Political journalist and commentator Peter van Onselen has conceded his column criticising Grace Tame for being “rude” to the prime minister “probably” didn’t need to be written.
In a podcast interview, Van Onselen said he didn’t resile from his view but said expressing his disapproval of the outgoing Australian of the Year’s actions made him the story and “as bad as Grace Tame”.
Last week photos and video of Tame, an advocate for survivors of sexual assault, went viral after her frosty arrival at a function at the Lodge. She refused to smile alongside Scott Morrison during a staged photo-op.
Van Onselen wrote in the Australian newspaper that Tame had been “ungracious, rude and childish” suggesting if her disdain for Morrison was such that she “can’t even muster basic and common courtesy, then just don’t go”.
Guardian Australia’s Amy Remeikis and Van Onselen’s co-host Carrie Bickmore confronted him about the column on The Project.
Van Onselen has told the Critical Line Item podcast that he did not resile from his view of Tame’s behaviour because: “I do think it was rude, I do think it was impolite, [and] unnecessary.”
Van Onselen claimed the “silent majority” of people agreed with him but the “loudest people don’t”.
“They didn’t change my mind. I’m still very firm, personally, of the view that [Tame’s actions were] uncalled for … and inappropriate and she shouldn’t have done it,” he said.
“However, on reflection, I also think it was also probably unnecessary for me to bother to write the opinion piece – I can just think it.”
Van Onselen insisted that he did not regret the column because of blowback.
“Seeing how strongly people feel about it doesn’t change my view, but it probably has changed my view on whether it needed to be written.
“What’s the point in saying it? In a sense me, on my side of the ledger, deciding to write about it, became me being – people won’t like this – as bad as Grace Tame choosing to act the way she acted, which I’m critical of.”
Remeikis had said the column was “devastating to so many people”. “Women constantly have to come out and talk about their trauma, talk about their position, talk about not being taken seriously … we’re constantly being told how we should act, who we should think about and who perhaps should be seen in our place,” she said.
Bickmore also criticised Van Onselen for writing Tame acted “as a child”, noting that Tame had been unable to be a child as a teenager when she “was preyed upon by a man and lost part of herself in that”.
Van Onselen said the incident demonstrated the “problem” of the “blurred line” between being a journalist and commentator.
Van Onselen then defended comments he made on Insiders in March 2021 that “on the macro level” he was pleased women were coming forward to complain of sexual abuse to get justice but “at the micro level … if it’s someone you know and they claim they’re innocent, boy, it’s a difficult issue”.
#AnnabelCrabb @annabelcrabb @vanOnselenP
— Mia Kennedy (@Mia__Kennedy) March 6, 2021
What Peter van Onselen's final observation renders Annabel Crabb utterly speechless with disgust. #insiders pic.twitter.com/3iZhyhXOOR
Van Onselen told the podcast his comments were an “outright truism” but accepted the “wording and timing” could have been better.
“Yes, on reflection that’s something I could have done differently,” he said.
Van Onselen then paraphrased himself that while on the “big-picture level people want improvements” on gender issues “but it’s an obvious truism at a personal level, ie the micro” that it’s difficult if a friend says they didn’t do something they are accused of. “That’s just a truism.”
