Latest news from Campus Fake Rape Tour and verdict in Rob Tiller’s unfair dismissal case.
From: Bettina Arndt
Sent: Monday, 10 September 2018 8:37 AM
To: Bettina Arndt
Subject: Latest news from Campus Fake Rape Tour and verdict in Rob Tiller’s unfair dismissal case.
Hi Everyone,
We are still recovering from all the excitement last week. For those of you who missed the publicity about the La Trobe event, I will include the article from The Australian below. And here’s the little video we made showing efforts of the protestors to disrupt the event.
https://youtu.be/ANxU7s78MTY
It certainly was very stressful but achieved the desired result of exposing the desperate efforts of activists trying to silence open discussion about the fake rape crisis.
And the unwillingness of the university to protect free speech. The security at the La Trobe event was a joke. The security guards were under instructions simply to protect me – and presumably the students attending the talk, although they were forced to walk through the hostile demonstrators after the talk with no attempt to remove the rowdy mob. It was quite extraordinary that the security guards stayed inside the venue rather than blocking the doors from the outside to prevent the activists from banging on the doors.
The La Trobe students who attended the talk are looking at taking action against protestors for breaching the code of conduct for the University, which includes language such as “support the University as a place of independent learning and thought where ideas may be put forward yet ensure that this freedom does not harass, vilify, intimidate or defame individuals, the community or the University”.
We are working on identifying key protestors such as that ghastly guy with the megaphone who is apparently a well-known socialist activist called Elliot Downes, who appears regularly at protests. The man bashing on the door in my video is another professional protestor, Con Karavais from the NUS in Melbourne.
Do let us know if you have any thoughts to contribute about possible ways of proceeding with all this. All help most welcome, particularly from lawyers.
But in the meantime, the Sydney talk is going ahead next Tuesday evening, Sept 11. Unfortunately, the Liberal Club Students were bullied into paying the security fee of almost $500, having been told they would not be given the room unless they paid. I am contributing some funds from my crowd-funder to help with this charge and Michael Kroger is also contributing. We are seeking answers from the university as to whether the security guards will be instructed to prevent demonstrators from disrupting the talk and remove unruly students from the event. The protestors have organised a demonstration at the time of the talk – have a look at the crazy stuff they are posting, including their description of Jordan Peterson as a “far right toad.”
We have a grand plan to live stream the Q&A of the event, assuming my wonderful producer, Scott Korman, can make this happen. Hopefully we will screen that on my Facebook page. We’ll be posting more details nearer the event – but probably that will be around 6.30 PM EST. The idea is to expose just how little Sydney University is prepared to do to ensure free speech on its campus. Let’s see what sort of security the Liberal Club have paid for with their expensive fee. The Q&A at La Trobe was very difficult because the protestors made it impossible to hear the questions.
I am discussing all this on Andrew Bolt’s Sky News Program tonight, and on SBS The Feed at 7.30 tonight, and with Alan Jones on 2GB tomorrow morning at 7.40 am. Note: no interest from any ABC programme.
More bookings are coming in for my tour. It looks like the next one will be at the University of Queensland on Thurs September 27, just before the LibertyFest conference where I am also speaking. I will post details on Facebook when they are available.
Now a couple of other matters. Here’s the link for the video of the talk I gave in Perth recently which I called, Why I Fight Feminism: https://youtu.be/6ZiZkxxzhLU
But now for the really sad news – Rob Tiller lost his unfair dismissal case at the Fair Work Commission. The Commissioner ultimately rejected Mr Tiller’s unfair dismissal claim because he found that Rob resigned rather than being fired. Commissioner Williams said that if Relationships Australia (RAWA) had dismissed Rob, that dismissal would have been unfair, and he gave a list of reasons for that conclusion. It’s unusual for a Commissioner to make comments of that kind in circumstances in which he found that there was no dismissal, and that may be an indication of Commissioner Williams’ concerns about RAWA’s behaviour.
He was very critical of the way RAWA had handled the matter, stating that the CEO’s intense 90-minute meeting confronting Rob over the allegations was “highly prejudicial” and “gave every appearance of having prejudged the matter”.
The Commissioner discussed RAWA’s domestic violence policy “historically framed by a feminist analysis of gendered power relations,” saying that applying that philosophy to the cases where women engaged in violence against men, or between same-sex couples, was uncertain and “problematic.”
He went on to point out that, while Rob was obliged to abide by RAWA’s policy, it was “not entirely satisfactory given the internal inconsistencies and deficiencies”.
