Banning our conference.

- Some people aren't allowed to talk about the presumption of innocence.

How hilarious. There’s now a petition to close down our conference. It appears you are not allowed to talk about restoring the presumption of innocence - particularly if you are Bruce Lehrmann.

The Australian media has been going nuts all week, ever since I announced we were holding the conference. It started with my former colleague Kate McClymont from the Sydney Morning Herald who produced a diatribe under the headline, “Want to hear from Bruce Lehrmann about the justice system. That will be $100 a ticket please”.

It was flattering that she is clearly reading all my blogs, as she quoted from one after another in her efforts to denigrate me. Such a shame that this once revered investigatory reporter is ending her career with a stream of nasty tabloid gotcha moments and anti-male bile which has nothing to do with proper journalism.

But thank you, Kate. You did a brilliant job promoting the conference. Your efforts immediately rewarded by a $500 donation to the fundraiser supporting the conference, which has now raised over $7,000. Such a help to cover costs of flying in some of our interstate speakers and assist with the costs of live streaming. It now looks likely we will be live streaming across the world, on TNT Radio. More details coming soon.

But the real excitement will be at our actual event which is attracting huge attention from across the country. Tickets are now on sale and selling fast.

Here’s the link: https://www.scienceandfreedom.org/events/

We are putting together some lively images and memes for you to help us get the word out about our conference. Please can use this one for men’s groups and other organisations likely to be sympathetic to our cause.

And here’s one for you to use for professional audiences like lawyers or psychologists, requiring a more cautious approach:

I’m attaching a document which includes a written blurb with material to use in emails you send out to organisations and newsletters – any means you can think of to spread the word. Remember that the success of the conference will be measured not by the number of people we get to come along. We want people to watch the live streaming or the videos of the conference once they are online - so they need to know this is happening.  

Knowing that people can come together to openly discuss the state of our justice system will send a powerful message about freedom of speech and the fact we can all stand up and be heard.

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But back to the excitement of media reaction to our conference…

By Tuesday I was trending on Twitter (X), to the delight of some of my supporters:

“You've done so famously with this Bruce Lehrmann conference. You were trending all day next to the Gaza war. Even the most far left lunatics were paying attention. I think you're a national hero.”

But my critics were seething:

“You need serious mental health treatment. Your tiny brain is utter mush. And by the way, despite years of desperately sucking up to them, most men loathe you anyway. Except of course, the abusers and murderers. They think you’re just the tops.”

The petition to close down the conference was started by a professional advocacy group for survivors. Astonishingly they are calling on MPs Allegra Spender and Alex Greenwich plus the Woollahra Council to stop it from happening. Very revealing that the activists believe these particular local members of parliament would choose to close down a professional conference.

How do they imagine this will happen - Allegra Spender, complete with pitchfork, charging the doors of the conference venue?

Never fear, people. There will be extensive security at the venue to ensure the safety of our audience. Our conference is being handled by experts very familiar with the antics of people who seek to control free speech and all will go smoothly.

The reality is this noisy mob is tiny and far outnumbered by ordinary people who are applauding the fact we are holding a conference to address the very serious injustice occurring in this country. We’ve heard from many criminal lawyers and other professionals keen to participate.

It has also been sad to hear from families across the country whose loved one has been falsely accused:

“I saw today a disgusting article but it informed me about your upcoming event in June! It actually really hit home. My son was falsely accused of rape and he’s never been the same since. It ruined his life, he lost all his friends, his job and his mental health plummeted. I’d love to help get this event going, and I have a big group of supporters who would love to attend. Could I have some more details!” 

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We are very aware the decision to include Bruce Lehrmann in the conference is extremely controversial, particularly after the battering his reputation has taken as a result of the bile circulated in the media after a disgruntled ex-producer from Channel 7, Taylor Auerbach, used court privilege to take aim at his former employers – inserting himself into Lehrmann’s defamation trial to gain maximum publicity.

Lehrmann is taking action against Channel 10 for their decision to broadcast Brittany Higgins’ rape allegation. Things are currently not looking good for 10 who have been exposed as deliberately overlooking flaws in Higgins’ account in their rush to hit the news with this huge story, as well as advising Wilkinson it was ok for her to give the Logie speech which delayed the criminal trial.

It looks like they could be facing a large damages payout to Lehrmann and speculation in legal circles is that they chose to use Auerbach to inflict maximum reputational damage on Lehrmann, to try to reduce their costs. Mind you this might backfire on Ten with Auerbach’s evidence including material damaging to Higgins which had previously been precluded from the criminal trial. Plus it now looks like Auerbach may face criminal charges after admitting in court that he tried to sell naked photos to newspapers of the former model Kate Fischer (now known as Tziporah Malkah).

But still we see Auerbach’s inflammatory allegations about Lehrmann paying thousands for Thai massages and cocaine spread across the country’s media, despite Channel 7 denying any such payments were made. Naturally, hardly any media reports mentioned the defamation judge Michael Lee’s sceptical comments about Auerbach’s evidence.

“Don’t put him up as some sort of noble public interested person who was coming along to assist His Majesty’s justices,” Lee warned. “He’s a man who wanted to make a range of allegations against people under absolute privilege….one could rationally form a view that this is a man who desperately wanted to do as much damage to his previous employer as he could conceivably do.” 

Where was the presumption of innocence for Bruce Lehrmann in the face of this latest media onslaught? Even after the Auerbach slander, journalists have been hounding Lehrmann day and night, gloating that he has nowhere to live. They succeeded in destroying the temporary sanctuary he was offered by a friend, who was driven crazy by photographers trying to get photographs of Lehrmann with the man’s attractive cousins, and journalists falsely claiming Lehrmann was involved in wild parties at the venue.

Don’t believe anything you read about Lehrmann’s current wild social life. He’s been forced by our appalling media to live like a hermit. I know what it is like to be the target of the media’s  misinformation campaign. Truth matters for little in today’s media.

If anyone has the right to speak publicly about the presumption of innocence it is Bruce Lehrmann – the ultimate victim of trial by media.

But none of this is relevant to the question of whether the media was right to go public with Higgins’ dubious story and destroy Lehrmann’s life.  That will be decided on Monday and I’ll be ready with all the news.