In the scorched wasteland of Australian activism—where hashtags substitute for thought and ideological purity trumps moral clarity—two names loom increasingly large. Josh Lees, the self-anointed General Secretary of the Rage-Industrial Complex, and Grace Tame, the once-golden symbol of institutional reckoning who now spends her days publicly repenting for the sin of being born in a liberal democracy.
Both have found themselves—deliberately or not—at the front lines of the Palestine Action Group. Both are now leading voices in a protest movement that is less about peace and more about punishment—less about justice for Palestinians, and more about vengeance against Australia, Israel, the West, and anyone who dares ask inconvenient questions.
But to understand how we arrived here, we need to step back—not just to the protests, but to the people.
I. Josh Lees: From Union Megaphone to Global Martyr Complex
Josh Lees didn’t enter the national spotlight from nowhere. Before he was leading chants at “Shut It Down” rallies and draping himself in keffiyehs, he was deeply embedded in socialist and unionist activism, particularly with the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU). A student organiser turned full-time protest technician, Lees’s early career was steeped in anti-corporate rhetoric, climate justice demands, and institutional critiques of the university sector.
In other words, a very 2010s resume.
To many, Lees was just another left-wing campus firebrand—well-versed in protest choreography, fluent in revolutionary hashtags, and always ready to denounce capitalism between soy lattes. But in recent years, his focus shifted dramatically. The union pamphlets gave way to Palestine Action press releases. The megaphone once aimed at wage theft is now permanently fixed toward Israel, ASIO, and the Australian government.
His politics? Straightforward: Australia is a settler-colonial state. Israel is an apartheid regime. Every institution in the West is part of a genocidal superstructure. Resistance is non-negotiable.
The result? Lees is no longer just a unionist—he’s a soldier in a global decolonisation war. And anyone not marching to that beat is, at best, a coward. At worst? A war criminal.
His language is absolutist. His targets are predictably Western. And like many activists of his era, his silence is louder than his slogans—deafening on Hamas, muted on theocratic terror, almost polite on child brides and gay executions. These are footnotes. The real enemy is you. Your taxes. Your lifestyle. Your silence. Your Australian passport.
But at the same time, Lees benefits from all the privileges of the country he denounces. He speaks freely, assembles publicly, is rarely arrested, and lives without fear of extrajudicial execution. All while condemning the very institutions that afford him that freedom.
Welcome to the paradox of modern activism.
II. Grace Tame: From Survivor to Soldier of the Culture Wars
If Josh Lees is the architect of protest strategy, Grace Tame is its face—or rather, its scowl. Her story is well known. A survivor of sexual abuse by a teacher in Tasmania, Tame courageously broke through the nation’s silence on grooming, systemic failure, and the legal structures that prevented victims from speaking. She won Australian of the Year in 2021. Her glare at Scott Morrison became a meme. Her speeches rattled Canberra. And for a time, it felt like real change was coming.
But then came the pivot.
In the months following her national award, Tame’s brand hardened. The survivor narrative remained, but now it came cloaked in ever-expanding ideological rage. She began amplifying causes outside her original domain—climate, colonisation, Gaza. Her criticism of Morrison and the Liberal Party extended naturally into criticisms of the entire Australian system. Her disdain for mainstream politics quickly bled into disdain for the nation itself.
There was no transition speech. No defining event. Just a slow and unmistakable shift—from activist for justice to activist against Australia.
And that’s how Tame found herself orbiting the Palestine Action Group.
She began reposting their messaging. Appearing at events. Joining hands with activists whose idea of liberation includes the destruction of Israel and the punishment of Australia for its foreign policy. She began referring to “colonial violence” in the context of Gaza—but never seemed particularly interested in the violence within the movement itself.
This is a woman who was once the fiercest voice against the silencing of rape victims—now effectively partnering with a movement that routinely downplays, denies, or justifies rape as a tactic of resistance.
No op-eds about the systemic rape of Israeli women during the October 7 attacks.
No press releases about Hamas’s medieval gender policies.
No tweets about honour killings in Gaza.
Because those victims don’t fit the narrative.
Because the real target is always the same: us.
III. The Palestine Action Theatre: Selective Rage, Western Stage
Let’s be clear: legitimate criticism of Israel exists. Real suffering occurs in Gaza. Innocent lives are lost. Condemning those truths is not the problem.
The problem is what Josh Lees and Grace Tame choose to exclude.
Their movement obsesses over power, colonialism, and state violence—but only when the villain wears Western boots. Their rhetoric deconstructs Australian policy down to the bone, but leaves untouched the bones of child martyrs used as human shields.
Their protests scream “free Palestine”—but not “free Palestinian women.”
They chant “resistance”—but not “reform.”
They demand “liberation”—but only if it comes without liberalism.
It is an ideology of omission.
Grace Tame knows exactly how to spotlight institutional abuse—unless that institution is a mosque enforcing child marriage.
