Very happy to see this lively conversation. But I hope you are all also writing to the Prime Minister and other key Ministers, and making public comments even on more hostile media platforms. The government needs to be told they stuffed up on this one.
Excellent point, Bettina. It's basically just shouting at the sky without action.
If people don't feel that they have the resources, contacts or know-how to create effective communications targeted at politicians, Advance Australia are constantly running petitions and providing well structured templates to communicate directly with local federal members of parliament, party leaders, and state politicians. I'm sure there are others, but Advance Australia are the only one I am aware of that make this process so streamlined and simple.
Yes, I think that is a good idea. If you do a search you should be able to find something on their website about comments about oncoming criminal cases. But I feel the complaint shouldn't just be about the Prime Minister but about all the press who have been referring to Higgins as a victim or survivor for months now. Google those words and you will find plenty of examples.
Cannot understand how the 'preumption of innocence' has been entirely junked in cases involving sexual assault. All it takes now is a woman's allegation to smear and destroy a man's reputation and/or his job.
No trial needed.
Journalists now the major assault weapon.
The ABC the most prominent destroyer of our legal system
Who will actually stand up in our Parliament and say it?
There are men in jail all over Australia as a result of being stitched up in this way. I talk to families of these men all the time. They include lawyers, policemen - it can happen to anyone.
And the fact that it can happen to anyone, does it make alright, that women and police will condone and connive always manufacturing lies to sending innocent men to jail?
I had similar thoughts earlier in the week when the prime minister apologised to Brittany Higgins. What acts was he apologising for when the accused fellow has not been convicted of anything yet.
Also as has been discussed much, what is the reasonable balance between not “victim shaming” and taking responsibility for your actions that put yourself in the situation?
If the defendant in the Brittany Higgins trial is proven innocent, surely Morrison's words will be deemed state sanctioned slander, opening the way for massive litigation against the Federal Government, and Morrison as an Australian citizen - a man who by definition in his role as Prime Minister has enormous capacity to influence public opinion about any entity or individual.
As for Grace Tame, her petulance knows no bounds. She is a vitriolic human being with clearly defined partisan allegiances, and she is more than happy to project both on the people of Australia for as long as the nation destroying leftist media continue to give her a soapbox to stand on.
We now have rhetoric and conjecture being posited as news. The Australian media is a disgrace and must be brought to account – especially our national broadcaster, the ABC. But what does the Morrison government do; reward ‘Aunty’ with a massive boost of funding. Absolutely incomprehensible.
It is incredible. I can't understand why their polling is not revealing the huge resentment of the majority of their voters for the way the ABC is operating. Clearly they are only doing market research in Canberra!
I agree, Bettina. I am sure that polling data is telling them exactly what the Australian public are thinking, but I also think that for contemporary conservative politicians, the bogeyman of ‘assumed’ social media influence over public opinion is living rent free in their heads. As a consequence, they constantly defer to the rhetoric of the chattering classes. It is borderline insanity. The Liberal party, in its current form, stands for nothing, and falls for everything. Conviction politics is seemingly anathema to them.
I was humored by yesterday’s media headlines that inferred how brave ‘Higgins and Tame’ were, despite being in the company of their peers. True bravery is people like you, who are willing to put their head above the trenches, no matter what you are being attacked with, providing us with the truth about what is happening in our judiciary, universities, media, and state and federal parliaments. Thank you, Bettina.
Market research, "scientific" polls, - it is much like selling a brand of breakfast cereal, where 10 out of 11 scientists say what they are paid to say. And then it is aired on TV and other media as pure propaganda. So far it works.
Politicians are immune to defamation charges. They can badmouth anybody anywhere in Australia at any time without recourse. I hope this information helps. Thanks folks.
Unfortunately ScoMo's entire persona is about doing the politically expedient course at the time. Election coming up he needs to be seen to be making a stand regardless of the facts.
It makes me sick to the stomach that we have thrown the rule of law out the window.
Of course the other side of politics is totally captured so they aren't a credible alternative and voting for independents means a whole other bunch of loons.
I was pilloried for celebrating the victory of the law over the crowd when Pell was exonerated. I will watch this case and hope that the jury is able to remain detached.
