Coming to prominence as a sex therapist and commentator,Ms Arndt,70,now tours campuses to dispel the"myth" of a sexual assault crisis at Australian universities and their residential colleges.
The citation for her honour mentions her 2018 campus speaking tour,which was called the"Fake Rape Crisis"tour,as well as her contributions to controversial academic Jordan Peterson's website Thinkspot.
It also references her decades of work as a journalist and author - including several books and contributions to newspapers,magazines,radio and television - as well as her service on a number of government committees.
Loading
Ms Arndt said she did not expect the award to silence or mollify her critics,but it would make her supporters"rather happy"to see an alternative point of view receive the imprimatur of official recognition.
"I have no doubt my beliefs around these issues are shared by the majority of the population,"Ms Arndt said in an interview withThe Sydney Morning Herald andThe Age.
"The mainstream media has unfortunately become dominated by a particular ideological clique which is totally out of whack with what quiet Australians think about these issues,with what ordinary people think about these issues."