When 58-year-old Melbourne academic, designer, entrepreneur and mother Janine Hendry decided to stage a protest against sexism, misogyny and alleged sexual misconduct in Australia’s parliament, she thought it would be just her and a few friends waving placards outside Parliament House. But in two weeks, her March4Justice movement has 27,000 followers on Facebook and 8,000 on Twitter.
Dressed head-to-toe in black, women are gathering at 36 protests across Australia.
Melbourne’s March4Justice has been approved to involve 5000 people under COVID-19 rules, with a sit-in at Treasury Gardens previously having a permit for 1000 people. An extension to the numbers was granted on on Monday morning.
In a statement, former Greek Australian federal MP Julia Banks – who left politics because of bullying of women – said the nationwide rallies were “our collective voice”.
Ahead of her speech at today’s rally, she wrote an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, stating that “women in every sector, public or private, the law, education, health care, the arts, sport, the media, ask themselves the same question every day: ‘Should I say something?’ But the women who work in Federal Parliament are especially likely to answer the question in the negative, against a backdrop of fear and silence. They see what happens to the women who have agonised, suffered and then elected ‘to speak’ about the many men more powerful than them.”
She said, “Whether it’s about casual sexism, sexual harassment, unwelcome sexual advances, inappropriate touching, gendered violence, sexual assault, gendered workplace bullying, threats and abuse or rape (which sits just below murder and manslaughter on the scale of crimes), there is nowhere formal, safe, confidential or independent for these women to tell their story.”
READ MORE: Greek Australian politicians point to rampant sexism in Parliament
The Greek Australian Food4Thought women’s network could not be missing from the event and was quick to issue a call to action for Greek women to attend.
Food4Thought President Varvara Ioannou said, “It is very important because Greek women are also discriminated against, sexually abuse, have their share of domestic violence and injustice.”
She pointed to the marches taking place across Australia as “historic”, adding that she usually chooses other avenues of promoting women’s rights but felt compelled to attend the rally so that Greek women’s voices could also be heard.
“It was important for our network to join our voices with those of other women, and say ‘Enough is enough,” she told Neos Kosmos while waiting for the rally to begin at Melbourne’s Treasury Gardens. “I don’t feel safe as a woman. I always need to take extra care and I don’t go out at night on my own,” she said. “Today I am marching for my daughter and daughter-in-law and all the women. We want people to walk the street and feel safe, to be in the house and not be abused by their partners, to be promoted not for their looks, tits and good legs and how sexy they look but on merit, for their brains.”
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Sophie Cotsis MP in NSW told Neos Kosmos that women in : “I think women are targeted by what they are wearing or the way they look. They are constantly being asked, ‘who is looking after your children’. I’ve never heard any male being asked who was looking after the children,” she said
“We have to also be mindful of the cyber bullying and the negative effects of what is written on social media and how horrifying this is. We want to see more women in politics, but women seeing other women getting attacked and ripped apart are just not going to enter the world of politics. And so the culture continues.”
Ms Henry said she established the movement in the wake of reports of an alleged rape at Parliament House against former staffer Brittany Higgins as well historical rape allegations levelled against Attorney-General Christian Porter, however the drive has been very personal as women around Australia seek justice, respect and equality in the streets, in their homes and at work.
On the eve of rallies, female Labor staffers took aim at MPs and male staffers on a secret Facebook page, accusing them of sexually harassing them, adding they would “no longer keep their secrets”.
Former Greek Australian health minister Jenny Mikakos took to Twitter to state the behaviour of male staffers who behave in this way is “unacceptable and disgusting”, and said she was “in awe of the women, especially the young ones, coming forward and calling it out”.
Photos from the rally in Melbourne by Neos Kosmos photographer Con Deves:
