The calculus of sexual consent

Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz have both left their jobs in the fall out from the alleged rape.

The photo is from this: Brittany Higgins’ partner David Sharaz speaks out. Everyone is oh so brave, and undoubtedly votes Labor.

Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins’ partner has resigned from his job over fears that the Morrison Government will punish the company he works for by scrapping government contacts.

Former press gallery journalist David Sharaz, who worked for Sky News and SBS before joining a media monitoring company this year, said he accepted he could no longer remain in the role.

Mr Sharaz said his bosses had been supportive and given him time off last week to support Ms Higgins but he accepted that his job, which involves seeking government contracts, was no longer tenable.

In exclusive claims to news.com.au last Monday, Ms Higgins alleges she was raped by a colleague in a minister’s Parliament House office in March 2019.

Ms Higgins claims she was forced to choose between her job and seeking justice.

Mr Sharaz said his decision to resign had “no regrets” for standing by Ms Higgins and supporting her fight for justice.

Let me pair that up with this: ‘Need to reflect on this’: Victorian schools respond to movement calling for better consent education. This, mind you, is about high school girls. What a difference from when I was in high school! Now they teach them how to be selective in who you bonk.

Several Victorian schools have issued messages to parents in response to a deluge of sexual assault claims made by young women across the country who voiced their stories as part of a movement demanding better education around consent.

Private schools Xavier College and Geelong Grammar School wrote to their school communities this week after a petition started by Sydney woman Chanel Contos [see photo below] called for sexual consent to be taught in schools from a young age.

It saw hundreds of young women come forward with disturbing allegations of sexual assault and rape from their time as students or soon after, with many describing being forced to perform sex acts or being assaulted while intoxicated or passed out.

There is certainly a need for something to be taught but I’m not sure I can say exactly what it is. The disturbing allegations link runs to 70 pages and is astonishing in its detail and more disturbing than you can imagine. 

Chanel Contos, whose online petition calling on people to come forward with allegations of sexual assault is forcing schools to change.

Chanel Contos, whose online petition calling on people to come forward with allegations of sexual assault is forcing schools to change.

Toxic treatment of women by Labor and the left

SA Liberal MP Nicolle Flint.

In its ongoing series of attacks on the Federal Coalition, today The Australian comes up with this: Toxic Canberra too much for MP Nicolle Flint. Here is the gist of it in their own words:

Ms Flint — who was hounded, stalked, and labelled a slut and a prostitute in the vicious 2019 campaign in the South Australian seat of Boothby — has decided she can no longer tolerate the pressures of political life as a female MP….

“I did not put up my hand so I could be the sole candidate ­heckled, mocked and shouted down by GetUp, Labor and union members at community meetings,” Ms Flint told parliament. “I did not put up my hand so my election posters could be defaced with the words ‘skank’ and ‘blow and go’, suggesting I was a prostitute charging $60 an hour.”

Of course, given the nature of The Australian and its entirely anti-government left agenda, these two statements are 16 paragraphs apart. Go to the link and count them for yourself.

It was so awful she stayed in the job for three years

From The News of the Screws Australian, in a masthead across the front page: Hugs, kisses and dread: the politics of sexual harassment.

The former commerce-law student lodged a police complaint last November regarding Mr Zumbo’s alleged conduct when she worked for him as an electorate officer in his Sutherland office from June 2015 — when she was 21 — to June 2018….

The adviser, now 27, told The Australian of the trauma of the three years she spent working for Mr Kelly, saying she was hospitalised with stress and anxiety partly as a result of the ongoing sexual harassment…. “It was awful. I had to go home to a boyfriend who’d say ‘how was your night?’ “You just feel disgusting and used and scared to go into work again, but what else do you do? This is my job and it’s a good job.”…

Mr Kelly said he had investigated the previous allegations and found they had no basis. Earlier this week he said he had provided a report about his investigation to the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, John Kunkel. The woman who spoke to The Australian, said: “I don’t want to be seen as a victim and I also would have fear of what that would mean of getting hired again because I don’t want to be seen as someone who causes problems.

This bit is possibly the most bizarre part of the story.

