Mackie

she/her Louis💙 Gen X 🇦🇺

[Kirsti Miller @KirstiMiller30]

Yesterday at the National Press Club, Pauline Hanson stood up and called transgender Australians an "insurgency" that must be "dismantled". She talked about us as something to be confronted, called us an infection, subversive. She talked about people. Real people. Mums and dads, kids, workers, neighbours, mates.

We want to be very clear about who she was talking about.

She was talking about the trans kid in a classroom who just wants to get through the day without being singled out. She was talking about the Sistergirls and Brotherboys whose communities have held a place for them for tens of thousands of years, long before anyone drew a border around this continent. She was talking about the bloke down the road who finally feels like himself, and the woman volunteering at the local footy canteen who happens to be trans and who you would never think twice about. These are not an insurgency. They are Australians.

There is nothing brave about a politician with a national platform pointing at one of the smallest and most vulnerable groups in the country and telling everyone to be afraid of them. It is the oldest trick there is. When the cost of living is crushing people and housing is out of reach, find someone smaller to blame. Trans people did not cause the rent crisis. We did not cause your power bill. We are roughly half a per cent of the population, and we are being handed the bill for problems we had nothing to do with.

Here is what we believe Australia actually is.

We are a country built on the fair go. On looking after your mate even when it costs you something. On the idea that you judge a person by how they treat others, not by who they are or who they love or how they came into the world. That spirit pulled diggers through the mud and it pulls communities together after every flood and every fire. It does not have an asterisk that says "everyone except trans people".

The cruellest part of speeches like this is the harm they do long after the cameras are packed up. Trans and gender diverse people, especially young ones, already face some of the highest rates of distress and suicide in the country. Not because of who they are, but because of exactly this. The message that they are a threat, a problem, a thing to be removed. Words from a podium become words in a schoolyard. We have buried people because of it. We are not going to pretend otherwise to make anyone comfortable.

But we are not writing this in despair, because we know this country better than that.

We know it because we see it every day in the City of Swan and right across regional and rural WA. We see the parents who turn up to learn how to support their kid. We see the small business owners who quietly put a rainbow in the window because they want everyone to feel safe walking in. We see the straight blokes at community events who shake our hands and say good on ya. That is the real Australia. Tolerant, decent, more interested in whether you are a good neighbour than what is on your birth certificate.

To every trans, gender diverse, Sistergirl and Brotherboy person reading this: you belong here. You are not an ideology. You are not a debate. You are part of this country and this community, and we are proud of you, and we are not going anywhere.

To everyone else: this is the moment to say something. Silence gets read as agreement. You do not need a flag or a speech. You just need to be the kind of mate who, when someone takes a cheap shot at people who cannot fight back from a national stage, says "not on, mate". That is the Australian spirit Pauline Hanson claims to speak for. We think it actually belongs to the rest of us.

Belonging without fear. That is all we are asking for. It is a very Australian thing to want.

Pride in Swan Inc
https://t.co/Y3smAT6YMb

[Mike Carlton @MikeCarlton01]

Nothing’s changed…

[Eddy Jokovich @EddyJokovich]

Jane Norman repeated Hanson’s lie that 25% of Australians speak Arabic or Chinese. It’s actually just under 4%. #NPC

[Larissa Waters @larissawaters]

I love this multicultural country. 

Pauline Hanson wants us angry, divided and scared of our neighbours.

It’s an ugly, and racist, distraction.

[Michiel Verkoulen @Verkoulen]

Deze beelden zijn de reden waarom een WK met veel landen tóch een goed idee is.

Zie de vreugde, de trots, de aandacht, de dankbaarheid. Ondanks een dik verlies. Het is allemaal fantastisch 🇨🇼🙏🏽

[Dr Sheep Person Podge @noplaceforsheep]

Look, apologies for getting stuck on one story but I CANNOT get my head around the elite Brisbane Marist College “old boys”

a) moving a motion that “women must be respected” in the first place

and

b) VOTING IT DOWN

This school should have ALL PUBLIC FUNDING WITHDRAWN.

[Mackie @OneMackie]

@stupid_wolfbird And lick. Don’t forget the licking.

[Abier @abierkhatib]

Wasn’t on my radar today but sheesh, Aussies, BRAVO 👏

[Mackie @OneMackie]

AU in which Ilya has recently retired when word gets to him that Alexei has early onset dementia and his wife left him years earlier so his teen daughter is caring for him.

