Category: Australia

Mission Gallop – Women’s Cooee

 

Does Grandstand organise cricket matches? Does ABC News organise bus crashes or bombings in Gaza? Of course not! In February Aunty took it into her collective head to organise – not just film and broadcast, but actually organise – a drag queen story time event.

Not so much ABC mission creep as mission gallop!

The Rockdale Library incident took the ABC’s allegiance to gender-identity ideology quite a few leagues beyond its usual manifestations of membership of ACON’s AWEI scheme,  allowing/encouraging its employees to moonlight at ACON events, having a drag queen in costume as a panellist on current affairs shows, suppressing news that might be disquieting for gender-identity zealots, and blatantly endorsing puberty blockers etc.

Was this proposed event impartial? Certainly not. Drag queen story time events are massively controversial . . .

Finally, does the Rockdale Library fiasco show that the ABC’s under the influence of powerful outside lobbyists? It sure does. And we mean ACON, whose extensive interference in the ABC’s workplace culture and content has been irrefutably demonstrated.

The new ABC Chair, Kim Williams, said on 24 March: ‘If you don’t want to reflect a view that aspires to impartiality, don’t work at the ABC’ and inveighed against an ‘addictive focus’ at the ABC that ‘enables small cohorts to … have an exaggerated influence over the process of decision-making’.

Honestly, Mr Willams, that sounds to us like pompous twaddle – to use a term you yourself once employed – as long as ABCQueer is permitted to rampage unchecked and the organisation dismisses wholesale the very valid criticisms brought to bear upon it by members of the public. Good luck dealing with the ‘small cohorts’, though!

Source: Mission Gallop – Women’s Cooee

Council’s trans rights cover-up | The Australian

Emails showing a forum critical of transgender rights was “blocked” by Hobart City Council staff were withheld from release under right to information, in conduct the council concedes may be criminal.

Two senior staff whose emails were caught up in an RTI request by councillor and transgender rights critic Louise Elliot have in recent weeks either resigned or been placed on “extended leave”.

The Weekend Australian can reveal emails to and from the council’s creative city manager, Jamie Smith, were withheld from the RTI disclosure to Ms Elliot and only emerged later thanks to a whistleblower.

Source: Subscribe to The Australian | Newspaper home delivery, website, iPad, iPhone & Android apps

He called himself The Destroyer and ransacked his partner’s home. Here’s how police took him down | SMH

Domestic violence is the biggest challenge facing NSW Police. They get 500 call-outs a day and devote five times more resources to the crisis – including 60 per cent of general duties time at some stations – than to any other type of crime.

Domestic violence is also linked to more than half of the state’s murders, such as the death of Molly Ticehurst in Forbes last week, allegedly at the hands of her former partner, which galvanised anger across the state.

Detective Inspector Michelle Ritchie leads the south-west Sydney Domestic Violence High-Risk Offenders Team. If a police command needs to hunt down or arrest a high-risk or dangerous offender, it will hand the case to her team or another like it.

“Sometimes we get the offenders within 20 minutes and other times it can take a week. Sometimes it takes months.” They use intelligence and covert strategies to hunt the offenders down. These high-risk offender teams, situated around the state, conduct regular sweeps under the banner of Operation Amarok.

The Amarok strategy is similar to one successfully used against outlaw motorcycle groups. It was known as Strike Force Raptor and, as one senior officer once put it, harassed bikies “within the bounds of the law to make sure they know we are there”.

The auditor’s criticism that just six people provided policy support to the entire force helped prompt the country’s first Domestic Violence Registry, which brings together specialists in investigations, the law, intelligence and victim support. They can advise police around the clock.

The registry particularly focuses on intelligence about high-risk, dangerous and repeated offenders. Almost a quarter of domestic violence offenders reoffend within two months of the first incident and more than half reoffend within the first five months.

Police are also looking at other ways to reduce the enormous amount of time officers spend on domestic violence cases. One incident can result in a crew filling out paperwork for the remainder of their 12-hour shift, curtailing their ability to respond to other calls.

[Ed: More of the same. We aren’t asking for ‘sweeps’ or police harassment of high risk offenders – we are asking for police to respond effectively when women call and that they charge the perpetrator – not the woman. This might involve a lot of time and be less exciting than a ‘strike force’, but that is why we have police.]

