Category: Australia

National cabinet to meet on violence against women, with Albanese saying everyone ‘must do better’ | The Conversation

Tackling violence against women will be the sole agenda item for a national cabinet meeting Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has convened for Wednesday.

The meeting, held remotely, follows thousands of Australians attending rallies across the country, as community anger surges over the horrific number of women killed so far this year.

Albanese was at the Canberra rally on Sunday, where he received some heckling. He was accompanied by the Minister for Woman Katy Gallagher and the Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth.

The federal government has rejected calls for a royal commission into the issue, saying it already has a plan.

Rishworth told Sky on Sunday that victim survivors and many experts had had input into that plan. “So we believe we need to get on with the job.

“We have a Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner and Commission that our government stood up. That role is incredibly important in monitoring. We believe we just need to continue to have this sustained effort. We believe that is what will make the difference,” she said.

So far this year 27 women have died in gender-based violence in Australia.

Police believe Meaghan Rose was murdered 27 years ago. Her suspected killer could be anywhere in Australia – ABC News

For nearly 27 years, the family of Meaghan Rose have been trying to prove she was murdered. Now, the ABC can reveal fresh details about her suspected killer.

Police allege Lees — Meaghan’s then-partner — had taken out a life insurance policy in her name before her suspected murder.

There was a 13-month waiting period on payouts for deaths by suicide. Meaghan died shortly after that set term ended, and Lees claimed a $203,000 benefit.

After Meaghan’s death, Lees and his child returned home to Victoria and in 2000, the pair moved in with recently-separated father-of-two Barry Waters.

Mr Waters, 42, was reported missing in 2001 and his headless body was discovered dumped in bushland near the Yarra Ranges the following year.

Lees was convicted of killing Mr Waters in 2004 following a secret affair with his wife, according to court documents.

He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with a non-parole period of 16 years.

Fast forward to June 25, 2023, when Queensland detectives went to a property in Victoria to speak to him about the case.

The next day, his vehicle was found abandoned in the town of Portland and an arrest warrant was issued, as Victorian authorities launched a search and rescue operation.

Lees has now been missing for nine months, but police believe he is still alive and may be “hiding out” on farms or fruit picking in rural and regional Australia, Detective Sergeant Johns says.

Lees’s child, Wren Dawsong, made an extraordinary plea for their father to surrender to police last year, saying “Meaghan’s family deserve justice”.

Dawsong was living with the pair at the time Meaghan died.

“He’s not doing himself any favours by running and hiding so it’s time. He’s got to man up and turn himself in,” Dawsong said.

Anyone who sees Lees is asked not to approach him and to immediately call triple-0.

Source: Police believe Meaghan Rose was murdered 27 years ago. Her suspected killer could be anywhere in Australia – ABC News

ABC Reporting Aged Like Vinegar, Not Wine – Women’s Cooee

Back in 2021, we wrote about Media Watch’s apparent bias in reporting on the medicalisation of trans-identified minors. At the time, Dr Michelle Telfer was the head of the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne’s Children’s Gender Clinic. She had made a 42-page complaint to the Australian Press Council about reporting on gender clinics by Bernard Lane in The Australian newspaper. Only 5 out of 12 alleged breaches were upheld, with Media Watch preferring to focus on the viewpoints of Dr Telfer than explore the issues evenly.

On 15 August 2022, Media Watch noted that the “ABC Skips Tavistock” closure in the UK, Paul Barry accuses the ABC of being “one-sided” and “ignoring legitimate debate”. On 17 October 2022, Paul Barry fronted an episode of Media Watch criticising the ABC’s relationship with lobby group ACON.

In light of the Cass Review, ABC’s activist reporting of gender issues has aged like vinegar, not like a fine wine.

Paul Barry, we’d like to suggest that you revisit your earlier remarks about the reporting in The Australian now that the Cass Review has exposed the lack of a global evidence base for, and acknowledged the risks and harms of children’s gender medicine.

Source: ABC Reporting Aged Like Vinegar, Not Wine – Women’s Cooee

Dads pass misogyny to their sons. The cycle of domestic violence won’t stop until they do | Sydney Morning Herald

Tackling domestic violence is about reforms to policing and courts and services, and it’s about listening to and protecting victims. But it’s also about working out how to end this cycle, how to stop men who denigrate and disrespect women from teaching their sons to do the same.

Not all men, of course. But enough. A 2019 global masculinity survey found almost 5 per cent of Australian men did not agree that women deserved equal rights to men, which equates to about half a million men across the country.