She recalls being parked in Mr Zumbo’s car, somewhere with a view of the Harbour Bridge, and she has a recollection of being in the back seat of his car and Mr Zumbo trying to kiss her — but cannot recall what else happened.

She was horrified when she ­received a text message from Mr Zumbo that implied that sexual relations had unfolded. “The next day I received a message from Frank saying ‘Thanks so much for a great night. I really hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I’m even more convinced that we’ll make a fantastic political team. How does that sound? Give me a call when you can’.’’

She says she asked Mr Zumbo multiple times what had happened but he would not tell her.“I had no idea what had happened in his car that evening ­although I do remember being in the back seat of his car and him trying to kiss me, but I do not ­remember what happened beyond this point,” she said.

“I confronted Frank about this at work in private. I asked him ‘what happened in your car on Friday night?’ All he would say back, was that ‘anything that happened, you were OK with’, and ‘we didn’t have sex, nothing like that, as we didn’t have a condom’.

Meanwhile, she’s back in the UK running for Parliament.

Unless you know their agenda you cannot work out what they’re doing

Below are two paras from Bettina Arndt’s Monthly Newsletter. You should perhaps subscribe yourself. This is Bettina’s email address and her various links.

E: bettina@bettinaarndt.com.au
Website: www.bettinaarndt.com.au
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebettinaarndt
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thebettinaarndt

And these are the paras I find of interest.

For those of you living overseas, or under a rock, Brittany Higgins is a young woman who last week announced, through the media, that she was raped two years ago, when working as an adviser for the Defence Minister, Linda Reynolds.

As the story unfolded, it was used to mount a ferocious attack on the government. Note the timing – coinciding with the arrival of the Covid vaccine, which should have been a high point for the Coalition which is decimating the Opposition in the polls. It is also hardly a coincidence that Higgin’s current partner, David Sharaz, is a former press gallery journalist, now working for SBS and known to be a fierce critic of the government.

Everyone has an agenda. Such as: Submarine blunder: time to cut our losses from Robert Gottliebsen where we read:

But first, a word about Defence Minister Linda Reynolds. Countless past defence ministers have simply adopted the recommendations of defence personnel and then covered up their mistakes. It was like a game of musical chairs which eventually would end. Sadly for Linda Reynolds it ended on her watch.

I am glad Scott Morrison stood behind her over the rape saga but as the last of the “cover up mistakes” defence ministers she is the wrong person to take on the French and end the contract.

Perhaps that’s why Reynolds was admitted to hospital yesterday.

Perhaps that’s why Reynolds was admitted to hospital yesterday. Might also mention this: Peter Dutton defends handling of information around Brittany Higgins rape allegation. Dutton is also mentioned by Gottliebsen in his article about submarines:

From my observation the two toughest ministers in the cabinet are Josh Frydenberg (ask Google and Facebook) and Peter Dutton.

Moving Frydenberg from Treasury is not an option and Peter Dutton’s Home Affairs portfolio is a huge job but there is no more important ministry in the next year than defence.

Equality discussed by Andrew Jackson in 1832

This is Andrew Jackson in 1832, sounding not that different from Donald Trump.

It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth can not be produced by human institutions. In the full enjoyment of the gifts of heaven and the fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society – the farmers, mechanics and laborers – who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their government. There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing.

This is from Andrew Jackson’s Bank Veto message of 1832. The entire message is worth your time.

Victoria may have the worst opposition leader in the world

First there was this: ‘I will lead from the front’: Michael O’Brien says he’s right man for Victoria. This is what he specifically said. You tell me what he stands for.

“Every single day I get up, I’m determined to work for Victoria and to lead my party so that Victoria can do better,” he said.

“I was elected unopposed by my party after the last election because they know that, as a former treasurer, nobody is better placed to lead Victoria’s economic recovery … than me.

“I think Victorians need a better alternative … and that’s what I’m determined to offer.

“They do not want more of the same – more of the lockdowns, more of the waste. They want to see a better, brighter future, and that’s what the Liberal Party is going to be offering Victorians.”

Empty beyond vacuous. So this is where we have moved onto: ‘Borrowed time’: Liberals give O’Brien ultimatum for May leadership spill.

