When the prime minister rose at the start of Question Time to acknowledge the thousands of women protesting outside Parliament House, and on the streets of more than 40 cities and towns across the country, he must have hoped to quell the anger directed at himself and his government.
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Instead, Scott Morrison poured kerosene on the flames, celebrating Australia's right to protest peacefully "to express their concerns and their very genuine and real frustrations".
"This is a vibrant liberal democracy, Mr Speaker. Not far from here, such marches, even now, are being met with bullets, but not here in this country," he said.
After rallying against gendered violence, sexual harassment, glass ceilings, being diminished, under-estimated and looked over, women across the country did not want to be told how lucky they were.
Reading closely from a list of government policies, promises and achievements, Mr Morrison's statistics and ambition for women to be safe at work rang hollow. It was no different from any other political speech made from the despatch box.
Instead the words that would rally followers, inspire change and fuel action were spoken outside of the building where decisions are made.
The words from Brittany Higgins and Saxon Mullins came from a place women recognise - the receiving end of harassment, violence, discrimination.
Founder of the Women's Liberation movement in Canberra, Biff Ward, told the crowd she had been crying for weeks, because she never thought she would see this day.
"These women were believed, the first time in my life these women were believed," she said.
"It's what I'm calling the great uprising."
The great uprising had started, but the prime minister didn't seem to realise.
After hearing dozens of women speak from the heart, from the gut, telling their lived experiences of sexual assault, of harassment, of feeling stigma and shame, his words were nowhere near enough.
The only time Mr Morrison was truly fired up was when he responded to a question on a potential inquiry into the historical rape allegation against Attorney-General Christian Porter by turning the question back on Labor, bringing up an allegation against its former leader Bill Shorten, which was investigated and dismissed by police in 2014.
It only served to add to the impression Mr Morrison only viewed a rape allegation against a colleague, or a rape allegation against a staffer in Parliament House, or thousands of protesters calling for change, through a political lens.
"Change is coming like a tsunami," the Australian Council of Trade Union secretary Sally McManus warned.
Women are going to ride that wave until true equality has been achieved.
It's up to the government to be part of the change, or be washed away by it.
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