I thought I was losing my mind when I heard that maggot, Morrison apologizing. I also noted the kyron telling us how the bullying and assault of women in parliament must end when the survey made it clear that 70% of the bullying was carried out by toxic females. How does this endless crap escape any scrutiny?
Now some female barristers are arguing for judge alone trials... run by judges trained in the complexities of sexual assault. Oh yes, we know what that means. Only female judges, naturally. As one of the comments in this twitter stream points out..."Then put immense pressure on judges to always convict. Then protest & remove judges who don't comply."
Juries are still a safer option for accused men, even though a ferocious feminist can easily bully and shame fellow jurists into believing the victim.
Incredible that this has occurred less than 2 years after the greatest miscarriage of justice in Australian history was overturned by the High Court with the acquittal of Cardinal George Pell, who was convicted at his second trial in the aftermath of Morrison making a public apology to victims of child sexual abuse from Parliament in October 2018. No evidence was presented to secure Pell's conviction for one of the most heinous crimes a man could be accused of. As the majority judges at the Victorian Appeal Court subsequently made clear, all that was necessary to secure this grave miscarriage of justice was the alleged victim merely being "believed". In the lead up to the much publicised Higgins trial it seems Morrison has done precisely the same thing? Have we learnt anything at all about justice and the rule of law in this country?
Brilliant summation Bettina. (your email) Thank you for standing up for men. Morrison behaved disgracefully and I will never ever vote for Liberals or Labor - never - ever.
Yes, I don't know if I could vote for the Coalition but Labor is SO much worse. I have watched Labor undermine the Howard Government's important reforms to Family Law, and various Labor governments wind back efforts to promote boy's education etc. Labor has done nothing to support men. And don't forget those ghastly Labor Senators who organised the Senate to pass the vote condemning me. Vote for anyone else and the chances are those women will end up in power due to preferences.
Yes, I was seriously and actively involved as a senior advisor in PH in pushing for changes to move to 'shared parenting' to improve the lives of non-custodial parents and particularly fathers and grandparents. There was much resistance but John Howard, a good man supported my quest. Of course once Rudd was elected it went back to the old feminist system. Labor are much worse but the current Libs have betrayed their base - they are in effect a left wing party now and I can't in all conscience support them anymore. I've done that too many times before and they never deliver a conservative government. That ended with Howard and Abbott.
Best way of campaigning, in my humble opinion, is to start establishing parallel structures within the local communities, starting from schools and alternative high education centres and ending with courts of law, where you are not judged by the media and/or establishment celebrities, but by your peers, who live nearby or know you intimately.
Dutch people are already doing it, there is plenty of similar grass root movement in the US, but Australia is still asleep.
most of the labels, - i.e. " populist radical right-wing party" as as false as similar derogatory labels applied by the media to Mark Latham and others. But the information may be useful.
As for academics setting parallel system free from the establishment-enforced political ideology, you know them I guess, if you are following Jordan Peterson and his friends.
Thank you Betina and I agree with your assesment. I would love to see David Leyonhjelm and the Liberal Democrats to come back. They would push this issue into the right direction
Alas, David Leyonhjelm and Liberal Democrats are fighting for the same grounds as One Nation and few other minor players, cancelling each other to the joy of the major political parties.
Tame's perpetrator: Sentenced to 17 months jail for, wait for it: "Maintaining a sexual relationship with a minor". The operative word is "maintaining". Sexual assault? No; Sexual abuse? No; Rape?No.
The only thing I can add to what Bettina has disclosed is that the relationship was only declared after it ceased. Of course Nico was guilty of the offence for which he was charged.
The disgraceful behaviour of the mainstream media is outrageous. Morrison’s behaviour is just ignorant stupidity, which ought to be sufficient to cost him his job but, with an election looming, the alternatives are frightening. Higgins has been assumed to be the unwilling victim of the allegedly unsafe environment of Parliament House. How she and her media claque have been allowed to get away with this line is equally outrageous. Whatever happened in Parliament House only happened because she willingly followed her alleged attacker into the building. She could have waited for him in the taxi. Had she done so, Parliament House could not be blamed for what happened next. She may still have been assaulted somewhere else by the same person but, had she been, Morrison need never have apologised because he and Parliament House would have had nothing to do with the case, a fact so obvious that not even the scurrilous mainstream media could have exploited to use against him.
