You can't always get what you want.
But if you try sometimes you'll find you get what you need.
I've been trying to get what I want for a very very long time. What I want is a better world for the women and girls from my community.
I remember sitting in my year 7 classroom as my teacher Ms. Moore gave us girls an absolutely amazing sex ed class. I get the feeling many kids did not get the kind of sex ed that we got. There were weeks and weeks of great information, teaching us about respectful relationships and how to make sure that we were in control of our own lives and destinies.
But as I had this great experience, I looked out the window and noticed that the boys were outside playing basketball. "How is that fair?" I thought? Why were the girls the ones sitting in the classroom for hours and hours learning to take responsibility for their entire world, and the boys were outside playing basketball without any care in the world? I grew up in Adelaide's northern suburbs and so I had no doubt in my mind already the consequence of an unwanted pregnancy for a girl from my school. A lifetime of poverty. And yet, the boys were playing basketball.
That day, I decided to get into politics. I wanted to make the world better for women and kids from my community.
I was quite good at it. I've never ever lost an election. I've helped a lot of people get elected.
But when I wanted to run for the President of my student union, the boys told me I couldn't use their photocopier. I ran anyway, and I won. The following year I doubled the number of people we got elected. But I never got a job in politics after graduation.
"And I went down to the demonstration
To get my fair share of abuse
Singing, "We're gonna vent our frustration
If we don't we're gonna blow a fifty-amp fuse"
Sing it to me, honey"
After uni I decided to go into the public service. I got interested in a number of issues including queer law reform, abortion, the legalisation of sex work, domestic violence, homelessness, support for single parents, ATSI land rights and more. I knew that so much of this work tied back to the work that I was trying to do to improve the world for women and kids in my community.
One time, I told a boy that I thought that we needed to legalise marriage equality. He told me that would never happen. But, we got to work and when the ALP changed it's policy platform I was there in Sydney watching as thousands and thousands of protestors streamed into Darling Harbour.
Once the protests were over and we had achieved marriage equality, the boys were no where to be found. They must have been too busy supporting their MP's to come back and help me.
"I went down to the Chelsea drugstore
To get your prescription filled
I was standing in line with Mr. Jimmy
And, man, did he look pretty ill
We decided that we would have a soda
My favorite flavor, cherry red
I sung my song to Mr. Jimmy
Yeah, and he said one word to me, and that was "dead"
It doesn't surprise me that there are kids dying in my community. I knew the consequences for women and kids from my community when I was 12. That's why I got into politics in the first place. I tried to tell everyone. I tried to get elected. I tried to get into politics. I tried activism. I tried public service.
And now I'm trying again.
"I saw her today at the reception
In her glass was a bleeding man
She was practiced at the art of deception
Well, I could tell by her blood-stained hands, sing it"
This time, I'm using a different playbook. I don't want to use the leadership tools of men. They haven't gotten me where what I want yet.
I'm going to use the leadership tools of women. The ones that have helped us to achieve amazing and radical change here in South Australia again and again and again. I tried what I thought I was supposed to do and I didn't get what I wanted- a better world for women and girls from my community.
But if I try sometimes I'll find I'll get what I need. A better world.
"You can't always get what you want, yeah
You can't always get what you want, ooh yeah, child
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you just might find
You just might find
You get what you need, ah yeah
Ah baby, woo!"
