Journalist Tracy Grimshaw has received a virtual round of applause on social media for her dogged line of questioning to Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
On Tuesday, journalist Leigh Sales sat opposite a blank chair and announced that in the past month, the PM has declined an interview with ABC’s 7.30 more than 13 times.
When it was announced that ‘A Current Affair’ had secured an exclusive sit-down interview with the PM some social media users predicted it’d be a “soft ball” segment.
What they received was anything but.
Ms Grimshaw’s uncompromising interview-style came after a month of shocking allegations of sexual harassment coming out of Parliament House.
The ‘A Current Affair’ journalist kicked off the interview by asking the Prime Minister why he hadn’t personally spoken to former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins after she alleged she was raped by a colleague in Parliament House.
“Why haven’t you talked to her by now? It’s been a month since she went public,” she asked the PM, to which he responded, “she hasn’t expressed an interest with me but she’s very welcome to.”
“Well, you haven’t called her either, have you?” Ms Grimshaw shot back.
The seasoned journalist then grilled Mr Morrison on why no one “except Brittany Higgins” had paid a price for what happened to her.
The PM answered that there was an ongoing police investigation and others in the Liberal Party had sought to provide support.
“They failed,” Ms Grimshaw said.
“They didn’t pass the test and they failed Brittany,” Mr Morrison acknowledged.
“So why do they still have their jobs?” she replied.
Ms Grimshaw also challenged the PM about his party’s treatment of a number of shocking allegations that have arisen in the past month ranging from sexual misconduct to sexual harassment and a well-publicised - and denied - allegation of rape.
“You see here, the pattern here is that women are always the liars. Brittany Higgins is the liar, Sue Hickey is the liar, Christian Porter's accuser hasn’t told the truth either,” she said.
Mr Morrison responded, "That is not the assumption and I don't agree with your assessment. I’m simply saying, in this country, people will make allegations and we have ways of dealing with it."
He added that “the police have decided that there is no further investigation” in relation to Mr Porter.
Mr Morrison also admitted Ms Higgins’ allegations deepened his awareness about the issues women face, to which Ms Grimshaw replied: “where have you been!”
She added, “You are not on an island, or maybe you are in a bubble. You must know, you have a wife you love, daughters, you have referenced them several times. How did you not know the depth of it?”
Mr Morrison said the past month had been a “wake-up call”, to which Ms Grimshaw bluntly replied, “it hasn't been a wake-up call to 52 per cent of Australians.”
“I am wondering instead of quotas...you would be better off starting to actively discriminate against Neanderthal men like the so-called big swinging dicks club that Julie Bishop says
stood on her way,” Ms Grimshaw asked the PM.
“If you clear out the dinosaurs, maybe more women would want to be here.”
The PM responded that he’d “love to see a woman follow me as the member for Cook when I choose to retire from politics.”
"Where have you been?" I wonder if Tracy was tempted to drop in ‘where the bloody hell are ya?’" one user joked.
Another user posted an image of Queen’s Freddy Mercury singing “mama, I just killed a man” and captioned it ‘Tracy Grimshaw on the phone [right now].”
“I feel a KO [knock out] coming,” another person tweeted.
“She was formidable, the women journos in Australia...thank you.”
