Carrie Bickmore And Amy Remeikis Have Spoken About *That* ‘Project’ Segment
"I wanted to say thank you Carrie for everything that you did because I was just at home yelling at my computer."
The Project host Carrie Bickmore and political journalist Amy Remeikis have joined forces once again to condemn the behaviour of Bickmore’s co-host Peter Van Onselen — and to reflect on what we can learn from the Grace Tame photo op saga.
In case you missed it, former Australian of the Year Grace Tame refused to smile for a politically staged photo with the Prime Minister this week — prompting men everywhere to chuck tantrums, including PvO in the national masthead. Coincidentally, this was the same day that Remeikis was due to appear on The Project to promote her new book — On Reckoning — which discusses the last year in politics amid the horrific Brittany Higgins allegations.
Throughout the segment, Remeikis absolutely read PvO to filth, noting that his commentary on sexual assault and rape allegations over the last year — particularly in regards to the allegations against his friend Christian Porter — was part of the inspiration for her book.
In addition to Remeikis, Carrie Bickmore also called out her co-host’s conduct, questioning how his opinion piece was helpful to the conversation. The whole segment is well worth a watch.
On Thursday night, Bickmore and her radio co-host Tommy Little — also a regular on The Project — welcomed Remeikis to de-brief on the whole situation and, you know, let her speak without PvO interrupting her every two seconds.
“I’m feeling okay, I was a bit shaken afterwards. I’m no good at confrontation,” she said. “I wanted to say thank you Carrie for everything that you did because I was just at home yelling at my computer.”
At this point, Little questioned whether the behaviour of PvO — and others — is a problem because it trivialises an otherwise extremely important issue.
“Is this exactly what the bigger problem is all the time in that there are real issues at play here, and then you’ve got guys chiming in and diverting attention away to stupid things by saying something’s immature?” he asked.
Remeikis — who continually manages to perfectly articulate her points, despite the absolute chaos of the last 48 hours — noted that it’s not as simple as being civil and “polite” when we’re talking about sexual violence.
“I think it is a big part of the issue, and probably because we’re really uncomfortable talking about sexual violence,” Remeikis said. “It’s much easier to use the politics of civility and police behaviours. It’s a lot easier to say ‘you can have a seat at the table to talk about this serious issue, but only if you behave yourself, and only if you act in a matter that’s civilised and becoming’.
“But this isn’t an issue you can use civility for, this is something that impacts so many people. One in three women are going to be impacted by this. I think it’s about time we stopped having all these silly side discussions and actually got to the root of the issue which is men stepping up and doing something themselves in this space instead of leaving it for the women to carry.”
Bickmore, who slightly surprised everyone for strongly calling out PvO’s conduct, despite having to work with him on a weekly basis, praised Remeikis for instilling hope.
“When I look to the government I don’t have any hope at all,” Bickmore said. “But then I look at people like you (Amy) and Grace Tame, people who are not willing to play the game, I have so much hope.
“I remember growing up in an era when you would just smile and play ball with men in power, and I just think how incredible, we have a new generation of women coming through that aren’t gonna play that game.”
You can pick up Amy Remeikis’ book On Reckoning here.