Why are we putting up with feminists silencing debate on key social issues like domestic violence? A major drama has been playing out in Perth this week where I am orchestrating a campaign to protest the dismissal of Rob Tiller, a male counsellor from Relationships Australia WA, who was fired for posting on his private Facebook page an article I wrote on domestic violence.
My article, Always Beating Up on Men, summarised the latest official statistics and research on domestic violence, providing evidence that most family violence is two-way, involving women as well as men. Relationships Australia WA (RAWA) denies this evidence and promotes a feminist analysis of gendered power relations.” This means in policy and in practice men are treated by the organisation as the sole perpetrators of family violence. Unlike the equivalent organisations in some other states, RAWA offers no support to male victims and in effect, denies their existence.
Rob Tiller got into trouble by talking about counselling violent couples in email discussion with a professional men’s network and saying that the research evidence I presented rang true with his professional experience. That was enough to get him fired.
Rob Tiller is an experienced, well-respected counsellor who worked for this government-funded counselling organisation for the past eight years and has had an exemplary record. He was much in demand as the only male counsellor working in Perth, running their workshops in addition to seeing his clients. His work colleagues and clients are vigorously protesting his dismissal.
Most people are well aware that the feminist promotion of men as the only perpetrators of family violence is a deliberate distortion. For every child who grew up in a family cowering from a dangerous man, there are just as many who tip-toed around a violent mother. I mentioned in my article a major 2001 national survey, Young People and Domestic Violence study, involving 5000 young Australians, found 23 per cent of young people were aware of domestic violence against their mothers or stepmothers but an almost identical proportion (22 per cent) were aware of domestic violence against their fathers or stepfathers by their mothers or stepmothers.
When people are asked about victims of domestic violence, about a third of the people claiming to be victims are male, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures. But when you ask who commits this violence, over 1700 peer-reviewed studies find equal numbers of men and women will admit they took part. “Thirty years of international research consistently shows that women and men are violent towards each other at about the same rate,” says Queensland University psychology professor Kim Halford whose own research shows such patterns even in young couples.
It is extraordinary that this government-funded key organisation shamelessly promotes a totally misleading ideologically-driven policy which lacks support from the broader community. Surveys on whether women are willing to call themselves “feminist” usually show only a small minority are willing to be associated with what is now an extreme movement – numbers swollen, of course, by young graduates from ideologically-driven humanities courses in our universities.
Tiller has taken RAWA to the Fair Work Commission claiming unfair dismissal. See my YouTube video talking to Rob about what has happened. A national campaign has been launched, including a crowd-funder for money for his legal fees and the costs of establishing full-time private counselling and workshops.
Relationships Australia is trying to silence discussion about the whole business, making phone calls to Perth media organisations claiming Tiller isn’t telling the truth about what happened. Clearly, they now realise their rash move in firing Tiller is exposing the feminist grip on their taxpayer-funded organisation. Not a good look.
I’m hoping that everybody who is fed up with this constant bullying and silencing by feminist activists will come on board and protest The Dismissal. Come on good people, maintain the rage!
*Article first published in The Spectator Australia
