Keen to become PM, Hannah Ferguson might just have the cheek to get there

HF: No. On the day of the rally, I get up to speak and right in front of me is a microphone from Channel Seven, who have just funded the lifestyle of someone who [in the civil courts is found to be] a rapist! And so I think it’s just outrageous to have Seven – that’s been helping, supplying, funding, and reimbursing someone who has committed an act of sexual violence against a woman – to then turn up for this rally and want victims and survivors to put their trauma on display for their nightly news because suddenly, our trauma is newsworthy.

Fitz: Because of my own involvement on the borders of that minefield, you will understand if I move on, without comment. You also had a go at politicians, that they don’t even understand what needs to be done?

HF: Yes. And we can see that even today. Obviously, Anthony Albanese has just come out and announced this huge plan to put a billion dollars towards combatting domestic violence. But even in the speech, he is so hesitant to name the problem. He says multiple times “violence against women”. He also states that it’s a time for the “unification of the nation” and that this is an entire societal issue to be fixed. But that places equal accountability on all of society, which is just not the reality: this is a men’s issue, not a women’s issue, and failing to name the problem is the initial issue itself. So how can we have institutional, societal and cultural change, when the leader of our nation, the person making key decisions that could and should be the change maker for future generations, cannot even say “men’s violence” is the problem?

Fitz: Does Peter Dutton say anything good, do you think?

HF: I think Peter Dutton is worse. And so that leaves us in a tough spot when you’ve got a prime minister who’s turning up to a rally in Canberra, and is really making a political statement, and not really addressing the organisers or the crowd appropriately. But the alternative, Peter Dutton, didn’t turn up at all. So it’s really just a set of two shit options, frankly, and I think that it really establishes the fact that in this country, we’ve still got male leaders who have no idea what is being asked of them.

Fitz: Who are the women leaders who stand out for you, who speak your truth on this issue?

HF: I think [Greens senator] Sarah Hanson-Young and [Environment Minister] Tanya Plibersek are fantastic. But I think Tanya has been silenced by the Labor Party into the role of environment minister, which makes her much weaker in terms of her position currently. I would like to see her come out harder as she has previously in opposition. I know there’s capacity there that Labor are stifling.

Fitz: As to men, in your view, is it we white entitled Australian males who are the biggest problem or just Australian males generally?

HF: I think that it’s predominantly, disproportionately, white Australian males in heterosexual relationships who are the biggest problem.

Fitz: Because we’re the most entitled ones?

HF: I think that you have the most power in society and have the most entitlement, right?

Fitz: So what can we do? What can we straight, white males who are reading this, and listening to you, what can we do to make Australia safer and better along the lines you say?

HF: The missing piece here is that men need to understand that, most often, what’s being asked of them is to consider what they’re doing when no women are around to gratify them for their behaviours. So, when you’re in a locker room with your friends, what are you saying? What behaviour and language from other men are you tolerating when no women are around? And when you’re having a conversation with your mate who might be going through something mental health-wise, how are you helping? How are you helping yourself to improve your own emotional intelligence and mental health? I think the focus really needs to come back to how men treat themselves and other men and what they allow in their social circles when it comes to talking about women. Is your relationship healthy? Are you supporting your partner through things like domestic labour and the mental load? Violence is a pipeline, but it starts with how we show up as equals in every relationship and what behaviour we choose to remain silent on or call out.

Fitz: OK, tell me your own journey? In an interview with Mark Bouris you said you have wanted to be prime minister since you were 10 years old?

HF: Yes, I went on a school excursion with Ingleburn North Public School to Canberra, and Mum and Dad asked what was the best part? And I just said, “The Australian Electoral Commission!” And they were like, “not even the House of Reps?” But I didn’t like the politicians. They were yelling in question time, and I really didn’t like that. But at the Electoral Commission, they showed me a Senate ballot, and we ran through how preferential voting works. And I understood that everyone had an equal vote, I understood how it functioned. And I thought, ‘I want to be part of this because this is a system of democracy.’ As a thought that was so powerful to me – it wasn’t actually about the politicians, it was about the process.

Fitz: And at what point did you realise that, for Australian women, all is not equal?