That view was more strongly held among men aged 18 to 35 than by their 55-plus counterparts.

The Man Box 2024 study found at least a third of Australian men thought a man should have the final say about decisions in their relationship, were entitled to know the whereabouts of their partner and were owed sex by women.

We live in a strange, two-speed world in which schools and community leaders are talking about consent and respect, yet boys can easily access material that is far more explicit, violent and hate-fuelled than anything previous generations saw.

They can spend much of their lives in the echo chambers of their online communities – the supporters of self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate, the incels (involuntary celibates), the strangers spewing bile against women as they play Grand Theft Auto.

When boys and teens have a different example at home, they’re less likely to be influenced by what they see online. But when kids are seeing women denigrated at home, they have no counterpoint. They think that’s how the world works, and take those attitudes into their adult lives.

Source: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/dads-pass-misogyny-to-their-sons-the-cycle-of-domestic-violence-won-t-stop-until-they-do-20240426-p5fmu2.html?12ft. 

Tickle v Giggle: What is the difference between gender and gender identity? – Law Society Journal

To what extent does the Sex Discrimination Act (Act) protect a person from discrimination on the basis of their gender identity? It is a question that has taken centre stage in the Federal Court recently. In the matter of Tickle v Giggle for Girls Pty Ltd, a transgender woman commenced proceedings launched court action against a women’s only platform and its CEO, for allegedly being blocked from the app due to her gender identity.

The case is significant because it is the first time since the Act was amended in 2013 that the changes are being tested in court.

Section 22 of the Act states that it is unlawful for a person to discriminate against another person on the ground of the other person’s “sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status …”. Gender identity is also referenced in Section 5B of the Act.

Despite the seemingly wide ambit, “sex” is not defined in the legislation.

The respondents, Giggle for Girls, claim that the app constitutes a “special measure” designed to achieve substantive equality between men and women and the app’s exclusion of males is reasonable in the circumstances. That is, the exclusion of males from the app fell within the exceptions under sections 7N, 7D and 32 of the Act.

Given what is at stake, there is a lot of public interest in the outcome of the case. The Federal Court has the difficult task of interpreting the law and ruling on the question of what is a “woman”?

Source: Tickle v Giggle: What is the difference between gender and gender identity? – Law Society Journal

Student activists threaten to derail Canberra medical conference over detransitioning talk that promotes ‘anti-trans rhetoric’ | Sky News Australia

 

Organisers of a medical conference are under pressure from student activists to cancel a talk by three Australian experts on detransitioning – the process in which people who have undergone a gender transition revert back to their original gender.

The presentation, called “Detransition and regret following gender affirming treatment for gender dysphoria: what psychiatrists need to know”, is scheduled to take place on the first day of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) 2024 Congress in Canberra on May 20.

But an online petition by the Australian National University’s Queer* Department, a representative body for LGBTQIA+ students, demands the College scrap the session, accusing it of “promoting anti-trans rhetoric”.

The petition, which has been signed more than 600 times, directs people to the group’s social media posts, which claim the speakers Dr Alison Clayton, Dr Robert D’Angelo and Dr Patrick Clarke, have “known links to transphobic organisations and publish fearmongering academic articles”.

Dr D’Angelo, a psychiatrist based in NSW’s Byron Bay and the president of the Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine, told Sky News that the attempt to “cancel” the presentation was disheartening.

He says he has received abuse since the petition was launched.

“Ultimately, the best way we can ensure our patients receive the best possible healthcare is to have open discussion – about when your treatments are successful, when they are not, and when they do harm.

National Association of Practising Psychiatrists president Dr Philip Morris said the petition and threats of protest were ‘intimidation’ tactics the College had a duty to address publicly.

Dr Morris has emailed the College’s president Dr Elizabeth Moore, urging her to make a public statement making it clear the activist pressure would not be tolerated, but had not received a response.

Source: Student activists threaten to derail Canberra medical conference over detransitioning talk that promotes ‘anti-trans rhetoric’ | Sky News Australia

Regulation of child contact centres called into question as staffer alleges concerns about possible child abuse were ignored – ABC News

Despite the risk to her career, Joan has chosen to speak with the ABC about what she witnessed in Sally’s case. She wanted to be identified but the Family Law Act prevents her from being named.

Sally was put in the custody of her father on the basis of a report written by a child psychologist who assessed the family on three occasions. On each occasion the psychologist interviewed the mother and the father and observed them with Sally.

