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Call in the troops

By Bettina Arndt - posted Thursday, 30 March 2023


Talk about a meltdown. There was quite a reaction to Mothers of Sons' little event last weekend at Mark Speakman's local voting centre. The Liberal lackeys scurried around like headless chooks when they saw MOS mothers rolling out their large poster giving Speakman credit for draconian coercive control laws designed to send men to jail.

The young men reached for their mobiles and urgently nattered away, glaring at MOS's rows of coercive control bottles and the mums cheerfully handing out flyers to the queuing voters.

Soon the troops arrived. Uniformed council officers suddenly appeared on the scene, demanding the removal of the MOS stand and banner which they claimed weren't permitted on council land. Channel 7 turned up to film the event, but the glamorous young reporter ultimately toed the feminist line, tracking down an irate domestic violence spokesperson who claimed the MOS campaign was offensive. Yet the MOS video still made it onto prime-time news that night – see here.

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Meanwhile, at the voting centre, hours of argy-bargy followed, phones at fifty paces, everyone filming everyone else, and various irate people fronting up to tell the MOS team that they had no right to be there. Ultimately the council officers admitted they couldn't stop flyers being handed out, and yes, there was no rule against MOS mums holding up the poster to keep it off council ground – see photos above. It was such a hoot!

Yet what was totally inspiring was the reaction of people receiving the flyers. There was a proportion who just weren't interested but also a solid core of men and women who eagerly took the MOS flyers and then, did the stories pour out. It was astonishing how many people had friends or relatives who'd faced false violence allegations, how often folk fervently confirmed women are just as likely as men to use coercive control. Some became quite emotional, thanking the MOS mums for what they were doing.

The lesson is, there's a receptive audience in our communities, eager to hear the truth about this vicious anti-male weaponry creeping into Australia's criminal laws. It's up to us all to make sure they hear it.

Calling male victims

Reaching that audience will require a strong grassroots campaign, given that most mainstream media is only interested in playing lapdogs to the feminist regime. The time is right, with the sisterhood suddenly aware that they have planted seeds of their own destruction. As I explained last week, the roll out of legislation is on hold in NSW, after women's groups took fright over the possibility their new prized coercive control laws could turn around to bite them. Suddenly there's a trickle of media stories warning of the dangers of "misidentification", where women are charged with coercive control instead of men.

We need to ensure that trickle turns into a flood. To make that happen, we can take our lead from the hugely successful domestic violence campaign which so effectively recruits women to see themselves as victims. Visit any woman's loo in Australia, and chances are the toilet door will be festooned with flyers urging women to seek help for a huge list of behaviour described as "domestic violence."

Now see this MOS flyer, designed for men to realise they too can be victims. It is purely educational, directing men to the MOS website where they'll find detailed information about how coercive control laws vary state by state, and what they can do to prepare themselves to take action – making complaints when coercive control becomes law, or protecting themselves from false allegations. We need to get that flyer out across Australia – and you can help. It is available in a downloadable form in the MOS resources section.

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Knowledge is power

I strongly urge everyone reading this to make time to go through the detailed information about real story of coercive control, now up on the MOS website. It was a huge labour of love, taking months of effort from many people to put this collection of documents together. We don't think there is anywhere else which collates all the background and research showing exactly how justice systems have been manipulated to introduce this fearsome weapon targeting men.

Spreading this knowledge is key to eroding the rollout of these new laws. I hope many people will be as shocked as I was by the deliberate distortions, lies and deception employed to make this happen.

Then, hopefully, you will be ready to take action. The tiny MOS group will not be able to run the whole grassroots campaign. They are seeking suitable people with time to coordinate events, work with local groups, find ways of using the MOS material to spread the word about what really going on here.

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This article was first published on Bettina Arndt.



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About the Author

Bettina Arndt is a social commentator.

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