In what was seen as a significant intervention, opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier, a member of Mr O’Brien’s four-person leadership team, expressed frustration during last week’s party room meeting that opposition MPs were not effectively holding the Andrews government to account for its errors.

According to three sources present at the meeting, Ms Crozier implored colleagues to pursue the government with more vigour.

Not as if there is nothing to pursue Dan Andrews over: Victorian wages still hurting from lockdown. And it’s not just that Victoria has had the worst wages result across the country during the last twelve months. There is this as well, which no one knows anything about.

It came as Moody’s moved on Tuesday to change its rating on Victoria from the highest Aaa to Aa1, saying the double downgrade was sparked by a “marked erosion in Victoria’s governance of its public finances”, with the agency predicting the state’s debt – due to hit nearly $47 billion this year – would remain high until the end of the decade.

The Moody’s move had been widely expected since the other main ratings agency, S&P, downgraded Victoria in December and Treasurer Tim Pallas shrugged off the news, saying the government made no apology for borrowing heavily to cushion the state from the worst of the pandemic crisis.

That Government misdirected spending has been at the centre of the problem for years ought to be evident to anyone who has watched the Andrews government and has the slightest idea about what makes an economy prosper. Yet this is all they can say.

The Victorian Liberal opposition was on the attack on Wednesday over the Moody’s downgrade with Treasury spokeswoman Louise Staley saying decision was an indictment on the financial management of the Andrews government.

“This is a significant worry for Victoria moving into the future,” Ms Staley said.

“Moody’s specifically said we do not have the flexibility to deal with any future shocks.

“In other words the cupboard is bare.”

There is so much waste around, but my favourite is the billion dollar train station at the Shrine on St Kilda Road which will never be used by anyone, ever, other than on one day a year, and possibly not even then.

There are no anti-Covid vaccines

The article is titled, COVID-19 Vaccine To Be Tested on 6-Year-Olds in which there is a great deal to think about including this:

As detailed in “COVID-19 mRNA Shots Are Legally Not Vaccines,” these inoculations are more accurately described as gene therapies, and by referring to them as “vaccines,” the U.S. government is likely in violation of the 2011 U.S. Code Title 15, Section 1125, which regulates deceptive practices such as false descriptions in medical claims.  According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a vaccine is “a product that stimulates a person’s immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease, protecting the person from that disease.” Immunity, in turn, is defined as “Protection from an infectious disease,” meaning that “If you are immune to a disease, you can be exposed to it without becoming infected.” Neither Moderna nor Phizer claim this to be the case for their COVID-19 “vaccines.” In fact, in their clinical trials, they specify that they do not even test for immunity.

COVID-19 “vaccines” do not impart immunity or inhibit transmissibility of the disease. In other words, they are not designed to keep you from getting sick with SARS-CoV-2; they only are supposed to lessen your infection symptoms if or when you get infected. As such, these products do not meet the medical definition of a vaccine.”

Unlike real vaccines, which use an antigen of the disease you’re trying to prevent, the COVID-19 injections contain synthetic RNA fragments encapsulated in a nanolipid carrier compound, the sole purpose of which is to lessen clinical symptoms associated with the S-1 spike protein, not the actual virus.

Bettina Arndt’s Monthly Newsletter

This is Bettina Arndt’s Monthly Newsletter which may be unique in the world as putting up posts about men that is actually fair to both men and women. You should subscribe yourself. This is the email address and her various links.

E: bettina@bettinaarndt.com.au
Website: www.bettinaarndt.com.au
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebettinaarndt
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thebettinaarndt

The rest is entirely from Bettina who says things found nowhere else anywhere.

Hi Everybody,

What a week. My inbox is overflowing with emails from people bombarding me with commentary on the Brittany Higgins affair – comments they uniformly tell me they don’t dare express publicly.

It’s a very telling example of how readily our mainstream media hops onboard the prescribed feminist narrative, silencing anyone who challenges their view on how this should all play out.

For those of you living overseas, or under a rock, Brittany Higgins is a young woman who last week announced, through the media, that she was raped two years ago, when working as an adviser for the Defence Minister, Linda Reynolds.

