Bettina Arndt banned from Conservative Club talk on Brittany Higgins

Bettina Arndt has been banned from a panel at the University of Sydney for reasons the organisers - a ‘bastion of free speech’ - won’t explain.

#MenToo speaker Bettina Arndt will be in Mackay this October.

Men’s rights advocate Bettina Arndt has been banned from appearing on a Conservative Club panel discussing the Higgins-Lehrmann case at the University of Sydney next week, after previously being invited to take part.

The conservative media commentator, Australia Day awards recipient and former sex therapist was scheduled to appear on Tuesday at “the Higgins event”, alongside The Australian’s legal commentator and vice-president of the Rule of Law Institute Chris Merritt and journalist and biographer Andrew Urban.

On Tuesday Ms Arndt was informed by an organiser from the Conservative Club, which touts itself as a bastion of free speech, that her invitation had been rescinded for reasons not explained.

The event has been re­titled “Lawfare in Australia … a critical examination of Australia’s legal system and it’s weaponis­ation.”

Ms Arndt, who describes herself as “promoting gender equity through advocacy for men”, has attracted controversy in recent years with her speaking tours arguing there is a “fake rape crisis” on university campuses.

Six years ago, police had to be called in to control protesters trying to prevent her from speaking at the University of Sydney.

Protesters blocking the entrance to a talk by Bettina Arndt at Sydney University in 2018.

“Back in 2018, those Conservative Club kids put up with all sorts of flak to put my event on – they stared them all down and put it on,” Ms Arndt said.

“It’s telling that this time it’s the woke Young Liberals who are preventing me from participating in proper discussion of this controversial law case.”

Ms Arndt said she had heard organisers had considered cancelling the event altogether but at least demanded that she not ­appear. “Someone’s been lent on, but it’s just madness,” she said.

“I love the fact that a 74-year-old grandmother is such a dreadful threat on our campuses.”

The panel discussion was to have been led by Conservative Club president Freya Leach, who is also director of youth policy at the Menzies Research Centre.

Ms Leach, who ran unsuccessfully as the Liberal candidate for Balmain in Sydney’s inner west, told The Australian she was “not involved” and did not want to comment.

NSW Young Liberals president Chanum Torres denied reports that he was to take part in the panel but would not discuss his involvement in the event.

Liberal candidate for Balmain Freya Leach in 2023 NSW state election

Two weeks ago, the club hosted former prime minister Tony Abbott and Russian-British satirist and author Konstantin Kisin speaking about issues including freedom of speech in front of a crowd of 250.

A video clip posted by the club shows noisy opponents trying to drown out the event, with the caption: “Better luck next time! Free speech survives another day at Sydney University.”

An earlier description of next week’s event written by organisers said the sexual assault allegations by Brittany Higgins had “instigated debates on the centrality of alleged victims’ rights in sexual assault cases, the presumption of innocence, prosecutorial discretion and a question that constantly plagues the Liberal Party: do the Liberals have a woman problem?”

“Through this event, we aim to bring clarity to and grapple with the complex and never-ending legal battles brought by Brittany, Bruce Lehrmann, Linda Reynolds and Shane Drumgold.”

Bettina Arndt pictured after her 2018 talk at The University of Sydney where the riot police had to attend after protesters attended the talk. Picture: Jonathan Ng

The panel discussion was aimed to be “relaxed and conversational”, and followed by a Q&A session with the audience.

The panel would consider “whether the public perception of the sexual assault allegations was fuelled by feminist propaganda and subsequently exacerbated the Me-Too movements overseas and in Australia (and) how ­feminist movements took hold of the allegations to support a narrative of sexual assault without ­allowing the criminal justice system to evaluate and test the ­allegations.”

The panel would also look at the claims that Ms Higgins received inadequate support from Senator Reynolds over the allegations – strongly denied by the former defence minister.

“How has this impacted ­people’s perceptions of women in the Liberal Party?” was one of the issues to be addressed.