In May this year, the Federal Health Department called a meeting of key men’s health organisations asking them to prepare a pre-budget submission for Treasury, making the case for increased men’s health funding.
Our major men’s groups were all on board – including Men’s Sheds, Movember, Dads in Distress, Australian Men’s Health Forum. They beavered for months producing their carefully analysed funding strategies.
Finally, the government called a zoom meeting to announce the outcome. The men eagerly came on board, waiting to see what on their wish list would win the big bucks.
The moment arrived. The government spokesperson unashamedly announced the Labor government’s decision. Zero new funding. Not a single dollar to add to the pittance already received by a couple of the key organisations.
A few months later, when the 2024-25 budget was announced, it emerged the government had allocated over $160 million to women's health.
That’s exactly what we would expect from Albanese’s anti-male Labor government which has spent the last two years pushing through legislation and regulations designed to promote women and damage men. Endless money for feminist projects – like the $4.7 billion just announced for family and sexual violence projects demonising men. There were the draconian changes to the Family Law Act which removed children’s rights to care by both parents after divorce and new legislation, currently before parliament, giving more family assets to alleged victims of violence.
Men make it onto Labor’s agenda only as targets for social engineering – witness the new push to wipe out toxic masculinity with a $3.5 million project to “combat harmful gender stereotypes online.”
Surely this feminist-led mob might now be considering whether this male bashing might one day bring them undone. Look at what happened to the Democrats. The male vote played a major role in Trump’s historic victory – with big swings from Hispanic and Black men, and also younger male voters.
Kamala Harris appears to have failed in her efforts to win the Presidency; at least in part because American men have had enough.
For months leading up to the election, the media was full of stories about the Democrat’s Man Problem, as polls revealed what was widely touted as the biggest gender gap in history.
It was mighty entertaining to watch the panic as Democrats realised the men they had ignored and denigrated for decades might rob them of the chance of retaining power. They hadn’t a clue how to deal with the problem. We saw former president Barack Obama sneering at black men for not being man enough to accept a woman as president. Vice presidential candidate Tim Walz embarked on a media blitz designed to woo male voters, only to attract widespread derision when he struggled to load his gun in a pheasant hunt. And Kamala Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff’s efforts to “redefine masculinity” were derailed by revelations he had an affair with his kids’ nanny and had been accused of hitting an ex-girlfriend.
Then came the cringy Man Enough political ad denigrating outdated masculine archetypes, dudes in cowboy hats, bearded bikers and the like. The very perceptive Newsweek editor, Batya Ungar-Sargon, commented on X that the ad wasn’t designed to convince men to vote for Harris but to “reassure her base—college educated women—that the Democratic Party is truly theirs.”
The amazing thing is that even though the Democrats did everything they could to pander to women; here too they lost support. Perhaps many American women were sensible enough to reject Kamala Harris because they regarded it as offensive to be bullied into voting for this “empty pantsuit’ – a vacuous DEI (“diversity, equity and inclusion”) candidate who demonstrated that she was not chosen on merit.
Trump has declared war on DEI - his campaign promised, for example, to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs in government institutions, using federal funding as leverage. As he said in his victory speech last night - “Promises made, promises kept.”
“The possibility, therefore, now exists for an administration to approach our dysfunctional federal government in the same way Javier Milei approached Argentina’s since his election as president a year ago—with a chainsaw,” wrote historian Niall Fergusson on Substack this morning.
What great timing for all of us in Australia who are desperate to get rid of our current anti-male government. The forthcoming Australian Federal election will now take place in the shadow of this rebellion by American men. Those men have given an almighty thumbs up to the massive coalition of sneering mainstream media and liberal establishment fuelled by a billion dollars in election funding – who are sobbing into their soy lattes this morning, complaining about misogyny.
We need a major political campaign, exposing Labor and the Green’s antagonism to men and urging opposition parties to finally step up and prove they will govern for all, rather than continuing to pander to the feminist lobby.
The Federal Opposition has promised to restore support for fathers in the Family Law Act. Let’s hold them to that. But we must also embark on a campaign to expose how politicians have been selling men out and why this must change.
Please contact me if you have experience in political strategy, good political contacts or relevant connections. We need to seize this vital moment. I’ll be seeking help from all of you in making this happen. We must warn men that Labor and the Greens are out to get them!
Meanwhile, elsewhere there’s ample evidence that the male vote is already making a difference….
“A chill wind swept through Europe this summer. On the continent, far-right parties rose triumphantly in the EU elections, hoisted not just by the grumbles of older xenophobes but on the shoulders of young men,” sneered The Guardian, claiming that the nationalist right is rising on the tides of gelled-backed hair and Nike swooshes.
Young men are increasingly disenchanted by the woke politics of the left. The Guardian article included this Gallop Poll graph showing the growing gap in political ideology of young men and women.
