Just received:

Hi Everybody,

Well, miracles do happen. I was very nervous about agreeing to an interview on SBS about deplatforming at universities. You may remember that the last time I was interviewed by SBS for a programme on sexism, the whole shoot ended up on the cutting floor because my comments didn’t fit their feminist narrative about Australia being an appallingly sexist country.

I was assured the interview I did a few months ago for the public broadcaster’s Viceland The Feed, would aim for balance and, amazingly, they did a pretty good job. The hour-long interview produced some tense moments but overall the edit was pretty fair and they even included a fascinating exchange where the young host, Marty Smiley, suggested that his generation of snowflakes might simply be more compassionate and caring. You will enjoy my howl of laughter at this absurd suggestion and my rejoinder – namely that, on the contrary, I think his generation is simply better at producing crocodile tears over fashionable causes but doesn’t actually do anything about things that really matter.

We’ve used this entertaining little exchange to introduce a compilation video bringing together selections from the many media discussions over the past week or so following Sydney University’s decision regarding my protest complaint – mostly from Skye News. Not one peep on the subject from the ABC, of course.

Here’s the video – I hope you enjoy it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8nr69FjOLU&t=23s

The Weekend Australian today carried a bunch of articles, plus an editorial, about the campus free speech issue. These included a statement from Education Minister Dan Tehan accusing universities of “failing Australia” by refusing to champion free speech, plus news of a position statement from the University of Western Australia stating that students must be open to a “free expression of ideas that may clash with their beliefs and make them feel uncomfortable.” All pretty encouraging stuff.

A job for my volunteers

Big news this week of damning evidence from the National Audit Office revealing the monstrous waste of public funds on the domestic violence industry which simply demonises men and does nothing to address real problems of family violence.

https://www.anao.gov.au/sites/default/files/Auditor-General_Report_2018-2019_45.pdf

This is an important report and we all need to get active using this to make the case to MPs and other influential people that this important social issue needs proper attention instead of pandering to feminist propaganda. Please help promote this issue and try to get media engaged in following up the story. Here’s some of the key points from Rebecca Urban’s story in The Australian:

“Serious doubts have emerged about the effectiveness of Australia’s multi-million-dollar plan to tackle violence against women, with a scathing audit report highlighting a lack of performance tracking, robust data collection and public accountability.

“The Australian National Audit Office has reviewed the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children, finding that monitoring, evaluation and reporting was ‘not sufficient to provide assurance that governments are on track to achieve the … overarching target and outcomes’.

“The national plan, which was developed in partnership with the states and territories and rolled out by Labor prime minister Julia Gillard in 2011, has been championed by successive governments since and has cost taxpayers more than $700 million so far.

“With an overarching vision for Australian women and their children to ‘live free from violence and in safe communities’, the plan is delivered with several partners, including Australia’s National ­Research Organisation for Women’s Safety, Our Watch and White Ribbon, and funds projects ranging from research into links between gambling and domestic violence, or incidences of violence in diverse communities, through to social media campaigns about men’s behaviour and respectful relationships lessons in schools.

“However, as the audit office found, although metrics to assess the performance of the plan were established at the outset, they were limited and did not necessarily align with the targeted outcomes that the plan sought to achieve.

“For example, for the stated outcome ‘communities are safe and free from violence’, the single ­related measure of success was limited to ‘increased intolerance of violence’ and did not consider actual levels of violence or broader community safety. For the outcome ‘relationships are respectful’, the single measure of success was limited to young people and the available data allowed for an assessment of ‘knowledge or awareness of violence against women’ but was unable to assess whether young people were demonstrating ‘improved skills and behaviour’.

“According to the audit office report, this is not the first time that concerns have been raised, with stakeholders previously flagging to the federal Department of ­Social Service, which oversees the plan, a need for improvements to the measures of success and data sources.

“They noted ‘significant concern around the lack of performance indicators’, ‘concern about the consistency and completeness of the data used’, and that ‘current indicators do not adequately account for all cohorts of women at risk of violence or adequately account for all forms of violence that women and their children could be exposed to’.”

Out of the sling

On a personal level, the really great news is my collar bone is mending and I am out of the sling so I am a very happy camper. My lovely bloke, Ian, is pretty cheerful too, because carer’s fatigue was setting in after nearly two months of incredible devotion. So life is looking good.

Cheers, Tina

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