Wagga Sporting Hall of Famer Kirsti Miller said she would ask to have her name pulled if Wagga Wagga City Council chose not to remove Michael Slater. Photo: Museum of the Riverina.
Former international pentathlete Kirsti Miller, formerly known as Warren Miller, said she would ask to have her name pulled from the Wagga Sporting Hall of Fame if former Test cricketer Michael Slater is not removed.
Michael Slater recently had his name struck from the Cricket NSW Hall of Fame after being convicted of several domestic violence-related offences dating back to 2016.
Region asked Wagga Council if it would follow the state sporting body’s lead and remove Michael Slater’s name from the Wagga Hall of Fame at the Museum of the Riverina. The council declined to respond.
However, there is growing pressure in the community for the council to do so.
Leading the push is 1998 Wagga Sporting Hall of Fame inductee, Kirsti Miller, who was inducted under her former name, Warren Miller.
Now a proud transgender woman, Ms Miller represented Australia throughout the late 1970s and 80s in the modern pentathlon.
Her sporting career saw her participate in World Championships, including in Spain, the USA and Germany. She has also been acknowledged for her achievement in local rugby league and her success with the Wagga Brothers Rugby League Club.
Following her transition in the early 2000s, Ms Miller moved to Broken Hill, where she became the first transgender athlete in the Women’s Broken Hill Football League.
Ms Miller has shared her experience of being an athlete, transitioning in the early 2000s, being subject to violence and the importance of stamping out any form of abuse.
She said Wagga had the opportunity to create a firm stance against domestic violence by removing Mr Slater from the Hall of Fame. If Wagga Council elects not to remove his name, she will request hers to be removed instead.
Ms Miller worked as a prison guard before becoming a taxi driver in Broken Hill. Photo: Supplied.
“Wagga Wagga calls itself the city of good sports, right? Well, to me, a good sport doesn’t domestically assault women,” she said.
“This is a chance for Wagga to not only be the city of good sports, but also the city that says no to domestic violence. Wagga has got up to a 50 per cent higher rate of domestic violence than the average anywhere else in NSW. That’s a disgusting figure for my hometown to have.
“If I take my name off, and that can save one child or one wife or one woman or one girl in Wagga from what I went through, that would mean more than any accolades in sport.
“I would be more ashamed to have my name up there with Michael Slater than to sit here and do nothing.
“No matter what your accolades are in sport or in politics or in business, no means no to domestic violence.
“I would like to see the whole Wagga sporting community take a leap forward from this and make this a teachable moment where every sporting group and every club in Wagga should also have policies that say no to domestic violence.”
Following her transition and move to Broken Hill, Ms Miller became the first transgender athlete in the local league’s history. Photo: Supplied.
Ms Miller also responded to calls that Mr Slater’s sporting achievements should be separated from his personal life.
She said the Hall of Fame was an achievement of representation as much as it was skill.
“On my original certificate, when I was inducted, it celebrated me as a representative of Wagga,” she said.
“I never got put in the Hall of Fame because I won a certain race; it was the way I represented my country and the city of Wagga Wagga on and off the field.
“Even if you strip me, or if I leave the Hall of Fame tomorrow, there’s not one swimming race that I won that I’m going to have reversed or taken away.
“All those man-of-the-match performances and his top scores will all be in the record books. No one can or will take that away from him.
“But the Hall of Fame is above and beyond his achievements as an athlete. It’s a testament to his character. If he wasn’t there today, and you had a discussion about him being added now, instead of taken out, I highly doubt he would be considered.”
Ms Miller has called on her fellow Hall of Famers and Wagga councillors to make the decision and stand against domestic violence.
“I’m actually privileged as a survivor because I’m able to talk about it, and I’m one of the very rare ones that can,” she said.
“As a survivor, it makes me sick to see my name next to his, and if Wagga is OK with endorsing that behaviour, then I don’t want anything to do with it.
“This isn’t about me, or Slater; this is about showing the community that Wagga says no to domestic violence.
“And if we can save one girl or one child from standing against this, then it shouldn’t even be a discussion.”
