Bettina Arndt reports

She's battling Australia's feminist harridans

Last Thursday, The Canberra Times carried a story announcing I was to keep my Honours award. The article was written by UTS journalism lecturer Jenna Price.

Price is one of the founders of the feminist action group, Destroy the Joint, which in 2015 persuaded most of our media and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to quote their fake homicide figures doubling the number of domestic violence related deaths to claim two women are killed every week in Australia. Destroy the Joint’s fake stats were based on cumulative figures of female deaths featured in media reports, including an elderly woman who was euthanized by her doctor son. Price’s group justified their distorted data by claiming “all violent deaths of women are the result of societal misogyny.”

It’s pretty revealing that this activist is a senior lecturer in journalism at one of our major universities. Price’s journalism displays a similar disinterest in the truth and she’s always delighted in taking pot shots at me, misrepresenting my views on any number of issues.

So here was this journalist using the news about my AM to have another go at me, in an article which included quotes from the Honours Council Chairman Shane Stone. At that point the Council had decided not to make an official announcement about the decision but reconsidered when I wrote to Stone pointing out it was not a good look for him to grant an exclusive interview revealing news on this controversial matter to such a journalist.

Stone then released the attached document which puts Price and her mob in their place, pointing out that my award was destined to stand since I had done nothing to contravene their rules – I had not committed a crime nor had the Council found that my award was based on false or misleading material.

He pointed out that the manufactured outrage about my views was irrelevant:

In a system that recognises the service of hundreds of people each year, it is inevitable that each list will include some people who others believe should not be recognised. Unanimous community approval is not a criteria for Council to make a recommendation. Nominations for Awards are from the community. Similarly, individuals are neither qualified nor disqualified on the basis of their political leanings, social views or religious convictions.

Congratulations for what?

Many people very kindly sent good wishes regarding the decision, which I do appreciate. But it is odd to find people congratulating me on retaining the award.

As I pointed out to Sky News’ Chris Kenny in the only interview I have chosen to give on this subject, it is as if I’ve spent eight months with my house being vandalise and graffitied by nasty thugs and now I am supposed to be thrilled that they didn’t actually get to burn the place down.

Here’s the Kenny interview - https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6188680854001

I’d be delighted if you would help promote this to show they didn’t succeed in cancelling me. I have posted on my website all the latest information about who wanted me cancelled and why. I’m really keen that people know what was going on here – so please help me spread the message.  

In fact, it was always obvious that I would keep my award, given the regulations governing the honours committee. And the long delay was not due to the fact that the committee was conducting a forensic examination of all my alleged wrong-doing. They simply meet only twice a year and the February meeting was cancelled due to Covid. Various media stories with Council officials over recent months made it obvious what the decision would be but the September meeting needed to take place before they could announce it.

Flexing their muscles

The feminists overplayed their hand. In their determination to take me out, they displayed for all to see the control they have on key sectors of our society, from our captured mainstream media, to their puppet bureaucrats. (Note - they managed to recruit two Attorneys General, the key legal officers for their state, to promote misinformation about me.)  And then there was the Australian Senate, led by Keneally and Wong, who used a scurrilous political stunt to wedge upper house government Senators, so they’d agree to a misleading motion condemning me.

I feel this has all served to alert the public into the dangers of our current situation, where we have allowed ideologues to control so many important institutions. It exposed the lengths these people are prepared to go to silence anyone who challenges their narrative. I hope this leaves many of you thinking about what’s going on here. Are we really all just going to sit back and wonder who is next?

But the good news is the whole kafuffle has led to growing support for my various campaigns exposing what the feminists are up to, on our campuses and elsewhere. 

Perhaps even more importantly, the mob also made it abundantly clear that my work really matters. Why else would they go to such efforts to use my award to try to cancel me?

That’s cause for celebration – a sure sign that I’m making my mark. The gruelling saga has actually proved an inspiration to me, convincing me that my efforts must be making a difference.

Thriving and concentrating on the main game.

In a way the activists did me a favour. I’ve decided to give up social media – they can keep that cesspool to themselves. And I plan to do very few interviews with the Australian press who have proved themselves such a cowardly bunch, more interested in sucking up to the feminists than doing their homework to expose what’s really happening in our society.

I intend keeping a lower profile which gives me more time to work hard on the key issues that really interest me. We are attracting more lawyers and other serious players to our Campus Justice group and have some exciting plans to expose the appalling way our universities are behaving.