Sure, when Prime Minister sees no other way but to treat feminist establishment as an essential corporation, necessary for your re-election, you have to play their games.
Enthusiastic consent laws, turning every sexual encounter for men into a trap, are only the beginning.
Feminists will never stop hoarding their "rights", i.e. mechanisms for power play, while any elected representative of the people cannot set him or herself from the feminist establishment. Few exceptions, like Pauline Hanson, are alas, the exceptions. They will be constantly derided in mass media.
But surely conservative politicians should realise the mass media is captured and don't represent the people likely to vote for them. It is just madness to go to such efforts to try to win over women who would never vote for a conservative party in their lives!
Their planning is never too far beyond the next election cycle, for one good reason - to have any solid reasons, sanity and (conservative) convictions are not helpful to get re-elected. Not in a current culture anyway.
Well, until quiet Australians stop watching the TV that sells them all these sentimental stories of poor rape victims, nothing will change.
Australia was a colony with great shortage of women for way too long. Every woman is so precious, it is treated like a princess even if she is spoiled rotten brat, or utterly insane hag in essence.
Who knows what they are thinking right now? I've noticed many women criticising the Higgins and Tame dramatics on threads which are not necessarily conservative or anti-feminist. It seems that we are still allowed to think and state the bleeding obvious.
I think you are being unfair to feminists. In the same way religions are pilloried for the actions of those at the extreme.
I have always seen myself as a feminist. I grew up as the only child of a working single mum and a strong working grandmother. I respected them and knew that it was important for them to be treated equally.
I don't agree with the new positing of women as victims, especially so when the smaller perceived slight is called out as abuse.
The older generation of feminists doesn't support the anti-male policies being promoted by this mob. Feminism was once about equality, fair treatment for all. The new feminists are all about advantaging women at the expense of men.
Posting women as victims is but one part of the powerplay. Next move is to turn around and use all the might of the media, legislative and executive machinery of the state to compensate for this "weakness", to smash the offending bug into complete nothingness. Third part is to watch and enjoy the morality play, presiding over it like a Great Inquisitor over the spectacle of burning heretic. Pure pleasure! Moral orgasm!
It happens every day in family courts, by the way.
Very interesting, Igor. Please excuse me while I interject, there have been problems in the Adelaide Baptist Church network, infiltrated by an organisation known as Women of Worth, who are wagging their fingers of conceit at the helpless masses, working methodically top-down, recruiting big names and only big names (to mass bully any detractors) and placing surveillance cameras in the church foyer to "Keep the little ones safe". Sick joke IMHO.
The church are not standing up to them. Safety is moot, power is everything to them. I wrote to Bettina recently (hope you don't mind, Bettina), as Joseph Bloggs about how churches are being bashed by feminists who take advantage of their kindness. People don't want to rock the boat. They are loving and welcoming people. Rock that boat! They are treating them like "potential pedophiles", and treating them like they are convictions!
My point: Courts of law and due process are not even involved. Thanks Igor.
Rick there are many factions within feminism today with the far left radical Marxist feminists having the loudest (and ugliest) voices. They need to get a new name to more accurately reflect their views and not commandeer what many of us understand by feminism.
I trust it is up to the feminists to set things straight between themselves and publicly expel and shame those who are obviously crooked or deluded and out of touch with reality.
But the "sisterhood" always prefers to keep unity in the face of the common enemy, - i.e. the horrible Patriarchy that Australia is, all these overworked, uncouth beery daddies they rarely see, but hate the guts of.
Excellent sources and summary, Bettina! Many of us non-lawyers spotted this when we saw ScoMo's sickening "apology". It's great to get such expert commentary, from you, Bolt and Chris Merritt so quickly. I particularly liked Bolt's quick and forcefull "Justice delayed is justice denied".
Bolt tends to be so much on the attack that it gets a bit wearisome, but sometimes his passion against injustice and mob rule seems genuine. I noticed this with Cardinal Pell, and here also. He's not afraid of the mob himself!
