Why Grace Tame will never go into politics

There's one question Grace Tame gets asked all the time and her answer is always the same.

For the record, I'm never going into politics.

For the last four years, I've been asked repeatedly, to the point where I've got a T shirt printed that just has no I'm not going into politics written in paint over Parliament House.

I'm not.

Like many younger Australians, She's disillusioned with the two party system, which she says only serves a dwindling minority of wealthy players rather than the general public. But as Australia prepares to head into an election where jen Z and Millennial's outnumber baby boomers for the first time, she thinks it's a chance to move beyond the two party games.

The political system is in the state that it is because it has been corrupted by exorbitant wealth for too long.

That's the major problem. And I don't think it's much deeper than that.

It really is about the money from Schwartz Media.

I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven AM Today, twenty twenty one. Australian of the Year and director of the Grace Tame Foundation. Grace Tame on advocating for change outside of politics and why this election is a chance to fix democracy. It's Thursday May one. Grace, welcome back to seven AM. Thanks for coming on the show.

Thanks for having me.

So I wanted to start by talking about the AFL Grand Final in Perfect twenty twenty one.

Set the scene for me.

Well, the Western Bulldogs were playing Melbourne Demons. Demons haven't been in a Grand Final for since the sixties.

I think Melbourne fans celebrate relax because the drought.

It's over, and we were embracing the day.

I was dressed head to toe in a demon outfit with little horns in my hand.

Had preeding Trent Blue for Reddin Blue.

Years.

There were a lot of WA politicians in the room, including then Governor Kim Beasley, letter of Labor Party in Howard years, and he was telling me that I should go into politics and that to be successful I would.

Need to join one of the major parties.

And whilst the conversation that I had with him was probably about twenty minutes long, and we covered a lot of different topics and he was a very nice man to me and I quite enjoyed talking to him, but I did disagree with him that to make change that you need to be aligned to one of the major parties. I think successive governments have let the people down, especially in recent years, the housing crisis, cost of living crisis.

I think because we have week leadership.

Okay, so Kim Beasley obviously wasn't able to convince you to enter politics, and there is obviously power in advocating for change outside of.

The political system.

Can you tell me a little bit more about how you see your role as an advocate.

I see my role as an advocate is to support those who don't have a voice, and whilst they can't advocate for everyone or for particular communities, I'm an advocate of that community, you know, whether it's the survivors of child sexual abuse that I stand alongside.

Or fellow autistic people.

Advocacy is about awareness raising as well and educating people and encouraging people to do their part because we all have the capacity to be an advocate. I think whether it we're just advocating for ourselves on a day to day basis, or we're advocating for other members of the community.

And you mentioned all the way in which you see the political system failing because our politicians they are by a much not representative of the community as a whole. So how much do you think that impacts the outcomes that we get from them.

Well, politicians are supposed to be representing the people.

They're supposed to be representing their constituents.

But because there's so much power at stake in that machine, and policy and decision makers influence how big businesses are able to operate and how much revenue they're able to make, the big corporations put so much pressure on politicians.

And they give them money. They give them money.

I mean, one of the reasons that we have so much corruption, or that the machine itself is so corruptible, is because politicians.

They need money to run their election campaigns. It's a huge, huge thing. You can make or break your next government in an election, Campaig.

So it's worth it in politicians eyes to spend a lot of money targeting people who otherwise are disengaged or who are sitting on the fence and who are swing voters. And if we didn't have so much disengagement, if we didn't have so much political apathy, it might be less of an incentive for politicians to take big sums of money from the corporations who can afford to donate it. And so really you get political parties who bend in a certain direction because that's where the money is coming from.

And in this particular election, for the first time, gen Zata, millennials will outnumber boomers as the biggest voting block. So talk to me a bit about what you've made of the two major parties' campaigns and the way they've tried to appeal to young people.

Where to start.

The policies themselves, I think don't go far enough to address the problems at hand, whether it's cost of living with the housing crisis, the housing crisis is the result of decades upon decades of both major parties pulling the wrong leaders to really benefit multiple property owners and landlords, you know, wealthy investors and the younger generations who had nothing to do with it. Not only coughying it, but

Be dragging our heels on those things.