I’ve mentioned the Mothers of Sons group, who are soon to launch their website featuring some extraordinary videos and stories from mothers about the injustice being experienced by their sons. You’ll be appalled by what their stories reveal about our justice system. I’m helping them get their show on the road and will be telling you more about this soon.

And I’m doing live chats on thinkspot with amazing people across the world who are working in similar territory. Last week I chatted to Diana Davison, co-founder of The Lighthouse Project, a Canadian non-profit that helps the falsely accused and wrongly convicted. Our discussion was really fascinating and I’ll get that to you next week. But here's a taste of what's to come. And another more amusing part of our long conversation.

Bettina Arndt
E: bettina@bettinaarndt.com.au
Website: www.bettinaarndt.com.au
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebettinaarndt
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thebettinaarndt






Public service jobs soar as private sector employment is smashed

Despite dire predictions for Australia's economy, one sector is in the midst of a hiring frenzy.

More than 22,100 public service jobs have been created since the start of the coronavirus pandemic as 572,700 private sector roles have been axed.

Australia's jobless rate of 7.5 per cent is already the highest in 22 years and the Reserve Bank is bracing for unemployment to hit ten per cent by Christmas - a level unseen since early 1994.

For the first time ever, more than one million Australians are officially unemployed, swelling the ranks of JobSeeker recipients.

Between March 14 and August 22, the overall number of payroll jobs dived by 4.2 per cent across all industries as Australia sunk into recession for the first time in almost three decades.

Government jobs classified as public administration and safety defied the downturn, with their numbers surging by 2.7 per cent in five months.

The Institute of Public Affairs, a free market think tank opposed to coronavirus lockdowns, said it was wrong for taxpayers to have funded 22,100 public sector jobs.

Research fellow Cian Hussey calculated 26 private sector jobs were lost for each one created in the public service.

'This is a purely private sector and small business recession. Bureaucrats have never been better off,' he said.

'Bureaucrats and unelected health officials have not incurred any of the costs of their reckless lockdown measures, yet they decide when and how the private sector workforce can go back to work.'

The IPA described the phenomenon of public sector job numbers rising as private sector jobs disappeared as a K-shaped recession.

'Australia's "K-shaped" recession shows we are living in two Australias with wealthy, protected bureaucrats who are flourishing, and those in the productive, private part of the economy who are getting smashed,' Mr Hussey said.

Treasury's Economic and Fiscal Update forecast the federal government's gross debt would swell to $852billion during this financial year as a result of COVID-19 stimulus programs.

The struggling arts sector was given $250million as part of the federal government's JobMaker plan, before ABS figures showed a massive 14.3 per cent plunge in arts and recreational services jobs in the 22 weeks to August 22.

Theatres were closed in late March as part of the COVID-19 shutdowns.

Australia's gross domestic product dived by a record seven per cent during the June quarter.

A plunge of that magnitude had not occurred since the ABS began compiling quarterly national accounts data in 1959 with the downturn rivalling the early stages of the Great Depression in the 1930s

SOURCE




Australian students launch class action to prevent coal mine approval

This is just virtue signalling.  Similar lawsuits previously have got nowhere

Eight young Australian students have brought a class action in the country's federal court seeking an injunction to prevent government approval of a coal project, lawyers representing the claimants said on Wednesday.

The lawsuit against Environment Minister Susan Ley comes ahead of a decision this month on whether to approve the Whitehaven Coal-owned Vickery coal mine extension project in New South Wales.
"The case is an Australian first, as it seeks to invoke the Minister's common law duty of care to protect younger people against climate change," Equity Generation Lawyers said in a statement.

All the claimants are under the age of 18 years and Equity Generation is urging other youngsters from across the world to register for the class action.

"It is the only class action on climate change that includes every single person under the age of 18 around the world as a result of the likely harm each one will experience from climate change."

Ley's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment while a spokeswoman for Whitehaven Coal declined to comment.

Climate change has been a divisive topic in Australia, which counts coal and iron ore as its two top exports.

The country's reliance on coal-fired power also makes it one of the world's largest per capita carbon emitters and just last year it approved a huge new coal mine by India’s Adani Enterprises .
"As a young person, I cannot vote to have my voice heard by politicians," said 16-year-old Laura Kirwan from Sydney, one of the litigants.

"I believe that the government has a duty to young people to protect our futures from the impacts of climate change, including stopping the climate impacts of the Vickery Extension Project."