It's astonishing that ScoMo has done this before and been rebuked for it! What a grub.
Many of the advisers are just a few years out of university, with brains that have been freshly infused with social justice rhetoric from their Political Science degrees.
The only thing conservative about them is economic policy. As for social policy, they are as left of centre as the reds across the floor of parliament.
I'm sure he was advised by lawyers, too. They must have decided that the electoral gain is worth snubbing their nose at the law, under parliamentary privilege.
As for the "electoral gain", that is the part that's bewildering. As you and countless others have said, he is alienating his support base to appeal to people who would never vote for him anyway.
Support bases are currently atomised and lost their true influence. Most the real power is concentrated in a small group of power brokers, doing preferential deals between themselves, largely ignoring their electorate. A few mavericks who actually serve their base are derided as "right-wing populists", uneducated and morally monstrous "deplorables" as a rule of thumb.
My letters to The Australian on this subject were not published but several excellent others were. Good to see the Oz is not afraid to stand up against the Grittany onslaught.
Someone just sent me this comment:
I have a white board outside my shop and put on it today
'Yesterday was tough .
I couldn't decide whether to
listen to Grace and Brittany at the Press Club
or chew broken glass ".
Brilliant!! Who knew glass could be 'cuisine élégante'.
Very happy to see this lively conversation. But I hope you are all also writing to the Prime Minister and other key Ministers, and making public comments even on more hostile media platforms. The government needs to be told they stuffed up on this one.
Excellent point, Bettina. It's basically just shouting at the sky without action.
If people don't feel that they have the resources, contacts or know-how to create effective communications targeted at politicians, Advance Australia are constantly running petitions and providing well structured templates to communicate directly with local federal members of parliament, party leaders, and state politicians. I'm sure there are others, but Advance Australia are the only one I am aware of that make this process so streamlined and simple.
Any point in writing to the Press Council? I would have thought they may have been interested in Morrison’s ill judged comments?
Yes, I think that is a good idea. If you do a search you should be able to find something on their website about comments about oncoming criminal cases. But I feel the complaint shouldn't just be about the Prime Minister but about all the press who have been referring to Higgins as a victim or survivor for months now. Google those words and you will find plenty of examples.
Cannot understand how the 'preumption of innocence' has been entirely junked in cases involving sexual assault. All it takes now is a woman's allegation to smear and destroy a man's reputation and/or his job.
No trial needed.
Journalists now the major assault weapon.
The ABC the most prominent destroyer of our legal system
Who will actually stand up in our Parliament and say it?
Helen Crawford
Nobody... except Mark Latham in NSW. He's the only brave soul daring to call out all this rubbish.
There are men in jail all over Australia as a result of being stitched up in this way. I talk to families of these men all the time. They include lawyers, policemen - it can happen to anyone.
And the fact that it can happen to anyone, does it make alright, that women and police will condone and connive always manufacturing lies to sending innocent men to jail?
Steph, give me a break! I am 72 years old and spend every day of my life worrying about what is happening to men. And doing something about it!
And what are we doing exactly about it, only talking, we've become a country of talkers.
I am so sorry to hear this Kay. I hope you and your son get the justice you deserve. This is a crazy period in history for our poor men.
They are doing it to your son as well, what State are you in, let me see if I can help your son recommending someone.
I had similar thoughts earlier in the week when the prime minister apologised to Brittany Higgins. What acts was he apologising for when the accused fellow has not been convicted of anything yet.
Also as has been discussed much, what is the reasonable balance between not “victim shaming” and taking responsibility for your actions that put yourself in the situation?
If the defendant in the Brittany Higgins trial is proven innocent, surely Morrison's words will be deemed state sanctioned slander, opening the way for massive litigation against the Federal Government, and Morrison as an Australian citizen - a man who by definition in his role as Prime Minister has enormous capacity to influence public opinion about any entity or individual.
As for Grace Tame, her petulance knows no bounds. She is a vitriolic human being with clearly defined partisan allegiances, and she is more than happy to project both on the people of Australia for as long as the nation destroying leftist media continue to give her a soapbox to stand on.