Josh Lees can sniff out injustice in a university HR department—but not in Hamas’s bloody rule over Gaza.
Because acknowledging that reality complicates the brand.
And in 2026, activism is nothing if not a brand.
IV. Anti-Australia by Association
Perhaps the most insidious part of this dynamic is how the “Free Palestine” movement in Australia has become a vehicle for broader anti-Australian sentiment. Protest signs no longer read simply “End the Occupation.” Now they read:
- “Australia is a genocidal state.”
- “No pride in genocide.”
- “Down with settler colonialism.”
- “Abolish the police, ASIO, borders.”
Josh Lees doesn’t just want justice for Palestinians—he wants a full ideological overhaul of Australia itself. A dismantling of institutions, values, and sovereignty. Grace Tame doesn’t just oppose injustice—she increasingly paints Australia as the incubator of it.
Both have become part of a movement that increasingly sees Australian liberal democracy as morally equivalent—or worse—than Islamist theocracy.
And this is the real danger: when the activist class begins equating freedom with fascism, and tyranny with resistance, they enable a slow erosion of the very principles that protect them.
V. The Great Moral Inversion
Here’s the central irony: Grace Tame was once the face of the fight against institutional grooming.
Now she lends her voice to a movement that rationalises it.
Josh Lees cut his teeth fighting for workers’ rights.
Now he’s silent on regimes that enslave their people in the name of God.
The “Free Palestine” movement they support refuses to condemn child soldiers. It refuses to acknowledge Hamas’s violent misogyny. It doesn’t mourn Israeli children because it doesn’t believe they are victims. It frames every act of terror as “resistance” and every effort to stop it as “colonial violence.”
And when that’s your framework, moral clarity is impossible.
You end up in the same movement as literal Holocaust deniers.
You march beside men who openly call for jihad.
You repost slogans written by people who would hang you in the town square.
VI. Would They Survive Their Own Revolution?
Let’s perform a little thought experiment:
- If Grace Tame held a “Me Too” rally in Gaza, how long would she last?
- If Josh Lees tried to unionise workers under Hamas, what would happen to him?
- If either of them publicly criticised Palestinian leadership in Ramallah, how long before they were imprisoned?
The answer is obvious.
Because the ideologies they flirt with would never allow them the freedoms they weaponise in Australia.
They are activists playing with fire, drenched in the gasoline of irony.
VII. Media Complicity and the Instagram Effect
What makes all this possible is a culture of media indulgence.
Public broadcasters still treat Grace Tame as a moral oracle.
Left-leaning newspapers call Josh Lees “brave.”
Journalists regurgitate their slogans without critique.
No one asks: Why are you silent on Hamas?
No one demands: Do you condemn the rape of Israeli women?
No one presses: Why does your movement excuse child marriage?
Because to ask those questions is to be accused of racism, Islamophobia, or worse: Liberalism.
And so the narrative survives. The hypocrisy deepens. The hashtags flow. The Instagram photos keep coming—snapshots of Western privilege masquerading as revolution.
VIII. “Decolonisation” as Death Cult
Let’s be brutally honest: the word “decolonisation,” as used by these activists, isn’t about peaceful reform. It’s not about truth-telling. It’s not even about justice.
It’s about reversal.
Erasure.
Destruction.
“Decolonise Australia” means abolish it.
“Decolonise Israel” means eliminate it.
“Decolonise the West” means unmake the Enlightenment.
And people like Josh Lees and Grace Tame are spreading this ideology under the guise of compassion.
They are not fighting for coexistence.
They are fighting for ideological vengeance, dressed up as solidarity.
IX. A Final Word to the Real Victims
To the women raped by Hamas and ignored by Grace Tame—
To the Palestinian children conscripted into martyrdom and unmentioned by Josh Lees—
To the Australian Jews now afraid to walk in public with a yarmulke—
To the survivors of religious abuse watching the activist class glorify a fundamentalist regime—
We see you.
Even if they don’t.
Especially because they don’t.
X. Conclusion: Hypocrisy with a Hashtag
Grace Tame and Josh Lees didn’t have to go down this path.
They could have stood for justice without kneeling to tyranny.
They could have opposed war without excusing terror.
They could have fought for reform without hating their own country.
But they didn’t.
Because in 2026, the currency of outrage is more valuable than the currency of truth.
And the algorithm never punishes a good lie—especially if it’s anti-Australian.
So here they are.
Marching for Gaza.
Shouting down dissent.
Applauding theocrats.
And calling it progress.
The Hollow Centre Verdict:
When the defenders of victims ignore the victims of their allies…
When the champions of justice excuse injustice if it’s anti-Western…
When the guardians of morality go silent on rape, child abuse, and murder…
We are not looking at activism.
We are looking at ideological decay.
Welcome to The Hollow Centre.
Where slogans kill nuance, and silence is the new allegiance.
– By The Hollow Centre