Source: 12ft

Holding all men responsible for a violent minority has failed to keep women safe | Waleed Aly | SMH

When the literature mentions respect at all, it isn’t about the perpetrator disrespecting the victim: it’s more about the perpetrator feeling someone had disrespected them. Thus could James Gilligan – a prison psychiatrist working with America’s most violent men for 35 years – conclude he was “yet to see a serious act of violence that was not provoked by the experience of feeling shamed or humiliated, disrespected and ridiculed”. Gilligan’s language is strikingly absolute: “all violence is an attempt to replace shame with self-esteem”, and direct: “the most dangerous men on earth are those who are afraid they are wimps”.

[I]t can be possible to work gender into violence analysis, roughly as follows: hierarchical gender norms, in which women are assumed inferior, lead men to feel humiliation, shame and disrespect when women don’t behave like their supplicants. They also lead men to think violence is the best way to restore their self-esteem. By this logic, perhaps if we established a more gender-equal culture, the humiliation would dissipate and violence would reduce.

[T]here are still things the gender equality approach just cannot explain. The most famous is the “Nordic paradox”: where Scandinavian countries who are widely regarded to have the most gender-equal societies in the world also report some of the highest rates of sexual assault and gendered violence across the European Union. The frequent riposte is that Nordic women are better at recognising and reporting sexual violence, and while that might be true, it’s not clear enough to explain the data. It certainly doesn’t explain why, in a place like Iceland, which is consistently ranked the most gender-equal country on earth, every second murder is committed by a male partner: significantly higher than the EU average.

Similarly, if gendered disrespect was the fundamental engine of domestic violence, we would expect to see much lower levels of it in same-sex relationships. But we don’t.

A decade on, the problems with this discourse are becoming clearer. Men are killing women at a faster rate. People under 24, the demographic with the most gender-equal attitudes, are perpetrating sexual abuse at greater rates. And a decade on, I can write this because better minds than mine, like investigative journalist Jess Hill and criminologist Michael Salter, are pointing to the things we’ve never wanted to mention in their recent white paper, but with much clearer connections to violence: among them, alcohol, gambling, pornography and abusive and neglectful childhood environments – cycles we can try to break.

[Ed: Aly blames alcohol, gambling, pornography and abusive and neglectful childhood environments – but these factors impact on many women as well and yet they don’t get about murdering the men in their lives at a similar rate. Perhaps the Nordic paradox can be explained by the increasing strength of male resistance and push back as women approach equality. There is no doubt the fragile male ego is a key component in much violence against women.)

Source: 12ft

Women forced to live in tents, sleep in car parks to escape violence | SMH

Women fleeing domestic violence are being housed in tents in regional NSW and one shelter has been forced to set up a secure car park, so women can sleep safely as the emergency housing crisis emerges as one of the most pressing issues ahead of Friday’s urgent state cabinet meeting.

In Newcastle, where Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research data shows that the rate of domestic violence assaults rose by 20 per cent in the two years to December 2023, emergency housing supply has become so stretched one service provider has begun allowing women fleeing violence to sleep in a secure car park three nights a week.

The housing crisis, along with cost of living pressures, was also affecting women grappling with the legal system. Anna Baltins, the solicitor in charge of Legal Aid NSW’s domestic violence unit, said the service had seen an increase in domestic violence reports and requests for help, particularly in the regions.

“We’ve had clients who have said that they won’t leave a violent home because they have nowhere to go,” Baltins said. “They can’t afford to find new housing or there’s no housing available. There’s no emergency accommodation, or it means they’ll have to move their children’s school because they have to move a long distance to be able to afford to meet their expenses, put food on the table.”

Source: 12ft

Carly was looking for help. Instead, she found the man who killed her | SMH

Just days after Carly McBride was murdered in an act of “unrestrained brutality”, a letter from a women’s support service landed on her mother’s doorstep – had it come earlier it could have saved her life.

McBride’s story should have been about a determined mother-of-two in recovery. Instead, it was cut short by a violent abuser who reached her through the cracks of a system entrusted with her life.

McBride had been murdered by a former professional martial arts fighter who she had met at a rehabilitation centre for men and women eight weeks before she vanished. Her mother had tried to find her a spot in a women’s centre, but there were no beds.

“When Carly [was killed] I got a letter from a women’s rehab saying she was accepted. That’s what should have happened,” her mother, Lorraine Williams, said through tears.

Her killer, who the Herald has chosen not to name, is serving 27 years in prison for the murder. Last month, he lost an appeal to be released earlier.

McBride had battled depression and bipolar disorder in the final years of her life. Drugs and domestic violence followed.