We now have rhetoric and conjecture being posited as news. The Australian media is a disgrace and must be brought to account – especially our national broadcaster, the ABC. But what does the Morrison government do; reward ‘Aunty’ with a massive boost of funding. Absolutely incomprehensible.
It is incredible. I can't understand why their polling is not revealing the huge resentment of the majority of their voters for the way the ABC is operating. Clearly they are only doing market research in Canberra!
I agree, Bettina. I am sure that polling data is telling them exactly what the Australian public are thinking, but I also think that for contemporary conservative politicians, the bogeyman of ‘assumed’ social media influence over public opinion is living rent free in their heads. As a consequence, they constantly defer to the rhetoric of the chattering classes. It is borderline insanity. The Liberal party, in its current form, stands for nothing, and falls for everything. Conviction politics is seemingly anathema to them.
I was humored by yesterday’s media headlines that inferred how brave ‘Higgins and Tame’ were, despite being in the company of their peers. True bravery is people like you, who are willing to put their head above the trenches, no matter what you are being attacked with, providing us with the truth about what is happening in our judiciary, universities, media, and state and federal parliaments. Thank you, Bettina.
Market research, "scientific" polls, - it is much like selling a brand of breakfast cereal, where 10 out of 11 scientists say what they are paid to say. And then it is aired on TV and other media as pure propaganda. So far it works.
Haha! An explanation at last!
Politicians are immune to defamation charges. They can badmouth anybody anywhere in Australia at any time without recourse. I hope this information helps. Thanks folks.
Unfortunately ScoMo's entire persona is about doing the politically expedient course at the time. Election coming up he needs to be seen to be making a stand regardless of the facts.
It makes me sick to the stomach that we have thrown the rule of law out the window.
Of course the other side of politics is totally captured so they aren't a credible alternative and voting for independents means a whole other bunch of loons.
I was pilloried for celebrating the victory of the law over the crowd when Pell was exonerated. I will watch this case and hope that the jury is able to remain detached.
I thought I was losing my mind when I heard that maggot, Morrison apologizing. I also noted the kyron telling us how the bullying and assault of women in parliament must end when the survey made it clear that 70% of the bullying was carried out by toxic females. How does this endless crap escape any scrutiny?
look at the mad journalists at the Press Club yesterday and you will see why. They are all captured and have no integrity at all.
Now some female barristers are arguing for judge alone trials... run by judges trained in the complexities of sexual assault. Oh yes, we know what that means. Only female judges, naturally. As one of the comments in this twitter stream points out..."Then put immense pressure on judges to always convict. Then protest & remove judges who don't comply."
Juries are still a safer option for accused men, even though a ferocious feminist can easily bully and shame fellow jurists into believing the victim.
https://twitter.com/MisandryE/status/1491843267562020880
Incredible that this has occurred less than 2 years after the greatest miscarriage of justice in Australian history was overturned by the High Court with the acquittal of Cardinal George Pell, who was convicted at his second trial in the aftermath of Morrison making a public apology to victims of child sexual abuse from Parliament in October 2018. No evidence was presented to secure Pell's conviction for one of the most heinous crimes a man could be accused of. As the majority judges at the Victorian Appeal Court subsequently made clear, all that was necessary to secure this grave miscarriage of justice was the alleged victim merely being "believed". In the lead up to the much publicised Higgins trial it seems Morrison has done precisely the same thing? Have we learnt anything at all about justice and the rule of law in this country?
Obviously not!
Brilliant summation Bettina. (your email) Thank you for standing up for men. Morrison behaved disgracefully and I will never ever vote for Liberals or Labor - never - ever.
Yes, I don't know if I could vote for the Coalition but Labor is SO much worse. I have watched Labor undermine the Howard Government's important reforms to Family Law, and various Labor governments wind back efforts to promote boy's education etc. Labor has done nothing to support men. And don't forget those ghastly Labor Senators who organised the Senate to pass the vote condemning me. Vote for anyone else and the chances are those women will end up in power due to preferences.
Yes, I was seriously and actively involved as a senior advisor in PH in pushing for changes to move to 'shared parenting' to improve the lives of non-custodial parents and particularly fathers and grandparents. There was much resistance but John Howard, a good man supported my quest. Of course once Rudd was elected it went back to the old feminist system. Labor are much worse but the current Libs have betrayed their base - they are in effect a left wing party now and I can't in all conscience support them anymore. I've done that too many times before and they never deliver a conservative government. That ended with Howard and Abbott.