Sally’s mother levelled allegations of domestic abuse against the father, and later raised questions about whether Sally was being physically abused in the father’s household.

The father and other experts alleged the mother was dishonest in her claims.

That was one of the reasons the psychologist deemed Wendy an emotional risk to her child describing their relationship as “enmeshed”. The psychologist also questioned the mother’s “emotional stability”.

Other experts, including child protection staff who had contact with the family, disagreed.

In a report, child protection said it was “unclear why the contact [with the mother] is supervised as the interaction was appropriate, and [Sally] showed no signs of being unhappy or uncomfortable being with her mother”.

Joan supervised about 40 visits with Sally and her mum between May and October of 2021.

She has several decades of experience as a social worker and has worked as a senior manager in the field.

Within a few weeks of having contact with the mother, father and the child, Joan alleges she observed worrying comments and behaviours from Sally that could potentially indicate abuse and she raised her concerns with her manager.

Joan’s manager, Nancy*, who cannot be named for legal reasons, raised Joan’s concerns with the Independent Children’s Lawyer (ICL) in the case.

An Independent Children’s Lawyer is appointed by the court to advocate for the child’s best interest in a parenting dispute.

Joan was shocked when her manager informed her that the child’s lawyer wasn’t interested in her abuse concerns and didn’t want them filed in a report because, according to the manager, “[the ICL] did not want to give the mother any material which would allow her to go back into court.”

Documents seen by the ABC revealed the owner, Nancy, was worried about her business. After hearing the centre’s concerns about the possibility Sally was being abused, the Independent Children’s Lawyer stopped sending new cases to the centre.

[P]rivate contact centres, like the one supervising Sally’s case, have no mandatory requirements and no regulatory body.

There is no agency tracking how many private centres exist, but an Australian Institute of Family Studies report released in December last year estimated there were more than 60.

Contact centres were primarily established so parents who were judged to be at risk of harming a child could have contact with their children in a safe, supervised setting.

Elspeth McInnes is a professor of sociology at the University of South Australia and has studied family separation and family law over several decades.

The professor says she is now hearing about more cases where parents who believed their child’s complaints of abuse, had lost custody and were only allowed to have supervised contact.

Source: Regulation of child contact centres called into question as staffer alleges concerns about possible child abuse were ignored – ABC News

Sexual assault victims give evidence in court, but alleged perpetrators don’t have to. Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case shows why that needs to change

In essence, the right to silence is the right for an accused person not to incriminate themself through their own testimony. In Australia, it is mostly seen as a central part of the presumption of innocence for serious crimes. It is widely used.

At first glance, this seems fair enough. The prosecution should have to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt to avoid wrongful conviction. The right to silence can protect against abuses of process by the state against the individual.

Yet, like many sexual assault and child sexual abuse cases, this trial boiled down to an accusation and a denial: one person’s word against another. It was key to Channel Ten’s legal case, seeking to defend the claims it reported as true.

Given the nature of sex crimes, which mostly happen in private, there is often no hard evidence. There is no CCTV footage or “third party” witness. There is often no paper trail or easy basis for DNA testing where the accused is known or the case is about consent.

What ultimately brought Lehrmann undone in this civil trial was that he chose to give evidence in defence of his reputation. He likely chose to testify because under New South Wales defamation law, the person alleging they’ve been defamed has the onus of proving the statements were, in fact, defamatory. For five days, the open court heard and felt the quality of his evidence and character.

This case was a rare chance to see what happens when everyone tells their story about an alleged rape. The decision is a basis from which legal reformers and academics should be seriously questioning the role of the right to silence in sex crime cases.

Source: Sexual assault victims give evidence in court, but alleged perpetrators don’t have to. Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case shows why that needs to change

A PODCAST ABOUT GENDER & MEDICINE

Desexing Society is the first podcast to critically examine the youth gender dysphoria epidemic in Australia.

Over the last decade, hundreds of thousands of young people around the world have started identifying as transgender. Healthcare professionals working with gender dysphoric children and adolescents have adopted a controversial treatment model known as “gender affirming care.” It involves agreeing with the patient that they’re meant to be the opposite sex. Medical interventions attempting to change a child’s sex begin at the onset of puberty, which for girls can be as early as 9 years old. Can doctors really predict which children are going to be transsexual in adulthood?

In this 8-part series, we’ll explore the origins of gender affirming care, how it became embedded in Australia’s public health system and the tragic consequences of misdiagnosis. We’ll also look at how public schools are contributing to the youth gender dysphoria epidemic, and more.

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