He didn’t return to theSir Laurence Street,where CBD reported Lehrmann had been hanging out over the weekend. On Tuesday,the organisation behind a “presumption of innocence” conference hosted by men’s rights activistBettina Arndtannounced that Lehrmann would no longer be headlining the $100-a-ticket event.
Bruce Lehrmann has pulled out of a conference that promotes the idea that men are treated unfairly in rape trials,following the loss of his defamation case against Network 10.
“He is being subject to extremely aggressive pursuit by media and is concerned his participation may jeopardise this important event and distract from its main purpose,” Arndt’s organisation,Mothers of Sons,posted on Facebook.
When we reached out to Arndt for comment,she sent us back that same statement.
But before Monday’s judgment,Arndt launched a stinging defence of the conference,and accusedThe Sydney Morning Herald’schief investigative reporter,Kate McClymont,of “ending her career with a stream of nasty tabloid gotcha moments and anti-male bile which has nothing to do with proper journalism” for having the temerity to write about the event.
The conference has raised nearly $7000 in donations,and will be streamed on far-right radio station TNT Radio,where disgraced former broadcasterChris Smith is a presenter.
Maybe Lehrmann has a future there. As for the more immediate term,on Monday afternoon he presented at Gosford police station,a little stretch north of the Harbour City,where the coastal coppers helped him escape from the gathered media through a back door.
A NSW Police spokesperson told us that a report was made at the station,but no further information was available as the matter was not the subject of a criminal investigation.
ORR STRUCK
Anyone fronting the Victorian Court of Appeal hoping to find a soft touch on the bench might soon be in for a little “Shock and Orr”.
That’s the nicknameRowena Orr,KC – whose appointment as a judge to the court was announced on Tuesday by the state government – earned for herself as into wrongdoing in the sector back in 2018 and 2019 napalmed the reputations of several executives.
Rowena Orr,KC,at the royal commission into the banking sector in February 2018.Eddie Jim
And although there was grumbling from the institutions that they were roughly treated in front ofKenneth Hayne’sroyal commission – which was ferociously assisted by Orr and her co-inquisitor,Michael Hodge,KC – nobody would argue that the wealth management sector,in particular,will ever be the same again.
So,with the added benefit that the Melbourne silk wouldn’t be retained to appear againstDaniel Andrews’premiership anywhere.
Orr will be replaced as solicitor-general byAlistair Pound,SC,a former Mallesons Stephen Jaques (now King&Wood Mallesons) senior associate who was once an associate to Hayne back in the royal commissioner’s days on the High Court bench. Small world,right?
CHINA SYNDROME
Recent years have been boom times for foreign policy think tanks,what with the COVID-19 pandemic,the Morrison government’s red scare approach to an increasingly wolfish China and the chaotic presence ofDonald Trump.
China Matters chief executive Linda Jakobson in 2018.Ashley St George
But it looks like we’re now heading for a bit of a downturn. On Tuesday,China Matters,a policy initiative created in 2015 to inject “nuance and realism” into discussion of Chinese-Australian affairs,wrote to supporters announcing it would be winding down. China Matters’ founder,Linda Jakobson,who is returning to her native Finland,had a pointed message for the haters.
“Our supporters – anonymous ones but also vocal ones – not only kept encouraging us when we were on top and respected in Canberra,but also in 2020 when we attracted the ire of those in government who wanted to muzzle us and who sought to have our voice removed from the China debate in Australia,” Jakobson wrote.
Back in 2020,China Matters fell out of favour with a hawkish Morrison government,which scrapped the think tank’s federal funding and painted it as “pro-Beijing”,a claim China Matters has always strenuously denied. But the writing’s been on the wall since then.
China Matters did have some serious diplomatic,business and political types involved. Former Liberal MPPeter Hendy,whose Queanbeyan home was the site of plotting to depose former PMTony Abbott,was on the board.
So was former top China adviserStephen FitzGeraldand the late leading foreign policy expertAllan Gyngell.
STREET FIGHTER
As Melbourne paused on Tuesday to mourn its,who was honoured with a state funeral at St Patrick’s Cathedral,the legendary youth worker and social activist’s great mate,TV chefIain “Huey” Hewitson,got in touch to share one of his memories.
Huey told us he was woken in the small hours one morning in the early 2000s by a man on the other end of the phone asking in a gruff Northern Irish accent if this was “Huey from the telly?”
The chef – then at the height of his fame – had a slot at the time onRex Hunt’s fishing show,which had become an unlikely hit in Northern Ireland.
After Hewitson confirmed his identity,the mystery caller asked if Huey knew someone called Les Twentyman,who was claiming to be a youth worker from Australia.
It turned out that Twentyman had been visiting Belfast and aroused the suspicion of local paramilitaries – who fancied themselves in those days as the true forces of law and order – by striking up chats with youths on the troubled city’s streets.
Twentyman thought he was in a bit of strife for a while there,before hitting on the idea of getting his mate Hewitson to offer an emergency character reference. Twentyman had seen Hewitson on TV in his Belfast hotel room the previous night.
Once Hewitson explained the situation,the local hard man became a lot friendlier,and later even downed a few pints with Twentyman,but not before issuing a not-so-polite warning.
As Hewitson tells it,Twentyman was told:“The next time you visit Belfast,maybe make a phone call to me or my mates concerning your intentions before wandering the streets of our fair city.”
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