“Whatever views and beliefs Mr Tiller did hold I find there is no evidence he had not been carrying out his duties in accordance with RAWA’s policies.”
He found management was influenced by Rob’s Facebook posts which they found personally offensive. The Commissioner said that “Whilst individuals will react differently to attempts at humour, judged objectively these Facebook posts and cartoons were innocuous,”.
I’ll attach the judgement with this email and Rob will be posting media stories regarding the decision on his website. We are all very disappointed with the news but pleased that the media coverage is highlighting RAWA’s feminist domestic policies and the dismal failure of the organisation nationwide to properly support men.
But many thanks to all the people who supported Rob’s crowd-funder which has raised over $11,500. Rob’s lawyers were amazing – Steve Heathcote who helped with initial advice for Rob, and Jason Raftos who represented him at the hearing – both very generously acting pro-bono. We always knew the resignation was a real stumbling block – one that ultimately proved too difficult to overcome.
The financial support has enabled Rob to regroup and work on establishing a full-time private practise. We are delighted that he’s now pretty busy with many new Perth clients and also skype and telephone counselling with people all over Australia.
And he’s about to run a workshop on The Impossible Business of Keeping Women Happy. Don’t dare live with them but can’t live without them? How to navigate the treacherous world of finding the right partner, keeping her happy and hanging on to your house.
Perth men do go along and bring all your friends!
https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/the-impossible-business-of-making-women-happy-tickets-46439593073
That’s it. I’ll be reporting in after the Sydney University event.
All the best, Tina
Controversial columnist Bettina Arndt met by protesters at uni event
Australian sex therapist, journalist and clinical psychologist Bettina Arndt is confronted by protesters from the Victorian Socialists at La Trobe University before her talk on Thursday. Picture: David Geraghty / The Australian
Bettina Arndt has confronted protesting socialist students as she starts her controversial university tour about campus rape.
The sex therapist and columnist gave her first of a series of lectures on why she believes there is not a “rape crisis” at Australian universities at La Trobe University today, but not everyone wanted to listened.
All through Ms Arndt’s lecture, protesters aligned with the Victorian Socialists banged on the doors of the Eastern Lecture Theatre and chanted “Bettina Arndt, go to hell. Go take Milo (Yianipoulos) there as well.”
A protester from the Victorian Socialists speaks his mind La Trobe University before Bettina Arndt’s talk. Picture: David
But before she spoke, the sex therapist approached the students at their uni square stand and tried to talk to them. The socialist students just kept chanting.
“Why don’t they come and listen to me speak? And engage in a conversation around this issue,” she said, “What are they afraid of?”
The lecture comes a week after La Trobe University reversed their ban on the student Liberal Club inviting Ms Arndt to speak on campus.
Ms Arndt’s lectures use cases of US rape allegations, and data from both the NSW bureau of Crime Statistics and the Australian Human Rights Commission, to make the case that there is not a growing prevalence of rape and sexual assault against female university students.
Australian sex therapist, journalist and clinical psychologist Bettina Arndt confronts protesters at La Trobe University before her talk. Picture: David Geraghty / The Australian.
The sex therapist has said she wants to tackle the unfair treatment of male students who are falsely accused of sex crimes on campus. But her critics accuse her of victim blaming.
Ms Arndt said she spoke to the socialist speakers, despite their aggressiveness, because she wanted to invite them to the lecture.
“I went over there to ask them to come and listen and ask me questions,” she said, “they proceeded to scream in my ear from a foot away.”
Ms Arndt faced sceptical audience members inside too.
But she and her audience of supporters and critics battled on while the protesters banged on the doors and chanting “F*ck off, f*ck off, Bettina,” to the tune of Queen’s We Will Rock You, and “When women’s rights are under attack, what do we do? We fight back.”
Socialist student leader Elliot Downes said before the protest they did not want to shut Ms Arndt down.
“I think she represents a real far-right kind of sexism … which drags society back to the 1950s,” they said.
“We’re not here to shut her down. We’re here to show there are opposition to those views.”
But the socialist student added they had no interest in taking on Ms Arndt in debate.
“I think our protest is the dialogue I want with her. I think she has enough capacity to share her ideas,” they said.
The university had originally let Ms Arndt speak if the Liberal Club paid for costs.
But both Ms Arndt and Liberal Club president James Plozzo told The Australian yesterday that the university will now pay for security.