.”
His answer left Ms Tame and her fiance Max Heerey in tears.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you there,” Mr Albanese said.
Ms Tame said she became emotional because she respected his answer “so much”.
“No, it’s just, yeah, I respect that so much. [looking off camera and laughing] Max is crying! Oh, I want to give you a hug,” she said.
Mr Albanese extended on his point by paying reference to a common argument against marriage equality.
“One of the things that some of the opponents said was, you know, you need a mum, a dad and two kids — that’s a family, I hear that message and go, well, hang on, you know, families are diverse and made up of all sorts of different groups,” he said.
“People are different. Relationships are complex. The one thing that really, really matters — the essential ingredient — is love.”
Mr Albanese explained how out of respect for his mum, he didn’t go searching for his dad until after she died in 2002 “because I didn’t want her to think that she wasn’t enough”. “Because she was enough for me,” he said.
Ms Tame shared insights from her own upbringing and how being around strong women throughout her life had gifted her a lot of the strength and courage she possessed.
“And all I knew was strong women. All around me, all the time. We had a trans family member; I knew diversity, I lived and breathed diversity,” she said.
Ms Tame however conceded she was “still just processing your story”.
“I’ll probably go and cry about it later and I’m not ashamed of that,” she said.
Amused by her confession, Mr Albanese accepted he had “done okay”.
“No, you’ve done better than okay. A lot of respect for you, Anthony,” Ms Tame replied.
The duo made headlines earlier this year with an iconic photo taken hours after Ms Tame’s infamous interaction with Prime Minister Scott Morrison at a morning tea for Australian of the Year finalists.
Mr Albanese shared a picture to Facebook of himself and a beaming Ms Tame taken at an event later that day.
It was accompanied by the caption: “The extraordinary 2021 Australian of the Year, Grace Tame”.
By Brooke Rolfe
Just Grace Tame again, this time on Triple J government funded radio discussing rape & abuse for the Nth time this week. As per usual, Grace's public forced conversations seem to always have the outcome of becoming a 'national discusson' with an outcome affecting the way society works. Triple J were unable to link to Grace Tame's twitter or any other social media as she took the accounts offline, following a flood of comments calling her out for being a WEF puppet.
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