As the story unfolded, it was used to mount a ferocious attack on the government. Note the timing – coinciding with the arrival of the Covid vaccine, which should have been a high point for the Coalition which is decimating the Opposition in the polls. It is also hardly a coincidence that Higgin’s current partner, David Sharaz, is a former press gallery journalist, now working for SBS and known to be a fierce critic of the government.

My correspondents, many of whom were women, made some very telling points:

She may well be telling the truth, but the man has been convicted under ‘trial by media’. The same media who’ve repeatedly referred to the young woman having ‘been raped’ – an emotive term designed to ensure the man is denied the right to the assumption of innocence.”
“Yet another instance of allegation by public announcement which has the effect of creating a smear on all men who work in Parliament house. No proper investigation, no facts.”

“She was 24 years old – not some naive teenager. She was pissed out of her mind, and that’s how she excuses herself from culpability. He was likely pissed out of his mind – but no such excuses allowed there.  She was counselled by the Minister to report it to police but didn’t follow through, which fact does not sit congruently with her alleged fear of losing her job. Now we can expect a huge compo claim, backed by all the woke activists. This crap makes me sick!”

“How close to the truth do you think this might be? Young woman starts out on Kingston ‘pub crawl’ with a date. Accepts drinks all night off another bloke from her workplace. She allows herself to get ‘shitfaced’…goes off with the latter in a taxi which stops at PH so bloke can duck into an office to get something. Rather than stay in taxi until he returns, she goes with him for non-work purposes. He signs her in going through security as she does not have her pass with her. They both finish up on a couch in a Minister’s suite where they get it on. He leaves her to wear off the night’s activities & goes home to his own bed. She gets sprung sometime later half naked by a security guard. Caught in an extremely embarrassing situation, she makes the excuse ‘I was raped’. Now she is expecting politicians including the PM & others to salvage her dignity by doing what?”

“I notice that now, two years later, she has announced she wants a comprehensive police investigation – ‘in a timely manner as to date I have waited a long time for justice.’ Whose fault is that? Two Ministers urged her to go to the police, she made an initial report and then pulled out because she was concerned it could damage her career. And now this is the fault of the Ministers, The Prime Minister, the system, anyone but her. No one buys this twaddle except the female journalists conducting their ‘believe the victim’ witch hunt aimed at damaging the government.”

I’ve been thinking about the Higgins business and relating it to the focus on sexual assault in universities. A major campus advocate is Sharna Bremner of “End Rape on Campus” – see below one of her recent tweets, responding to idea that police should have been called. As you can see, she advocates that police only be involved if that is emphatically chosen by the victim – part of being caring and kind. But the problem with that approach is that two years later the victim can change her mind and then the institution is placed in a difficult position – was there a cover up?”

Once again, ordinary people reach their own conclusions but in public remain silent, nervously watching what happens, even to those who do their best to dance to the feminist tune. A Prime Minister ripped apart for “victim blaming” as he bends over backwards to be sympathetic to Higgins, Linda Reynolds in tears in parliament after being savaged for doing the wrong thing when handling the complaint.

And barely a word about Higgin’s acknowledgement that she was so drunk she fell over even before going back to parliament. The rare exception was a carefully-worded comment piece by Jennifer Oriel, which laments our failure to stop “the scourge of rape” but bravely mentions a Royal Australasian College of Surgeons report showing excessive use of alcohol is related to about half of reported sexual assault cases. Drug and alcohol researchers point to large numbers of studies showing sexual assault is most likely to happen if both parties have been drinking.

Brittany Higgins has acknowledged she chose to speak out after seeing the Prime Minister congratulating Grace Tame, Australian of the Year, and a “survivor of sexual assault.” In turn, Higgins’ decision to speak out has inspired two other women to make allegations about the same man – both also claiming to be heavily intoxicated when the events took place – and now a fourth claiming he put his hand on her thigh whilst they were drinking in a favoured bar. And now there’s a petition which has attracted over 2000 testimonials from school girls who claim to have been sexually assaulted.

#Metoo seems to have fizzled out and been replaced by far more potent allegations about men’s abhorrent behaviour. 2021, the year of the rape victim.

