Is it really a man’s world?

With special guest:

• Bettina Arndt
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

In today’s program we welcome back a favourite guest, Bettina Arndt.

Bettina has been a campaigner for men and boys over many years. As well as writing articles for some of the major newspapers Bettina has her own YouTube channel and great videos available on her website. We just have to Google her name to get a wealth of material and some candid insights.

Bettina was asked to speak at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas where she spoke about the importance to children of having a stable family background. We speak to her about two other matters close to her heart, one of which involved her personally.

In the first part of the program we discuss a shameful exercise of power by Relationships Australia (RA) WA. This is not the first time that RA has overstepped the mark and it is, after all, funded by all of us through the government. In this case a senior and valued RA counsellor Rob Tiller had his employment terminated because he posted on his private Facebook page some material produced by Bettina about the truth of domestic violence. One of his colleagues reported to management what had been posted and RA rode roughshod over any rights Rob Tiller might have on a private page. Bettina was naturally stunned when she heard about this and is now on the case to help him starting with a crowd funding campaign.

In the second part of the program we discuss a growing practice at Australian universities of setting up a “kangaroo court” of students to judge on whether an allegation of any type of sexual harassment is established. These bodies do not have any legal training available to them in their investigation but are invested with the power to suspend students and even deny them their University qualification. Bettina has been advising “David” in Adelaide who was a PhD student when an allegation was made completely unexpectedly. He had a nightmare five months fighting the allegation with the help of a criminal barrister before the allegation was dropped as the University started to think about its own legal position regarding the denial of natural justice.

So there are plenty of areas where Bettina’s fighting spirit is called for. If you do not already know of Bettina’s work this is an ideal place to start.

Bettina Arndt

Bettina Arndt is a journalist who has a Bachelor of Science degree and a Master of Psychology qualification. Bettina was originally known as a sex therapist where her frank discussions in open forums led to her being banned for two years from live radio and television. In the 1980’s Bettina moved on to writing and talking about broader social issues and worked in New York for a time. As well as being the author of books such as What Men Want Bettina writes for many of Australia’s leading newspapers and magazines and has been a guest on Dads on the Air.

Song selection by our guest: When I Fall in Love by Gregg Arthur

Listen Now (mp3)