We need to think of some way of campaigning to say that to parliamentarians prior to this election.
Best way of campaigning, in my humble opinion, is to start establishing parallel structures within the local communities, starting from schools and alternative high education centres and ending with courts of law, where you are not judged by the media and/or establishment celebrities, but by your peers, who live nearby or know you intimately.
Dutch people are already doing it, there is plenty of similar grass root movement in the US, but Australia is still asleep.
That's interesting, Igor. Send me material about this, if you have it.
Australian semi-official view
https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/rise-thierry-baudet/
most of the labels, - i.e. " populist radical right-wing party" as as false as similar derogatory labels applied by the media to Mark Latham and others. But the information may be useful.
Bettina, you may follow Thierry Henri Philippe Baudet writings on Takimag and other places. It may be a good starting point.
https://www.takimag.com/contributor/Thierry%20Baudet/846/
As for academics setting parallel system free from the establishment-enforced political ideology, you know them I guess, if you are following Jordan Peterson and his friends.
Thank you Betina and I agree with your assesment. I would love to see David Leyonhjelm and the Liberal Democrats to come back. They would push this issue into the right direction
Alas, David Leyonhjelm and Liberal Democrats are fighting for the same grounds as One Nation and few other minor players, cancelling each other to the joy of the major political parties.
Yes, unfortunately the best of a bad set of options.
Tame's perpetrator: Sentenced to 17 months jail for, wait for it: "Maintaining a sexual relationship with a minor". The operative word is "maintaining". Sexual assault? No; Sexual abuse? No; Rape?No.
See the transcript of the case. https://catalogue.lawlibrary.tas.gov.au/?query=bester&type=Sentencing#record/14216
The only thing I can add to what Bettina has disclosed is that the relationship was only declared after it ceased. Of course Nico was guilty of the offence for which he was charged.
The disgraceful behaviour of the mainstream media is outrageous. Morrison’s behaviour is just ignorant stupidity, which ought to be sufficient to cost him his job but, with an election looming, the alternatives are frightening. Higgins has been assumed to be the unwilling victim of the allegedly unsafe environment of Parliament House. How she and her media claque have been allowed to get away with this line is equally outrageous. Whatever happened in Parliament House only happened because she willingly followed her alleged attacker into the building. She could have waited for him in the taxi. Had she done so, Parliament House could not be blamed for what happened next. She may still have been assaulted somewhere else by the same person but, had she been, Morrison need never have apologised because he and Parliament House would have had nothing to do with the case, a fact so obvious that not even the scurrilous mainstream media could have exploited to use against him.
Sure, when Prime Minister sees no other way but to treat feminist establishment as an essential corporation, necessary for your re-election, you have to play their games.
Enthusiastic consent laws, turning every sexual encounter for men into a trap, are only the beginning.
Feminists will never stop hoarding their "rights", i.e. mechanisms for power play, while any elected representative of the people cannot set him or herself from the feminist establishment. Few exceptions, like Pauline Hanson, are alas, the exceptions. They will be constantly derided in mass media.
But surely conservative politicians should realise the mass media is captured and don't represent the people likely to vote for them. It is just madness to go to such efforts to try to win over women who would never vote for a conservative party in their lives!
Their planning is never too far beyond the next election cycle, for one good reason - to have any solid reasons, sanity and (conservative) convictions are not helpful to get re-elected. Not in a current culture anyway.
Well, the polls were wrong last time. The quiet Australians spoke out. Who knows what they are thinking right now.
Well, until quiet Australians stop watching the TV that sells them all these sentimental stories of poor rape victims, nothing will change.
Australia was a colony with great shortage of women for way too long. Every woman is so precious, it is treated like a princess even if she is spoiled rotten brat, or utterly insane hag in essence.
Who knows what they are thinking right now? I've noticed many women criticising the Higgins and Tame dramatics on threads which are not necessarily conservative or anti-feminist. It seems that we are still allowed to think and state the bleeding obvious.