“I said, ‘Carly you’re going to a woman’s rehab’. But she couldn’t get in, the long waiting list, just another barrier.”

Around regional NSW small support services have laboured under massive demand. The Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research has noted consistently higher rates of domestic violence assault in the regions than in Sydney.

In the decade since her daughter’s death, Williams has watched hundreds of women lose their lives to abuse and fears – “nothing has changed”.

Source: 12ft

Nearly $1b to help women escape domestic violence

Women fleeing violent relationships will be able to access $5000 financial support through an almost $1 billion package, as part of national cabinet measures tackling domestic abuse.

The package was unveiled after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met state and territory leaders in Sydney on Wednesday to discuss ways to resolve Australia’s gender violence crisis.

National cabinet also agreed to implement measures aimed at reducing misogyny online, specifically targeting young people.

As part of the move, laws will be introduced to ban the creation and distribution of deepfake pornography.

A pilot program will be set up for age-assurance technology to block access for children to online content such as pornography.

There will also be a review of the Online Safety Act a year ahead of schedule.

Source: Nearly $1b to help women escape domestic violence

‘Make me a sandwich’: our survey’s disturbing picture of how some boys treat their teachers

Australia is once again grappling with how we can stop gendered violence in our country. Protests over the weekend show there is enormous community anger over the number of women who are dying and National Cabinet meets on Wednesday to specifically discuss the issue.

Since February, we have advertised an anonymous survey on the Teachers of Adelaide Facebook group, which involves teachers from across public and private school sectors and in co-ed and single sex environments.

One theme to emerge so far is a heightened use of misogynistic language and behaviours by male students, some as young as five.

A high school teacher reported how when she talks about gender in her classes, some boys got defensive about what female students were saying. The boys call the girls liars and repeat untrue statements they have seen online:

Teachers are also reporting a heightened use of vulgar, sexualised and aggressive language being used primarily by boys/young men during their interactions with women and girls.

Another teacher told us:

Boys are increasingly using misogynistic language towards female students and teachers, telling them to ‘make me a sandwich’ [a well-known misogynist meme].

Other respondents noted the use of terms such as “slut” and describing women as “rapeable”. They also reported male students making animal noises (“meowing or barking”) or making offensive gestures (“grabbing their genitals and making other rude gestures”) at girls and women in the school.

One primary school teacher described how several students in her Year 1 class have been making “sex sounds” to herself a co-teacher and other students.

A second theme from the survey is how male students are working in groups to physically intimidate their female teachers and peers. This includes corralling girls/women into corners, out of sight of male staff.

Most respondents described insufficient or zero school support. Some female teachers in our survey said they plan to leave the profession because they do not feel safe.

Source: ‘Make me a sandwich’: our survey’s disturbing picture of how some boys treat their teachers

Talking isn’t working: Push for PM to tackle porn, gambling, booze to stop violent men | SMH

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese must tackle Australia’s substantial problems with alcohol, gambling and children’s access to pornography if he wants to protect women, says an expert who helped shape the national plan to stop domestic violence.

Criminologist Michael Salter said policymakers must be prepared to take a wider view of prevention when national cabinet convenes for an urgent meeting on Wednesday to address growing community uproar about rates of violence against women.

In a challenge to Australia’s dominant strategy of changing men’s attitudes to prevent gendered violence, Salter said the government needed to be more practical about its policy opportunities.

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“It’s one thing to say that men and boys need to change – and we can keep saying that – but telling them to change is not a strategy,” he said.

“Alcohol, pornography and gambling are clear accelerants to men’s violence … Why is it the responsibility of a 13-year-old boy to change the culture around sexual violence, when it’s not the responsibility of an adult man earning millions of dollars a year promoting violent pornography to that teenage boy?”

Both gambling reform and online pornography have been thorny issues for the Albanese government, which has been balancing community expectations with strong pushback from the gaming industry and social media giants.

Salter said the past decade had shown that changing attitudes was difficult and did not always correlate with changes in behaviour.

“Young people’s attitudes to gender equality are more egalitarian than their elders, but boys and young men are also perpetrating physical and sexual violence at quite high levels, and in some spaces we’re seeing increases in perpetration,” he said.

“Reducing perpetration is going to require other levers beyond attitudes, and what are they? We need to take a non-ideological look at the evidence of what works now. Our message to the community can’t be about what’s going to keep women safe in 10 or 20 years when we’re talking about murder. The question is what’s going to keep women safe next week and the week after?”

Source: 12ft