Restoring the Presumption of Innocence

The Albanese government continues its shameless targeting of men. Right now, our family court system awaits the full impact of the new family law legislation which removes all measures promoting children’s rights to have the divorced father in their lives. An already biased family court is set to become even more hostile to men.

The Labor government is also currently laying the groundwork for its $14.7 million commitment to strengthen the way the criminal justice system responds to sexual assault – meaning further tilting the scales in favour of “victims”. Last year they held a national roundtable where prominent “survivors” came up with ideas to frame terms of reference for the current Australian Law Reform Commission inquiry. All sorts of choice ideas popped up, all aimed at ensuring more rape convictions. Like a crackdown on “inappropriate defence counsel questioning in rape trials”, more training in “trauma-informed justice” for lawyers and judges, and even specialist courts which would do away with the higher standard required in criminal courts and determine matters on the balance of probability. All that makes it so much easier to declare a man a rapist, as we have seen.

The scene is set to further undermine the presumption of innocence as trial by media becomes an everyday event. We’ve seen a steady stream of well-known men subject to ferocious #MeToo sexual harassment media campaigns – destroying their careers, and often their lives. Think of Geoffrey Rush and Craig McLachlan or, more recently, the Sydney Morning Herald’s ferocious attacks on Alan Jones. All based on smears and innuendo, usually untested in criminal courts.

We’ve watched rape cases thrown out of court.

We’ve watched rape cases thrown out of court. There have been football stars such as Kurtley Beale, whose accuser invited him to follow her into a man’s toilet. And Jarryd Haynes, recently released from prison after his sexual assault conviction was overturned. Christian Porter had his career destroyed, as did Alan Tudge and Dyson Haydon. And there was the hounding of George Pell, whose conviction was eventually overturned by a unanimous High Court decision.

In the past year five NSW District Court judges have spoken out about insufficient evidence supporting the prosecution of men accused of sexual assault. Right now, NSW public prosecutors are conducting an audit of all current sexual assault cases to address the issues they raised.

The Sofronoff inquiry into the Higgins/Lehrmann case revealed a zealous prosecutor determined to override the police investigation, which concluded Higgins was “evasive, uncooperative and manipulative.” Shane Drumgold ruthlessly bent rules to try to ensure Lehrmann’s conviction. More worrying still was abundant evidence of the feminist capture of the justice system which has removed any real role for police in determining which rape cases go to trial.

All these recent events provided the impetus for a proper public discussion about what exactly is going on. That’s what is about to happen – at the Restoring the Presumption of Innocence conference – a one-day event to take place in Sydney on August 31. Here’s the website for all the details.

The conference is hosted by Australians for Science and Freedom (ASF), an organisation founded by concerned doctors, lawyers, and academics who objected to the government’s response to the Covid pandemic. Now they are focussing on broader goals, including encouraging ‘better institutions that embed respect for freedom and scientific approaches for society’s problems’. ASF has decided this includes freedom to tell the truth about what is happening in our justice system. It is quite extraordinary how little public attention has been paid to the way our laws are being tilted to favour victims, undermining fair treatment for the accused.

It’s just not acceptable to talk about false accusations. Remember some years ago Pauline Hanson called for an inquiry into family law issues, highlighting the damage being caused by false allegations being used to gain strategic advantage in family law battles? She was torn to shreds in the media.

Yet a recent YouGov survey found Australia had one of the highest rates of false allegations in the world, mainly related to family law disputes. A survey of NSW magistrates found 90 per cent agreed that AVO’s were being used as a divorce tactic. Research by Family Law Professor Patrick Parkinson and colleagues from the University of Sydney revealed that lawyers suggest that clients obtain AVO’s, explaining to them that verbal and emotional abuse is enough to do the trick.

False allegations are now drowning out the cries for help from women genuinely at risk. Vast resources are being devoted to dealing with all of this — across the country our police and our courts are struggling to cope with the level of unproven domestic violence accusations, which, in NSW take up 50-70 per cent of police time, and 60 per cent of local court time.

The floodgate is now open for a woman to allege her partner has been emotionally controlling and that may be enough to get him sent to prison.

And demands on our justice system are soon to escalate, with “coercive control” having recently become a criminal offence in NSW, with Queensland to follow soon. The floodgate is now open for a woman to allege her partner has been emotionally controlling and that may be enough to get him sent to prison. This new criminal offence is difficult to define, impossible to prove and designed purely as a weapon against men. In NSW the new laws were put on hold for over a year because authorities were concerned about women being “misidentified” as perpetrators. But now female police officers have been installed in stations across the state to ensure that only males are charged and the new criminal offence is on the books. And there’s no way you are going to see male victims in any of the new propaganda material pouring out of all our governments, dutifully promoted by the ABC and other compliant media.

The Presumption of Innocence conference will hear from Australian men who were victims of coercive control. These men were part of a cohort of nearly 1000 local men who took part in the large international survey on male victims of coercive control run by the University of Central Lancashire. Their experiences represent the truth that our governments are so determined to bury.

There will be other truth-tellers at the conference, presenting evidence about all sorts of politically incorrect subjects – research, for instance, which shows false rape allegations are far more common than claimed. And the international literature clearly demonstrates most family violence involves both male and female perpetrators. Plus the data showing children are more at risk when dads are removed from the home.

The conference is being sponsored by Mothers of Sons, (MoS), the organisation I helped establish some years ago, bringing together mothers to expose the injustice their sons were facing in our criminal and family courts. A number of MoS family members will be speaking at the conference, revealing the devastating impact of false allegations on the entire family, including lasting financial and emotional costs. There will also be mystery speakers – like the celebrity who had his life destroyed by a #MeToo accusation – and other victims of injustice in our courts, including family members from some of Australia’s most famous false-allegations cases.

We are holding back the name of some of the key speakers at the conference, after the huge kerfuffle which greeted the initial promotion of the event back in March this year, when Bruce Lehrmann was announced to be one of the speakers. All hell broke loose, with media articles condemning the move and a petition demanding that Woollahra Municipal Council, and Allegra Spender MP  put a stop to this event “before it causes any further harm or damage to the victim survivor community.”

In the end, the decision was made following Justice Michael Lee’s judgement in Lehrmann’s defamation action, for Lehrmann to withdraw from the program, particularly since he is appealing that decision. We also moved the conference from the scheduled date of June 1 to August 31, to allow the dust to settle.

Now it is all full steam ahead. It’s been extraordinary just how many people have come out of the woodwork, keen to be involved in this unique event. Tickets are selling fast for this rare opportunity for concerned souls to meet and plan action to address the relentless weaponisation of our justice system against men. I do hope you will join us.