This is such a small book but it packs a punch. Tracing the political floundering that was evident from the Prime Minister’s initial response to Brittany Higgins’ allegation (I hate that word but … Australian defamation law, etc) that she was raped in Parliament House to the dismal response to those made against a senior minister of government, the rage is evident – and justified.
Sometimes you read a book that says many of the things you want to say, only better. This is one of them. I tried really hard to minimise the amount of quotes I wanted to include here but, as you’ll see, I failed miserably.
I present to you the sentences I couldn’t leave behind:
Lines were drawn between those who lived in the before time, and those who knew what the after felt like.
Staying quiet can save your life, but eventually, all that quiet begins to scream.
Your body can’t forget trauma. It holds the sights and the scents and the sounds deep in your tissue.
We all know someone who has been sexually assaulted, or know of someone who has been, but we never seem to know the perpetrators. And yet, that’s statistically impossible. Someone is carrying out these assaults; someone is creating this trauma.
There is every chance that someone in your everyday life is someone else’s monster.
Anger can be destructive, but it can also be transformative. Used well, it can bring about a necessary clarity, stripping back all the frosting to what lies rotten underneath.
Flight, fight, freeze and fawn, and everything in between, are completely legitimate responses to fear, and if you are having a fear response, you’re in an unsafe situation.
In 2020, the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research reported that about 15,000 women came forward to report a sexual assault. Only 2 per cent – or about 300 – of those cases led to a guilty verdict in court.
And those were the ones that made it to court.
Commissioner Fuller himself reported that only about 10 per cent of the sexual assault allegations taken to NSW officers led to charges being laid. Of that 10 per cent taken to court, only 10 per cent would lead to a conviction.
Not everyone can tell their story. And no-one has to. After everything else has been ripped away from you, your story is your own. Telling, not telling – none of it makes you any less brave, less worthy. Just putting one step in front of the other after all you’ve been through is more than enough. Your story belongs to no-one but you, and you don’t owe it to anyone to share.
There’s no right way to do any of this. Remember that, and do what it is that works for you.
Reckonings don’t come for free. It’s always been broken people, patched back together, who pay. And pay they do, to try to make sure those coming after them will never know what it costs.
I only wish this book was longer.
Content warnings include domestic and family abuse, miscarriage and sexual assault.
Once Upon a Blurb
On Reckoning tells of the moment when the personal became very political, when rape became the national conversation.
What happens when the usual political tactics of deflect and dodge are no longer enough?
A reckoning.
The Guardian’s political reporter Amy Remeikis has spoken before about being a survivor of sexual assault, but Brittany Higgins going public with her story ripped the curtain back not just on political attempts to deal with real-world issues, but also how unsafe women can be, even inside the most protected building in the country.
Amy didn’t expect to see political leaders fumble the moment so completely. And what followed was people taking back the conversation from the politicians.
On Reckoning is a searing account of Amy’s personal and professional rage, taking you inside the parliament – and out – during one of the most confronting and uncomfortable conversations in recent memory.
Schizanthus Nerd 