Ita Buttrose threatens to protest lockdown laws
Ita Buttrose, the 79-year-old ABC chair and media personality who was the editor of the Women’s Weekly for five years, made her feelings known during a keynote speech at the Australian HR Institute's Public Sector Conference via video link.
“In Sydney we are told the current lockdown might continue until December," said Buttrose. "That would be utterly unbearable; I think I would have to protest.”
Buttrose said she’s only felt compelled to protest once before, when she marched on Parliament House in Canberra in 2011.
It was only a few weeks ago when thousands of Sydney residents gathered for an anti-lockdown protest and similar protests were held in Victoria and Queensland.
In her 45-minute speech, Buttrose elaborated on how she was concerned her civil rights had all but ceased during the pandemic.
“And I know we have to all band together to beat COVID and we know that it's a killer of a disease and we're not vaccinated well enough,” she said.
'We all know the problems and we all know we have to get through this. And we will get through it, but it's not going to be easy.”
Concerned in previous lockdown as well
Buttrose expressed concerns during Sydney's first lockdown early last year, when the whole country was shut down.
She revealed on Studio 10 last October that she’d some “dark moments” and at one point, found herself bursting into tears.
“I think it was just, it was just the impact of this odd world we were living in. But then you sort of think, ‘pull yourself together, Ita’,” she added.
She said daily exercise helped clear her mind and kept her “grounded.” She said her dog Cleo - named after the magazine she famously edited in the 1970's - kept her in great company.
After her speech at the Public Sector Conference last week, the ABC issued a statement on her behalf.
“In that speech I spoke about the very serious issues we face due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the statement read.
“I also made some light-hearted remarks to lighten the mood.
“They were delivered with a smile and were received by the audience with the humour they were intended.”
Ita Buttrose is well-known for her career in the media. Sh left school when she was 15 years old in 1957 to become a copy girl at the Australian Women's Weekly
magazine.
She then became a reporter and later, the woman's editor for the Daily Telegraph.
Later, she founded the women’s magazine, Cleo, and then became the youngest ever editor of Woman's Weekly when she was 33 in 1975.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison appointed her as chair of the ABC last year.
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