I think you are being unfair to feminists. In the same way religions are pilloried for the actions of those at the extreme.
I have always seen myself as a feminist. I grew up as the only child of a working single mum and a strong working grandmother. I respected them and knew that it was important for them to be treated equally.
I don't agree with the new positing of women as victims, especially so when the smaller perceived slight is called out as abuse.
The older generation of feminists doesn't support the anti-male policies being promoted by this mob. Feminism was once about equality, fair treatment for all. The new feminists are all about advantaging women at the expense of men.
One more fresh example of the same hypocrisy.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/christian-pastor-trends-over-tweet-on-female-modesty-that-outrages-feminists-he-poses-question-in-response-to-backlash
Posting women as victims is but one part of the powerplay. Next move is to turn around and use all the might of the media, legislative and executive machinery of the state to compensate for this "weakness", to smash the offending bug into complete nothingness. Third part is to watch and enjoy the morality play, presiding over it like a Great Inquisitor over the spectacle of burning heretic. Pure pleasure! Moral orgasm!
It happens every day in family courts, by the way.
Very interesting, Igor. Please excuse me while I interject, there have been problems in the Adelaide Baptist Church network, infiltrated by an organisation known as Women of Worth, who are wagging their fingers of conceit at the helpless masses, working methodically top-down, recruiting big names and only big names (to mass bully any detractors) and placing surveillance cameras in the church foyer to "Keep the little ones safe". Sick joke IMHO.
The church are not standing up to them. Safety is moot, power is everything to them. I wrote to Bettina recently (hope you don't mind, Bettina), as Joseph Bloggs about how churches are being bashed by feminists who take advantage of their kindness. People don't want to rock the boat. They are loving and welcoming people. Rock that boat! They are treating them like "potential pedophiles", and treating them like they are convictions!
My point: Courts of law and due process are not even involved. Thanks Igor.
Rick there are many factions within feminism today with the far left radical Marxist feminists having the loudest (and ugliest) voices. They need to get a new name to more accurately reflect their views and not commandeer what many of us understand by feminism.
I trust it is up to the feminists to set things straight between themselves and publicly expel and shame those who are obviously crooked or deluded and out of touch with reality.
But the "sisterhood" always prefers to keep unity in the face of the common enemy, - i.e. the horrible Patriarchy that Australia is, all these overworked, uncouth beery daddies they rarely see, but hate the guts of.
Excellent sources and summary, Bettina! Many of us non-lawyers spotted this when we saw ScoMo's sickening "apology". It's great to get such expert commentary, from you, Bolt and Chris Merritt so quickly. I particularly liked Bolt's quick and forcefull "Justice delayed is justice denied".
Bolt tends to be so much on the attack that it gets a bit wearisome, but sometimes his passion against injustice and mob rule seems genuine. I noticed this with Cardinal Pell, and here also. He's not afraid of the mob himself!
It's astonishing that ScoMo has done this before and been rebuked for it! What a grub.
But he is surely not just making these decisions on his own. He must have advisers who include lawyers. What were they thinking?
Many of the advisers are just a few years out of university, with brains that have been freshly infused with social justice rhetoric from their Political Science degrees.
The only thing conservative about them is economic policy. As for social policy, they are as left of centre as the reds across the floor of parliament.
I'm sure he was advised by lawyers, too. They must have decided that the electoral gain is worth snubbing their nose at the law, under parliamentary privilege.
As for the "electoral gain", that is the part that's bewildering. As you and countless others have said, he is alienating his support base to appeal to people who would never vote for him anyway.
He's still a grub for accepting the legal advice.
Support bases are currently atomised and lost their true influence. Most the real power is concentrated in a small group of power brokers, doing preferential deals between themselves, largely ignoring their electorate. A few mavericks who actually serve their base are derided as "right-wing populists", uneducated and morally monstrous "deplorables" as a rule of thumb.
My letters to The Australian on this subject were not published but several excellent others were. Good to see the Oz is not afraid to stand up against the Grittany onslaught.
“Grittany onslaught”. Love it! Just Bizzaro world. And, yes, good to see The Oz publishing letters against them.
David Flint in today’s Australian letters page wasn’t impressed . Asked if the prime minister had advisors