As I described in an earlier article, a key aspect of this disenchantment seems to be rebellion against feminist policies which discriminate against men. A 32-country survey found a majority of world citizens – 54% — believe that “when it comes to giving women equal rights to men, things have gone far enough in their country.” These views are especially strong among persons under 40 years of age, in countries such as China, India, the Netherlands, Spain, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, and Peru.
Political leaders in such countries are discovering that challenging feminist policies can be a sure vote winner. Take Argentina, where Javier Milei won a landslide victory last year with policies which included waging a "cultural battle" against socialism and feminism. He has stuck to his word with a blistering attack against radical feminism at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland last June, charging that feminism has become a noxious force because it engenders conflict between men and women.
“The first of these new battles was the ridiculous and unnatural fight between man and woman. This radical feminism agenda has led to increased state intervention, hindering the economic process. It provides jobs to bureaucrats who haven’t contributed anything to society, whether through women’s ministries or international organizations promoting this agenda,” Milei charged.
Milei has defunded and disbanded its Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity and has a bill before the Senate to impose civil penalties on false accusers. The Argentinian Vice President Victoria Villarruel recently charged that false allegations against men are made “without consequences for lying, breaking the principle of equality before the law, of innocence and defence, destroying the ties of thousands of families, and the many parents who can’t see their children.”
Justice Minister Cúneo Libarona has announced a bill to address the problem: “False reporting of gender violence will be punished under the new Penal Code. If this gender-based complaint caused harm to intra-family relations, for example, the father was unable to contact his minor children, this will be another aggravating factor.”
Despite feminist meltdowns and political damage caused by painful spending cuts, Milei has retained his popularity – suggesting majority support for agendas based on fair treatment for men and women.
Whatever concerns one might have about some of the more extreme policies supported by these “far right” countries, it would be foolish to ignore this successful challenge to the feminist ideology still capturing so many Western countries.
Look at South Korea where 58 % of men in their twenties voted for Yoon Suk Yeol in 2022, who stood on an overtly anti-feminist platform. During his 2022 presidential campaign, Yoon Suk Yeol emphasized that structural discrimination against women does not exist in modern society; rather, that social differences between the sexes are a result of gender preferences.
Nearly 80% of men in their 20s report they are discriminated against in South Korea. The President is still committed to his promise to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and has vowed to promote tougher penalties for those making false accusations of sexual misconduct.
The list of countries taking a similar stance is growing:
El Salvador: Earlier this month, president Nayib Bukele announced he is removing “every last trace” of gender ideologies from the schools in his country
Mongolia: Last December, the crisis of men and boys was brought to the attention of the United Nations when Mongolian Minister of Foreign Affairs Battsetseg Batmunkh announced her government’s “She for He” initiative aiming to address the challenges faced by men and boys. In Mongolia, the life expectancy of men is nine years shorter than for females.
Romania: This country has just passed an anti-parental alienation law. This law now includes “parental estrangement” as a form of child abuse or neglect and resident parents will also be required to pick up and deliver children after visitation, rather than the non-residential parent having to provide the transport.
Turkey: In 2021, Turkey released a Presidential Decree announcing its withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention on violence against women – a blatantly anti-male propaganda device. This year, the senate of the Czech Republic took a similar stance.
And look at what’s happening even in progressive Denmark, where the Danish Ministry of Digitalization and Gender Equality recently announced the decision to assure equal support to male victims of domestic violence. Danish Minister for Equality Marie Bjerre announced, “The time has come to ensure that abused men and their children receive the same help as when a woman reaches out for help. Equality is for both women and men.”
Breaking down the stranglehold of feminism on domestic violence funding is key to challenging their power. And it’s significant this is starting to happen not just in more conservative countries.
Others, like Australia, have a long way to go. In the UK we have Keir Starmer, who in his former role of Director of Public Prosecutions, worked relentlessly to promote the feminist goal of locking up more men. He’s now intent on ensuring unproven violence allegations have even more impact in the family court. And his Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper is including “extreme misogyny” in Britain’s counter extremism programme – making teenage boys a target.
Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Canada remain strongholds for feminist power. But with Trump now in control – and having control of the Senate and most likely the House – America is due for a reset. Finally, here’s a government that might be willing to address the desperate state of so many boys and men in America and give them new hope.
That’s where the Democrats really got it wrong. Both men and women deserve a future.
Such a brilliant article Bettina. Thank you. The sad thing is that the LNP under Morrison was even more feminist in many ways than the ALP had been up to that point. Obviously the ALP will not change direction on feminism, given the ideology is part of the left wing thinking. However the LNP needs to understand that votes are in counting modern feminism - not funding it.
Thanks Bettina. Our current Australian PM is a weak man and thus Zero. Election time soon enough and he will be gone. Keep up the great work :-)