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Why Grace Tame should be allowed to speak at Melbourne Writers Festival

She has said things that are deeply offensive and morally incoherent. Let's make sure this is the story, not that the Jewish community tried to cancel her.
Nomi Kaltmann
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Grace Tame

Grace Tame speaks during a protest against the visit of Israel’s President Isaac Herzog in Sydney (Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

Published: 25 March 2026

Last updated: 25 March 2026

I used to admire Grace Tame. When she burst into public life in 2021 as Australian of the Year, I remember being so impressed by her, a fellow Australian woman around my age, fearlessly advocating for the victims of child sex abuse. She was badass and I loved her for it.

Then, when I saw her chant "from Gadigal to Gaza, globalise the intifada" at the protest against President Herzog’s visit, and then heard her describe the sexual violence perpetrated against Israeli women on October 7 as "debunked propaganda,” my admiration for her cooled right off.

And still, even though I am deeply disappointed with Grace Tame, I do not think she should be uninvited from the Melbourne Writers Festival.

Last week, Jewish community leaders voiced concerns about Tame’s appearance at the festival in May over the comments I referred to. Dvir Abramovich, head of the Anti-Defamation Commission, said letting her speak at the festival would be “a profound moral failure”. Jeremy Leibler, head of the Zionist Federation of Australia, said “it was a major concern to give a platform to Ms Tame in light of her recent commentary.”

Here is a hard truth: the moment people within the Jewish community start a campaign to get Grace Tame removed from Melbourne Writers Festival, the Jewish community will immediately lose the argument about what she actually said and why it was wrong.

Uninviting will not silence her

Uninviting Grace Tame will not silence her, it will make her a martyr. Her supporters will get a gift-wrapped narrative about censorship and a “powerful lobby” silencing dissent, and most Australians, who are only going to be reading the headlines, will take that framing uncritically at face value.

"Jewish groups push to cancel Grace Tame" is a significantly worse story for the Jewish community than "Grace Tame's October 7 comments draw widespread criticism".

Grace Tame built her public platform on the idea that powerful institutions protect themselves at the expense of victims. That is the story she has told about herself for years, and it has resonated with a lot of Australians. If Jewish community leaders campaign to have her removed, they will confirm the story she has always told.

She becomes the victim again, and the Jewish community will be seen as a powerful oppressor closing ranks to work against her. Whether or not that characterisation is fair, it is utterly predictable, and it is a trap that should be avoided.

Her supporters will get a gift-wrapped narrative about a 'powerful lobby' silencing dissent. Most Australians will take that at face value.

In addition, every time the Jewish community is seen to be pushing for someone's removal, enormous energy is spent on the campaign itself, and too little energy is spent on the actual substance of what was said and why it was beyond the pale. The weeks that follow any proposed cancellation become about who made what call, and when and whether the festival handled it properly.

Tame’s original comments, including the moral incoherence of a child sexual abuse advocate dismissing the sexual abuse of Jewish women, will get buried under all of the ensuing brouhaha. This is a terrible trade-off.

There is also a longer game here. If we normalise the idea that sufficient community pressure can result in a speaker being removed, that principle will not only be used against people the Jewish community opposes, but inevitably, it will be used against Jewish speakers, Israeli voices, Zionist advocates and community leaders.

All of them will be vulnerable to the same type of pressure that results in cancellation. Once you let that genie out of the bottle, you do not get to decide how it is subsequently used.

Writers will be forced to take sides

And think about every other writer currently on the Melbourne Writers Festival program. Many of them have no strong views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But if a campaign is launched to cancel Grace Tame, along the lines of what happened at the cancelled Adelaide Writers Festival, every writer on the festival’s program will be forced to publicly take sides, threatened with consequences to their careers if they don't comply. Most will take the path of least resistance, and they will publicly back Grace Tame, in spite of her odious comments.

In case it’s not clear, I think that in light of her recent comments, it is deeply regrettable that Melbourne Writers Festival invited Grace Tame to speak. However, as the invitation was almost certainly issued before these comments were made, the criticisms now being voiced were not an issue at the time she was invited. While it is certainly legitimate to criticise her now as a public figure, I do not think that demanding her invitation be cancelled is the right move.

I want her to be asked how a woman who demands that the world believe her is now telling the world not to believe Israeli women.

Finally, I think about what we as a community might actually want from a moment like this. Instead of opting for the gut reaction of cancelling, I want Australians, including people who admire Grace Tame, to reckon with what she has said and how Australian Jews perceive her calls to globalise the intifada as a call for violence against us, right here in Australia.

I want Australians to think about the contradiction of a sex abuse advocate dismissing the sexual assaults of Israeli women on October 7. I want her to be asked, in a public forum, how a woman who has demanded that the world believe her and all other victims is now telling the world not to believe Israeli women.

This type of conversation can happen at a writer’s festival, but it certainly won’t happen if Grace Tame is not there. Bad ideas look most powerful when they're protected, and they look weakest when they are examined in a public forum, where there is a chance to host an actual debate.

Grace Tame has said things that are deeply offensive and morally incoherent. Let's make sure this is the story, not that the Jewish community tried to cancel her.

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About the author

Nomi Kaltmann

Nomi Kaltmann

Nomi Kaltmann is an Australian lawyer and journalist. Her writing has appeared in major Australian and international publications including Crikey, Griffith Review, Mamamia, Tablet Magazine, The Australian Financial Review, The Daily Beast, The Forward, The Guardian, The Jewish Telegraphic Agency and The Spectator. She regularly appears on radio and podcasts to discuss Australia’s Jewish community, including NPR (USA), CBC (Canada), LBC (London), Call Me Back, Unholy: Two Jews on the News, SBS and The Times of Israel. An influential Orthodox feminist leader and founding president of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA Australia), she is a sought-after speaker on religion, interfaith and contemporary Jewish life.

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