In 1995 noted Australian feminist and author Helen Garner published her book ‘The First Stone’. In this she examined the case of two charges of indecent assault that were brought by the Victorian Police against the then Master of Ormond College, Melbourne University. She tried to understand why the complaints were brought and why events unfolded the way they did. In that process she mused upon feminism and feminist ideology as it had developed from the days of early feminism when she was an activist. In 2008, Louise Greentree wrote about the way in which two student complaints (one anonymous) against a man who was once an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Wollongong, complaints which were never communicated to him at any relevant time, had found their way into material that was being used against him by the Anglican Church of Australia Professional Standards Unit Sydney Diocese (PSU) which was purporting to exercise a disciplinary role over him and the whole of his family in the Anglican Parish of Figtree. No doubt the Anglican Church of Australia Sydney Diocese would be particularly surprised to find that it was being used to further any form of feminist ideology, particularly in view of the Diocese’s notorious opposition to the ordination of women. However, the author has found fascinating, and frightening parallels between the two cases which would indicate that women and men have been ill-served by the ideologues, both Christian and feminist. Further material has become available which throws more light on the very murky operations that led up to this situation.
The First Stone Stone March 2018 edition 2