[Dirtyleftie @CraigSarg73]

People keep telling me that Pauline Hanson stands up for ordinary Australians.

So let’s look at the record.

Pauline Hanson and One Nation have voted against or opposed:

• Increasing JobKeeper payments during the pandemic
• Raising the Newstart/JobSeeker rate for unemployed Australians
• A Royal Commission into violence, abuse and neglect of people with disability
• Making TAFE fee-free for more Australians
• Greater funding for universities and education
• Measures aimed at improving housing affordability
• Expanding access to subsidised childcare
• Measures aimed at reducing the gender pay gap
• Stronger protections for Aboriginal heritage sites
• Increasing diversity in media ownership
• Environmental protections for forests and threatened ecosystems
• Stronger action on gambling harm

At the same time, Hanson has supported:

• Tax cuts that disproportionately benefited higher-income earners
• Expanding welfare cashless debit card programs
• Greater political intervention in research funding decisions
• Reductions in some welfare supports

Then there was the infamous attempt by One Nation figures to seek support from the US gun lobby to weaken Australia’s gun laws after Port Arthur.

So the question remains:

What has Pauline Hanson actually delivered that has improved the lives of ordinary Australians?

After nearly three decades in politics, where are the major reforms? Where are the new hospitals, schools, infrastructure projects, wage increases, housing programs or worker protections she can point to?

A lot of outrage. A lot of headlines. A lot of blame.

But very little delivered.

Australians deserve more than slogans. They deserve results.

[Mackie @OneMackie]

@wwxwashere My children would fight me for a gaytime.

[🕶️🦉Sassy Leo 🦉🕶️ @Loud_Lass]

#IStandWithGrace

[Louise Greene @GreeneLouiseAus]

I am absolutely fed up with the relentless targeting of Grace Tame.

Let's be clear. There is a difference between fair criticism and a public pile-on. What we keep seeing directed at Grace is not constructive debate. It is constant scrutiny, personal attacks, outrage cycles and a level of judgment that seems reserved for women who dare to speak too loudly, too honestly or too unapologetically.

Grace Tame survived child sexual abuse. She helped change laws. She gave a voice to countless survivors. She has spent years doing work that most people would never have the courage to do.

Yet the attacks never seem to stop.

A few weeks ago it was the Prime Minister taking aim at her. Now it's Charlie Pickering. Before that, countless commentators, columnists and social media critics. Different names, same pattern.

And frankly, it disgusts me.

No, women in public life should not be immune from criticism. Nobody is. But there is a world of difference between criticism and the kind of sustained public hounding that seeks to diminish, discredit and exhaust someone.

As someone who has experienced public judgment and media attacks, I know how destructive these campaigns can be. They reduce human beings to caricatures. They erase context. They encourage outrage while ignoring the very real emotional toll on the person at the centre of it.

What troubles me most is that women who survive violence are so often expected to be perfect. The moment they become angry, outspoken, political, imperfect or inconvenient, they are treated as fair game.

Grace Tame has contributed more to the conversation about sexual abuse and survivor advocacy in this country than most of her critics ever will.

Maybe it's time some of the men lining up to take shots at her stopped and asked themselves a simple question:

Why are they spending so much energy attacking a survivor instead of supporting the change she helped create?

Enough. #gracetame #charliepickering

[Mackie @OneMackie]

So accurate.

[steph @hxllanov]

the way hudson’s still driving the rpf bus he’s just not letting any passengers in with him

[Dr Sheep Person Podge @noplaceforsheep]

We’re fast approaching a situation in Australia where nobody, no matter what their expertise, is allowed to speak publicly unless they support Israel either overtly, or with silent complicity.

Brian surgeons, academics, performers, autism representatives - it doesn’t matter what your field is - if you’ve supported Palestine opposed genocide or criticised Israel, nothing else about you matters - your expertise, your contribution to society, your talent - IT DOESN’T MATTER.

How can you let this disgraceful apartheid continue to develop in our country @AlbMP?

[Mackie @OneMackie]

@sassyagron The freaking caps piss me off. Stop wearing your caps inside restaurants.

[WillowTheFoxΘΔ🏳️‍⚧️🐾Pawbz are cute!🐾 @Willowfoxxo]

This!👇👇

[Atheist Girl @iamAtheistGirl]

#PrideMonth 🏳️‍🌈

[Atheist Girl @iamAtheistGirl]

#PrideMonth 🏳️‍🌈