Veteran feminist Biff Ward described it as the great uprising.
“I have been crying for weeks because I thought I would never see this day,” Ms Ward, a founding member of the Canberra Women’s Liberation Group in 1970, told thousands gathered on the lawns in front of Parliament House in the nation’s capital.
“It feels like a tidal wave of rage is sweeping the land.”
Thousands gathered at Parliament House for the Women’s March 4 JusticeCredit:Alex Ellinghausen
“I was raped inside Parliament House by a colleague and for so long it felt like the people around me did not care about what happened because of what it might mean for them. It was so confusing because these people were my idols.”
Ms Higgins spoke of watching her life play out in the media from a laptop in a spare bedroom in her father’s apartment on the Gold Coast.
“I watched as the prime minister of Australia publicly apologised to me through the media, while privately the media team actively undermined and discredited my loved ones,” she said.
“I tuned into Question Time to see my former bosses, people that I had dedicated my life to, downplay my lived experience.”
Sharon Buikstra, who drove on her own from Wollongong to attend the march, had never been to a protest before.
Helen Dalley-Fisher, Janine Hendry and Sharon Buikstra ahead of the Women’s March 4 Justice at Parliament House.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
“I don’t normally do this sort of thing,” Ms Buikstra says. “I’m just an everyday single woman in my 50s bringing up two children.”
But she says the march spoke to her because Ms Higgins could have been her own daughter.
“I thought ‘Well, she needs to be supported, as does every other woman who works in Parliament House.’ I just felt we are all in this together, whether we are male or female, we should be respecting a young girl who was trying to get ahead in her career and was taken advantage of.”
Fiona Thatcher, who left a top-tier Australian law firm after she said she was sexually harassed, organised an event in London in solidarity.
The protests mostly attracted women, many in black.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
The protests mostly attracted women, many in black, some wearing face-masks that said “enough”. They carried signs “From the ditches come the witches” (a play on the infamous “Ditch the witch” slur referring to Julia Gillard at a 2011 rally against the carbon tax), “We will not stay silent so you can stay comfortable, and simply, “Enough is enough.”
One girl in Canberra carried a placard reading: “I’m 11 and I’ve had enough of harassment.”
Both Labor and Coalition MPs attended the protest in Canberra, including Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese with Tanya Plibersek, Penny Wong, Kristina Keneally, and Liberals Bridget Archer, Jane Hume and Sarah Henderson.
Senator Jane Hume speaks with the March 4 Justice organiser Janine Hendry in a hallway at Parliament House.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer
It was, said Liberal Senator Jane Hume, who attended the march, “an extraordinary lost opportunity”. “They have been invited in with open arms and open ears, we want to listen,” she said on Sky News.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison later said in Parliament he respected the right of the protest organisers to turn down his offer.
He outlined the actions his government is taking on the topics addressed in the March 4 Justice petition, including again saying all cases of gendered violence should be referred to police.
“This is a common cause, and we must not let our frustration with the failure to achieve so many of the results we would hope for, to undermine the unity needed to continue our shared progress,” he said.
In Hobart, Australian of the Year Grace Tame said 10 years ago she made the choice to stand up against a man who had repeatedly raped her.
Ms Tame, 26, was groomed and abused by a 58-year-old maths teacher. The abuse began when she had just turned 15.
She said she felt immensely proud that the societal push to give sexual assault survivors the right to be named started in Tasmania.
“Evil thrives in silence,” she said. “Behaviour unspoken, behaviour ignored, is behaviour endorsed.”
In Melbourne a banner was unfurled, listing the names of 898 women and children who had been killed by men since 2008. A minute’s silence was held in their honour.
Ms Hendry, a 58-year-old academic and designer, whose tweet on February 25 spawned the 42 nation-wide rallies, told the Canberra protest that when she saw Ms Higgins courageously taking action she thought ‘So can I’.
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