Twenty-four hours after the Lehrmann v Network Ten defamation trial judgment was delivered, the Australians for Science and Freedom (ASF) republished an article called “The Presumption of Guilt”.
“When your only tool is a hammer, everything starts looking like a nail,” Dr David Richards wrote back in February this year.
The author is talking about the so-called “injustice” in the Australian legal system, the “corrosive abrogation of the principle of the presumption of innocence” that he suggests locks away men falsely accused of rape, sexual assault and/or domestic violence.
Presumably, the hammer is the Australian legal system, hellbent on believing women at all costs and disbelieving “falsely accused” perpetrators. The hammer is gripped tightly in the hands of “greedy, vindictive and all powerful” Australian feminists, as Bettina Ardnt says, a self-proclaimed advocate for men’s voices.
And the nail in this metaphor is men, who of course are the victims here.
The author is not alone in believing this. The ASF, who republished Dr David Richards’ February article yesterday, is helping facilitate a conference in June, called “Restoring the Presumption of Innocence”. The event, spearheaded by Bettina Arndt and her organisation, Mothers of Sons, calls out the so-called “fake rape crisis”, “shameful kangaroo courts” and a justice system that Arndt says “favours ‘victims’”.
The ideology these groups and individuals push is extremely misguided. One only needs to look at the statistics of rape, sexual assault and domestic violence to see – numbers that we report on time and time again at Women’s Agenda.
A key part of what’s missing from Dr David Richards’ piece is the reality of just how underreported rape, sexual assault and domestic violence is in Australia. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ 2021 Personal Safety Survey, 22 per cent of women and 6.1 per cent of men have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15.
An overwhelming 92 per cent of women who experience sexual violence do not report the incident to police.
Why? It’s because of another hammer and nail. This hammer is carved out of rape myths, manufactured out of harmful stereotypes, held in the hands of the patriarchy.
And the nail? Victim-survivors of sexual assault. The hammer stamps out any confidence they have in a system that is supposed to protect them.
Bruce Lehrmann no longer speaking at the event
On Monday, Justice Michael Lee told the Federal Court of Australia that he found, on the balance of probabilities, the story that Lisa Wilkinson and Network Ten told on The Project was true: that Bruce Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins.
Bruce Lehrmann was set to be one of the speakers at Arndt’s “Restoring the Presumption of Innocence” conference, but yesterday, he pulled out of the event.
Mothers of Sons released a statement on social media addressing his decision to no longer appear at the conference.
“He is being subject to extremely aggressive pursuit by the media and is concerned that his participation may threaten the audience, jeopardise this important event, and distract from its main purpose,” the statement reads.
It’s no wonder Lehrmann dipped out of the event, needless to mention the irony of him speaking at the conference when a judge on the balance of probabilities found him to be a rapist.
But while Arndt, the ASF and Mothers of Sons search for another speaker, they have assured attendees that the Lehrmann case will still be discussed at the conference as “a powerful example of trial by media undermining the vital legal principle of the presumption of innocence”.
No doubt the nearly 5,000 people who follow Mothers of Sons’ Facebook page, and those attending the conference, are relieved to hear it. While some comments on the organisation’s Facebook page have been restricted, others still remain on the page, warning of the “dangerous path” our legal system is travelling down.
“These women need to be held accountable. It’s disgusting that they get away with destroying mans life (sic)… and his familys (sic),” one comment said.
“If a few high profile cases are overturned, maybe someone will take notice and help those without support to gain reviews of their cases,” another wrote.
Ultimately, this one high profile case did not favour sympathisers to rape myths, and already in the 48 hours since the judgment, the national conversation on consent, sexual assault and believing women has grown in strength. There’s hope that following this result, more women will have the courage to resist the hammer thrust down on them, silencing their truths.
Women and feminists are not hammer-wielding monsters fixated on destroying the lives of every man – or nail – that crosses our path. In fact, patriarchy has ensured we’ve never been able to even hold the hammer.
The Lehrmann defamation trial outcome and those like it are not destroying our democratic rights and freedoms, as Bettina Arndt and her sympathisers might suggest. It’s releasing a hammer from the grip of the patriarchy, a hammer that has always come down on women to securely fix us into our place.