Facebook censored Mother of Sons

Along with other Facebook pages across Australia, the Mother of Sons Facebook page was taken down by the belligerent media giant five days ago – despite MOS clearly not being a news organisation. And despite making official protests to Facebook, there’s no sign yet of the MOS pages being restored.

As I mentioned last week, the next Facebook live event was planned for tomorrow so the MOS mothers have postponed that event. This will now, hopefully, take place on their Facebook page next Thursday, March 4 at 7PM, AEST. So please keep an eye on that page. They have an amazing story to share with you.

Grim news for American men

If you’d like to hear my thinkspot chat last week with Cynthia Garrett about worrying developments for men under the Biden administration, here’s the link. There’s every reason to be nervous about the well-being of young American men, particularly those on campus.

That’s it for now. Cheers, Tina

Craig Kelly leaves the Liberal Party

Via Andrew Bolt:

Craig Kelly has quit the Liberal party and will sit out the rest of the term as an independent. Kelly has jumped before he was pushed – his preselection looked threatened – but now represents a danger to the Morrison Government, which now holds just 76 seats out of 151. The Liberals threw Kelly to the wolves, not having the courage to defend him from the media pack, which first savaged him for (correctly) questioning global warming alarmism, and then destroyed him for (correctly) saying studies suggested that ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, when taken early and with zinc, both cut deaths from the coronavirus. Then today, a final blow: claims, strongly denied, that a staffer had sexually harassed women.

It really is a disgrace. Kelly’s views represent a good deal more of the views of the population than his sole voice in the wilderness on so many issues would have you believe.

NOW THE STORY IS IN THE AUSTRALIAN: Craig Kelly to quit Liberal Party, move to crossbench. Here are all of the first dozen of the comments under the classification as “Most Liked”.

Good luck for the future Craig, keep on fighting for what is right

Good on Craig. He has made the right move, I hope he will stand as an independent against the Liberal candidate in the next election. Morrison has been a disappointment, has shown no leadership in the culture war engulfing our nation. Craig has the common sense and the courage to challenge the climate alarmists and the woke trenders who are taking away our freedom of speech. Well done, Craig, you are in tune with the Quiet Australians.

Do we have a politician here who stands for his principles? Amazing.

There are now a number of medical papers that support Craig’s views on COVID. Makes one wonder why these solutions have been suppressed.

And to the voters of Hughes, if you’re worried at the prospect of conservative voices being marginalized, it’s time to back Craig Kelly in 100%.

Hopefully he will win his seat as an independent. He is stating the bloody obvious about the COVID treatments he has copiously researched.

I can’t imagine why any of them were shocked, they drove him out.

I’d vote for Craig Kelly. He tells the truth as he sees it.

The only one with brains.

He is an honest politician. He can really see what we need in this country. Dams, cheap power from clean coal fired power stations and the real truth about the hysteria of climate change. I hope he joins the Nationals. He is far too good to lose.

Wake up Morrison! Don’t follow in MT’s footsteps.

Good luck for the future Craig, keep on fighting for what is right

This is a political beat up

This is the definition of rape according to Wikipedia:

Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without that person’s consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercionabuse of authority, or against a person who is incapable of giving valid consent, such as one who is unconscious, incapacitated, has an intellectual disability, or is below the legal age of consent. The term rape is sometimes used interchangeably with the term sexual assault.

This post is really only about the nature of the Australian media at the moment and not really about the issues at hand. This is from The Age/SMH: Linda Reynolds doesn’t deserve criticism: her response to Higgins rape claim was textbook.

On the other hand, this is from The Australian: PoliticsNow: ‘Really sleazy’ — fourth woman accuses staffer after Brittany Higgins’ rape allegations.

Which seems more even-handed and which seems intent on damaging the Coalition? My only other question is how do we know – in fact, how do they know – that each of these women is referring to the same bloke?

More to the point, is this really the major issue facing the government at the moment. This is from The Australian.

NED-3201-NCA-Who-Knew-What - 0

Strangely, not a single member of the Labor Party apparently knew a single thing about any of it. It is also curious that the comments section at the Oz has been turned off in relation to this story.