HF: Oddly, it was not during the Julia Gillard years because I grew up in quite a conservative Liberal Party-voting household, and I was kind of adopting my parents’ views and not really thinking freely for myself yet. So it was probably when I was 16 to 18 that I was watching politics and thinking there’s not even a woman who’s close to leadership in this country. I was also beginning to understand the huge prevalence of sexual violence because of what I was seeing on campus against the little that was actually being reported.

Fitz: And leading into the 2022 federal election, you found your voice, and your platform?

HF: Yes, by then I was working as an industrial officer for the Electrical Trades Union for the Northern Territory and Queensland, and I started posting critiques on Instagram about Scott Morrison – through his absence in the bushfires, the March for Justice and him saying the protesters were lucky not to be met with bullets – and people who don’t normally engage with politics started following me. At one point, I put on 10,000 followers in a week, as they could just see that at every turn this man was not capable of empathising with the Australian public or understanding what was being asked of him. His religious views permeated every aspect of his politics, and Australia is far beyond that. There was just incident after incident and especially on the campaign trail that proved he just didn’t know how to engage with us, whether it be trying to wash a woman’s hair or making so many obvious blunders. They reflected a man who was out of touch with women.

Fitz: And so, your case is that your following on Instagram exploded because the rage that Australian women, particularly, were feeling was not being reflected in the mainstream media?

HF: Yes, and that led to me establishing my own media platform on Instagram, Cheek Media. And I think what I’m trying to do every single day, to achieve change, is to balance the distressing material with humour – not melding them but offer a space that takes the views and issues of young women seriously, but also be funny, and be something that people can engage with, like having a very funny meme sitting alongside a serious opinion piece. I wanted to deliver the kind of content and writing and delivery on social media that I wished I had when I was 15 or 16, and was starting to engage with this stuff. I wanted to be the thing I needed as a young person. But while people have this firm idea that Cheek Media is really for young people, the average age of a Cheek follower is 37.

Fitz: You want to change the way media works in this country?

HF: Yes. I honestly think one of the first things needed is media literacy. I am so sick to death of people getting all of their news from one Facebook link or one space and not talking about it in a respectful way. I feel like people are just feeding off other people in their social spheres and their algorithms. But I really want the tangible change to be that we have more healthy, respectful conversations about political and social issues. It’s the headlines, misinformation and disinformation that’s causing the damage because people in this country believe that every political issue has two sides; it’s yes or no; win or loss; red or blue. There’s just no space for morals [or] ethics in conversation that’s healthy any more, and the comment sections indicate that because they are all so hateful. We’re failing to engage with long-form quality journalism, and we have no public intellectuals anymore. We’re getting everything from these tiny screens that want to keep our attention for just 10 seconds. We’re engaging with these really siloed forms of media that are inflammatory. We’ve lost the ability to talk to each other with respect.

Fitz: If I may say, you’re obviously moving fast and going well. Is entering politics still on your agenda?

HF: I have had multiple conversations with different people associated with different political parties. And it’s hard because I can’t be the prime minister unless I engage with the two-party system. But I refuse to engage with the Labor Party or the Liberal Party right now. And I don’t think they’d want to engage with me frankly. It’s hard because I genuinely now understand that I’m most powerful talking to people directly without being muzzled by a party. So right now, the only way I see myself actually entering politics is if I were to become an independent, or start my own party.

Fitz: Might there be a place for a women’s party in Australia with the platform of “We’ve had this shit for too long, we’re going to push women’s issues, and we’re going to hold the balance of power, and then you bastards will listen to us”? Is there scope for that?

HF: Yeah, absolutely. I’m actually surprised that hasn’t happened yet. I feel it’s dependent on the outcome of the next federal election as to how many teals maintain and retain their seats and how many more teals win seats. So I think that if those numbers continue to grow, I think there’s absolutely a chance of forming a party for Australian women. But right now, I’m still 25, and it would feel like I’m jumping the gun.

Fitz: Under the circumstances, nice of you to talk to someone like me from legacy media.

HF: [Laughing.] I have expected that every person who works for legacy media that I’ve engaged with will just completely hate what I’m doing. And the response from most people in these spaces has been so kind and so helpful and so supportive. And that shocked me more than anything ...

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