The eight young Australians have all been involved in "School Strike For Climate", which was initiated by student activist Greta Thunberg in 2018 demanding that world leaders adopt urgent measures to stop an environmental catastrophe.

The injunction comes less than two months after a 23-year-old Melbourne student filed a class action against the government alleging it had failed to disclose climate change-related risks to investors in the country's sovereign bonds.

SOURCE





Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the person who distributed controversial material designed to teach schoolchildren about sex, gender fluidity and relationships has been “spoken to”.

Sneaky attempt to promote sexual deviance

Asked about the material, which has been likened to the shelved Safe Schools program, Ms Berejiklian said the documents are “not official Department of Education material”. “The person who distributed has been spoken to,” she said.

Speaking ahead of her Education Minister confirming an investigation into how the material was uploaded, the Premier said she would expect the material to be taken down.

Earlier, NSW’s Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said public school teacher guides about on penis tucking and bra padding for students who want to appear feminine was posted “without permission” and is now being investigated.

“Safe Schools has never been part of the NSW Curriculum nor will it be and there are no plans to bring that in,” she said on Wednesday.

“In relation to that particular issue there was a link that was provided without permission that did go to resource and content that isn’t endorsed by the Department or by the Government.

“We’re looking at the processes to how that has happened because as I said it was something that was posted without permission.”

The guides have come under fire for being a rebranded version of the controversial Safe Schools program.

Safe Schools was axed in 2017 after uproar that the ­program taught young children about sex, gender fluidity and relationships.

But resources accessible to teachers on the School Biz portal provided by the NSW Department of Education appear to mirror material from the program which critics say is bringing it back “by stealth”.

Links on the portal transfer teachers to various websites, including a 40-page guide OMG I’M TRANS which talks through how to pad your bra for bigger breasts or tuck your penis to reduce its visibility.

Resources included fictional stories for children, ­including The Gender Fairy, Are you a Boy or Are you a Girl and on the young readers’ list a story titled Sex Is A Funny Word: A Book About Bodies, Feelings and You.

“Some people have a ‘fluid’ gender — it changes over time. My friend has warned me not to be surprised if one day she rocks up with a shaved head and asks to be called Bruce. But you know what? That’s completely up to her,” says a passage in the PDF OMG I’m Queer.

Even though the Safe Schools Coalition is no longer operating, the portal includes “All of Us”, its guide on gender diversity, sexual diversity and intersex topics.

The website also linked to the Commonwealth’s Student Wellbeing Hub which had ­articles on supporting sexual diversity in schools, students changing their gender and LGBTI classmates.

NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham obtained screenshots of the School Biz portal and said teaching materials offered ahead of Wear It Purple Day on August 28 taught children about exploring sex, gender identity and being transgender and queer.

“This worries me because if Safe Schools was abolished then why do we need people within the department building an extensive catalogue of material relating to this,” Mr Latham told The Daily Telegraph. “It’s absolutely brought back by stealth. Behind a firewall they are sending information to teachers which resurrects Safe Schools des­pite the government ending it. There was a reason this was kicked out of schools in the first place. There has been no disclosure.”

The notification for teachers on the portal said: “There are also a number of resources available to help foster discussion about everyone having the right to be proud of who they are, and everyone having the right to feel safe and ­supported.”

Institute of Public Affairs director of the Foundations of Western Civilisation Program Dr Bella d’Abrera criticised the teaching resources.

She said with Australian children lagging behind the rest of the world in education the department should be foc­using on teaching children how to read and write, not ­indoctrinating them with radical gender theory.

“There is absolutely no place in NSW schools for this kind of social engineering. Teachers should not be politicising impressionable children in the classroom,” she said.

A NSW Education Department spokeswoman said the links were operated by third parties.

“These are all external websites operated by third parties not NSW Education. The Safe Schools Program has never been part of the NSW curriculum and we do not promote it,” she said.

A spokesman for the Federal Department of Education said the resources on the Student Wellbeing Hub were ­removed but had been reinstated since 2016 after an ­independent review found them suitable.

“The resources you refer to were originally published in 2013 as part of the original Safe Schools Hub that was funded by the previous Labor Government. The resources were removed while a 2016 ­independent review was ­conducted by Professor Bill Louden,” the spokesman said.

“This review found that the resources were ‘consistent with the aims of the program … suitable, robust, age-appropriate, educationally sound and aligned with the Australian Curriculum’. The resources were returned to the Hub in 2016 after the completion of the Louden review.”

SOURCE

 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here