We get a huge revenue injection if we started by actually applying the resource rent tax and seeing these fossil fuel blooders actually.

Pay their fair share of tax. Because that's not happening.

We're not doing that because there are benefits in the short term of maintaining the status quo, and the young people do actually understand it. I think we're not given as much credit for understanding it. We're sick of being told that, you know, if we just have you know, less avocado on toast and less lat's, we will be able to save up. It's just actually mathematically correct. The median house price is twelve the median salary where it used to be about four.

Or five times, and you don't have to be a.

Mathematician to understand that the cost of not only housing but the cost of living has gone up way out of proportion to wages.

After the break where Grace Team finds hope in politics.

Hi, I'm Daniel James. Seven Am tells stories that need to be told. Our journalism is founded on trust and independence, and now we're increasing our coverage. Every Saturday until the election. Will bring you an extra episode to break down the biggest political moments of the week. If you enjoy seven Am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at seven am podcast dot com dot au slash support. Thanks for listening and supporting our work's prime minister.

For coming to the pub. I'm one ahead of you, but I usually am with me guests, so a little bit of catching up to there.

There's no pressure.

Although this is a zero alcohol beer, so.

You are on the zero, which is fine. That's becoming more socially accepted. It is in Australia, Grace.

When you look at this election campaign, what have you made of the way in which the major parties have attempted to connect with younger voters.

Oh, incredibly patronizing.

Well, mister speaker, they are delulu with no sololu, mister speak at they are completely delusion.

You know, well, I think that obviously social media has taken on a different role and everyone gets access to each other on social media, including politicians, and there is a need to keep up with the times.

However, you know, releasing disc tracks, this.

Election campaign has officially kicked off into the next level.

The Liberal Party have released a di track. We're going to listen to it together.

You need the way it is supposed to be.

The money was spending on groceries. I just want to buy some eggs and cheese one hundred bucks. You can't emend doing softball interviews. We're just talking cricket in here, Prime Minister.

Yeah, yeah, what do you think of the Ashes campaign?

That these ladies had absolutely awesome to win the four bit three, three.

And one, knowing that there's a lot of benefit in just reaching people without having to communicate information or really be strong in your messaging, and I think that's disappointing.

Bring them prices down. This is what we need because our bow's gotta leave olbos, got to leave brings.

I mean, we know that historically low numbers of people now vote for the major parties, not just young people, you know, people in general. And I think both lay About and the Coalition had their lowest ever primary votes at the previous election. So if that trend does continue, I mean, how do you look at what that might mean for political outcomes.

I think that's a good thing because I think that if we're able to restructure the governments such that we've got more independence, a better mixture of political representatives that reflect the mixture of values and priorities in our many and diverse communities, that represent society as a whole, and they're able to hold the major parties to account, and hopefully we would get less influence from vested interests who don't have the best interest of the public at heart,

Growing their profits.

Because Robin Williams, who said that you know, people who are running for office should really have all of their donors on their clothing, like a NASCAR driver, you know, or like.

A VA supercar driver.

Like that's the major problem. And I don't think it's I don't think it's much deeper than that. It really is about the money. There's a reason why that both the major parties came together to past legislation that would limit the amount of donations that independence could receive, because they know that it's a threat having more diversity and more independence. They don't have as big as stronghold on the political system.

And we've spoken a little about how the political class isn't representative of broader Australia. Do you have thoughts on what it would take, how the political process might need to change for there to be a more representative cohort of Australians who might feel like they could or should run for office. I mean someone like you, for example, What would it take to make that something that would be actually appealing.

You can do anything. You can force me to do it. I've been exploited enough in my life and that's not a joke. I need to do it.

I mean, I feel like perhaps I already know the answer to this question, but do you have any optimism that the political system can change, that it can become more representative of Australia and therefore I suppose provide better outcomes for people.

Yes, I think that you have to be hopeful and there is hope in a minority government that has representatives from many in diverse backgrounds who can stand up for all of the different issues that are affecting the every day Australian.

Grace.

Thank you so much for your time, Thanks for having me. Also in the news today, economists are predicting the Reserve Bank will cut interest rates when it meets this month, following the latest inflation figures. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows headline inflation has remained steady, but the RBA's preferred measure of consumer prices has fallen within the