Her term as Australian of the Year over, Grace Tame can now turn her considerable focus and attention to improving the nation.
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Anyone relieved by the end of the 27-year-old's time in the largely ceremonial position has been put on notice.
"Most of my advocacy is just lighting fires up arses," Ms Tame said at the launch of her new memoir in Sydney on Tuesday night.
"Our overarching goal is a future free of sexual abuse of children and others ... we want to drive education and legal reform, which we're doing," she said.
The proud Tasmanian wants an end to the inconsistencies of state-based sexual assault laws, which benefit perpetrators who hop to different jurisdictions.
"Between eight jurisdictions we have pretty vast discrepancies ... we have two different ages of consent," Ms Tame said as an example.
In some states it's 16, in most others 17, and while Ms Tame does not advocate for one or the other, she says the age needs to be consistent, whatever it is.
Another ongoing battle is pushing for improvements in the wording of legislation in some jurisdictions.
She wants references to "maintaining a relationship" in laws changed to a more accurate description of "persistent child sexual abuse".
Things like Queensland's legislative references to "carnal knowledge" are also in need of an update, with the definition of intercourse itself inconsistently defined across jurisdictions, Ms Tame said.
She was buoyed by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus recently announcing Australia would undertake a national review of sexual assault and child abuse laws with the intention of harmonising legislation across jurisdictions.
"We want it to look like we take it seriously as a nation," she said.
The ACT enacted amendments to legislation along the lines of Ms Tame's pursued reforms last month.
The reforms make up part of the work being pursued by The Grace Tame Foundation, a beneficiary of some of the proceeds from the launch of Ms Tame's new memoir The Ninth Life of a Diamond Miner at Sydney's City Recital Hall on Tuesday.
The book's slightly esoteric name is explained in the opening pages and stems from a chance encounter Ms Tame had while travelling in 2014 with a man who spent one of his seemingly many lives as a diamond miner.
Her alternative title, "Diamond Miners and Rock Spiders", was rejected by her editor, she said.
Ms Tame's focus on law reform will be no surprise for the sizeable cohort of Australians familiar with her.
She was silenced for eight years by a Tasmanian law that prevented sexual assault survivors telling their own stories and led a campaign to have it overturned, which led to her being named Australian of the Year in 2021.
Australian Associated Press
