Men’s Health Australia takes on Minister for Status of Women
A leading men’s health organisation in Australia claims that the Minister for the Status of Women, Hon Gail Gago MLC, misled Parliament by maintaining that false statistics on the Government’s Don’t Cross the Line anti-violence campaign website are accurate, back in October 2009. The Minister defended the misleading statistics in Parliament, claiming that “the data on the Don’t Cross the Line website is sound.”
MHA (Men’s Health Australia) also lodged an official complaint with the Ombudsman after attempting for five months to draw the Minister’s attention to the major statistical errors on the website.
Spokesman for MHA Greg Andresen said, “The Facts and Stats page of the website is extremely misleading to the public. It clearly inflates statistics about domestic violence against women while understating statistics about domestic violence against men.”
Men’s Health Australia supports efforts to reduce family violence in the community but is concerned that the use of incorrect or misleading ‘statistics’ by Governments unfairly stigmatises men and boys as violent and abusive, while at the same time denies services to male victims of violence.
Another concern for MHA is that the Government’s approach is not in the interests of all children in families where there is abuse or violence because it selectively favours those children in families where violence is perpetrated by the father leaving out support for children who are abused by mothers.
Some of the campaign’s errors alleged by Men’s Health Australia include:
- Overstating the annual number of women victims of domestic violence by almost 400%
- Overstating the number of women killed in domestic violence situations by 86% while ignoring the one in three victims of domestic homicide that are male
- Incorrectly claiming that 95% of domestic violence involves a male perpetrator and a female victim, when in actual fact at least one in three victims of family violence are male
- Ignoring the fact that as many young people have witnessed physical domestic violence by their mother against their father, as have witnessed it by their father against their mother
- Ignoring the research showing that equal numbers of young males and females have experienced domestic violence or have been forced to have sex by their boyfriend/girlfriend.
- Incorrectly claiming that domestic violence is the main cause of death, disability and illness in young women (the main causes are actually anxiety and depression, migraine, type 2 diabetes, asthma and schizophrenia).
Mr Andresen says, “All victims of violence deserve campaigns based upon up-to-date accurate data, and the tax-paying public doesn’t deserve to be misled. Flawed data such as this can only lead to flawed policies and actions, and many children continue to be exposed to violence because of these myths.”
“Inflating statistics on domestic violence against women risks generating an unwarranted climate of fear in the community, especially amongst females. It also has terrible impacts upon the self-esteem of boys and the development of their healthy masculinity.”
“Understating the prevalence of domestic violence against men makes it less likely that a man will be believed when he finally summons up the courage to disclose his partner’s abuse of him. It also allows Government to continue to get away with family violence policies and campaigns that ignore male victims.”
Link here..
had to be a female dicking round with the numbers ay…within society the first point of contact with most organisations is with a female…next is usually another female…imagine the average joe bloggs trying to sort out daily stuff and hes got some lying manipulating vindictive bitch on the other end of the line….hope the right dishonorable gail whatsherface gets prosecuted
Comment by ford — Sun 21st February 2010 @ 2:16 pm
Well done Jools for highlighting this. In Australia the ‘official’ lies about DV have been going on for a very long time. I am very pleased to see a Group taking action. Maybe something will come out of it.
I have been drawing attention to this falsification for a long time and last year produced three podcasts detailing its history and various turns in Oz.
Deliberately Lying about Domestic Violence in Australia. Pt.1.
http://soundcloud.com/amfortas1/amfortas-christian-j-lying-about-domestic-violence-part-1
The ‘Women’s Safety Survey’ was “uncorroborated, biased and manipulated” ‘Advocacy research’ orchestrated by the Office for the Status of Women and passed off as Bureau of Statistics report. It caused an enormous row, says MRA Amfortas. Manipulated definitions and hysterical claims copied from America made innocuous behaviour criminal. DV sells commercial products to women and expropriates public funds for the fastest growing ‘Industry in Australia.
Deliberately Lying about Domestic Violence in Australia. Pt.2.
http://soundcloud.com/amfortas1/amfortas-christian-j-lying-about-domestic-violence-part-2
Three other sources of ‘official’ data which are routinely manipulated and presented to support DV lies are analysed by Amfortas and compared to Independent University research which completely contradicts the ‘official message’.” It would be generous to think that this manipulation and bias was just the result of incompetence. But as we can see there is something far darker behind it. It is corruption. It is deliberate.”
Deliberately Lying about DV in Australia. Pt.3. The Truth is out there — Somewhere.
http://soundcloud.com/amfortas1/amfortas-christian-j-the-truth-is-out-there-somewhere
Christian J narrates how the 2006 Australian Bureau of Statistics Personal Safety Survey completely contradicted the Government’s 1996 survey. He also points to the attempts by feminist bureaucrats to manipulate by having ONLY female interviewers to bias the results. Results show women twice as safe as men. The Government has thrown a blanket of silence over it. Feminists maintain an undemocratic stranglehold, expropriating public monies for their anti-male ‘Industry’.
Comment by amfortas — Sun 21st February 2010 @ 2:28 pm
Thank-you for adding this.
Comment by julie — Sun 21st February 2010 @ 3:43 pm
The exaggerated, dishonest claims concerning domestic violence and other areas of life, will be playing a big role in the appalling rates of male suicide. More men kill themselves in NZ each year than die on the roads. No wonder, when they are constantly lied about and unfairly denigrated, when men’s role and contribution to society is not honoured and in fact is resented because they earn 12% more on average than women do, when the DV industry call for Fathers Day to be a “day of shame”, when men are treated as disposable in relationships, families and in their children’s lives, when portrayals of males in screenplays and in advertising is so frequently disparaging. Great to see Greg Anderson and Men’s Health Australia taking on the lying feminist politicians, and getting some publicity. Thanks for having your ear to the ground about this one Julie and for letting us know.
Comment by Hans Laven — Sun 21st February 2010 @ 8:53 pm
And by the way, did anyone see Bill English on the TV news tonight? He said that he wasn’t sure whether the government would keep the Ministry of Women’s Affairs going (for cost reasons). I encourage everyone to write to him expressing approval for this cost-saving measure. The MWA has long been a propaganda machine, generating and manipulating statistics to suit its bias and influencing other govt departments disproportionally. A Ministry of Gender Affairs might have been preferable but would probably end up being just another version of the MWA, in the same way that Gender Studies courses have really been Feminist Ideology courses. Better to get rid of the MWA and leave it at that.
Comment by Hans Laven — Sun 21st February 2010 @ 9:12 pm
Any ministry that represents only one aspect of society is flawed from the outset as it created division and favouritism.
IMO, there may be a requirement for a Ministry of people affairs that is there to represent the specific needs of people from all walks of life. Such a ministry would negate the need for the ministry of women affairs AND the ministry of Maori affairs, AND, of course any ministry of mens affairs 😉
Perhaps the way to start attacking these inequalities is to discuss the advantages of dismantling these organisations in a form that politicians can understand; ie: monetary!
Comment by noconfidence — Sun 21st February 2010 @ 9:29 pm
And sorry Hans. Forgot to thank you for that information. Which TV news was he on ? I have recorded one of them!
Comment by noconfidence — Sun 21st February 2010 @ 9:30 pm
Debunking “Women are the only victims of DV” Greg Andresen’s submission is available at the link below:
http://archive.org/details/DoWeIgnoreViolenceAgainstMen
Comment by MurrayBacon — Wed 25th April 2012 @ 7:20 pm