Momentous conference

- Tipping point for change?

Our conference on Restoring the Presumption of Innocence was an outstanding success. Messages are pouring in from many of the 200 plus people who sat rapt as our powerful speakers revealed the shocking state of justice facing men in this country. The big audiences who watched it online were equally engrossed. 

Everyone recognises how important it is to break the silence about the toll this is taking on men and their families. Particularly the devastation caused by false allegations of violence and sexual abuse.

Naturally, the event was ignored by most of our mainstream media, except for the Sydney Morning Herald, which can’t resist putting in the boot whenever anything challenges the feminist narrative now controlling the paper.

The paper claimed the conference “fizzled” after the “star attraction,” lawyer Zali Burrows, failed to show. She told the Herald that she had pulled out of the conference after being “bullied, intimidated and threatened” by the online feminist mob.

The truth is, not a single demonstrator turned up at the conference. See the underemployed security guards we had at the front of the venue, guarding an empty street.

This is despite the best efforts of feminists to stir up trouble by publishing the name and address of the venue online in the days before the conference. Nina Funnell, who has spent much of the last decade trying to destroy my career, posted not only the venue information but also the whole conference program online, suggesting her supporters should “rain on our parade”. Funnell, who built her rather disappointing career upon her status as a “rape survivor,” recently grumbled to a journalist that young, attractive rape victims like Grace Tame attract all the attention!

If anything proved a fizzer it was the efforts of these creatures which, despite all their huffing and puffing, prompted heat but no fire. These activists love to promote lies to their followers, who lap it up. Mad Fucking Witches wrongly claimed to have discovered the venue earlier in the year - they said they had dissuaded the venue owners from hosting the event. In fact, they had no idea where the conference was to be held. Last week they announced they were not bothering to campaign against us this time because our numbers “are tiny and getting smaller all the time.” Oh yeh?  

On the contrary, the interest in our conference showed there is a huge appetite for the truth about what’s happening in our justice system. Our powerful speakers did an excellent job revealing the dismal reality facing accused men. Prosecutors driven by ideology, determined at any cost to achieve convictions rather than seeking justice. Police hobbled from doing proper investigations. Lousy lawyers happy to sell out their clients. Key organisations hiding vital statistics to demonise men and deny women’s culpability.

The crowded hall was filled with people from the coalface, who deal with these issues every day. Lawyers, social workers, psychologists, child protection officers, prosecutors, mediators, police officers – so many professionals concerned about our broken system and determined to help us fix it.

But also, the casualties. Our audience included people with loved ones awaiting trial or in prison after facing false allegations. Family members who had lost everything in the desperate battle to try to prove innocence in a system tilted to favour “victims.”

It is no wonder their attention was riveted on our speakers, particularly when brave souls told their harrowing personal stories. Like our “mystery” speaker – Vanessa Scammell whose lifelong partner is Craig McLachlan, one of Australia’s best loved actors and celebrities, who suffered an appalling #MeToo attack. Here’s a short version of her moving presentation.

You could feel the relief as Vanessa finally had the chance to talk about what had happened to them. The lies told by their former friends who launched the attack, hearing appalling mistruths from a biased magistrate, and the utterly malicious activism of journalists, including the journalist who openly declared that she wanted to get Craig out of his job – his long running starring role in the Rocky Horror Show.

Speakers like Vanessa drew attention to the details that are left out of the story presented to the public - all the short comings of the press, the law and the justice system were well covered. We heard from Debbie Garratt whose son was wrongly accused of sexual misconduct with a child. And Ian Jones telling the grim tale of the false allegations which sent his son’s accuser to jail.

And then there was the statistics session, revealing shameful manipulation of data by many of our key organisations – all part of the ongoing efforts to demonise men. Tom Nankivell’s meticulous presentation was a classic – with his careful analysis of flaws in research used to claim false rape allegations are rare.  

It's interesting that just this week it has been announced that fifteen rape cases have been discontinued following the audit launched by NSW chief prosecutor Sally Dowling after a series of judges criticised her office claiming it was running meritless rape cases. Apparently, the full results of the highly anticipated probe are due to be made public in a matter of weeks. The plot thickens.

My own presentation also covered some of this territory, as part of a broad overview of sexual assault and domestic assault - what I regard as the twin pillars of feminist crusade to destroy men. Here’s a short taste of what I had to say.

For me, one of the most memorable moments was law professor Augusto Zimmermann speaking so emotionally about his desperate efforts as West Australian Law Reform Commissioner to stop the government passing domestic violence laws which he knew would be weaponised against men. Listen to this wonderful man.

We’ll be posting the full videos of all the presentations on my YouTube channel in the next few days. In the meantime, the conference website has the live stream, now split up into the various presentations, so you can find your way around more easily. There are a few gaps in the presentations – some talks need careful editing for this wider audience.

We are being swamped by people inspired by the conference who want to get involved in achieving change. I’ll be talking more about plans in a future blog.

It’s been very exciting but also totally exhausting. I will be off air for a few weeks now to take a break.  

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