Labor frontbenchers call for Bettina Arndt to be stripped of Order of Australia Medal after Rowan Baxter comments

A motion to oppose Bettina Arndt retaining her Order of Australia medal has won the overwhelming support of the Senate, with only Pauline Hanson and One Nation refusing to sign the agreement. Labor frontbenchers today presented the Senate with a motion to formally recognise that the views of the controversial men’s rights activist were “inconsistent with her retaining her Order of Australia”. Shadow foreign affairs minister Penny Wong and shadow minister for home affairs Kristina Keneally originally signed the motion, which did not hold the power to strip Ms Arndt of her honour but is set to further put pressure on the awards council currently reviewing the decision to revoke it. When presented to the Senate for a vote to agree Ms Arndt’s views were at odds with what the Order of Australia represented, 55 voted in the affirmative and two in the negative. Greens Senator Larissa Waters lashed One Nation for its refusal to join the rest of the Senate on its position, calling out the “lone voices defending the atrocious victim blaming comments of Bettina Arndt”. “Yet more reason she (Senator Hanson) is not appropriate to be the Deputy Chair of the Family Law Inquiry,” Senator Waters said. “I’ve written to my fellow Family Law Committee members today asking for her removal.” Ms Arndt — who has also been vocal about the ‘rape scare campaign’ on university campuses — said it was important to “keep an open mind” about the state of the Brisbane father, Rowan Baxter, when he doused his family of four in petrol and lit them on fire. Despite the Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carrol publicly stating it was “inappropriate” to suggest the murder of a woman and her children could be an instance of being “driven too far”, as suggested by a Queensland detective later taken off the case. But Ms Arndt tweeted on the same day that it was important to await evidence consider “the possibility that Rowan Baxter might have been driven too far” in his relationship and in the custody battle over his children. Senator Keneally said she encouraged all Senators to “stand firm to reject the abhorrent and reckless comments of Bettina Arndt and make clear there is no excuse for domestic violence”. “It was a murder, plain and simple,” she said. “There is nothing plain and simple about using your position in the Order of Australia to spread comments that could be seen to be inciting violence that seen to be condoning violence.” Senator Keneally welcomed comments by Liberal Senators Hollie Hughes and Sarah Henderson who had also been speaking out on the inappropriate comments. The motion comes after Federal Minister for Women Marise Payne slammed Ms Arndt’s comments as “outrageous and unacceptable”. Senator Payne last night called the comments outrageous and unacceptable. “We will not tolerate public language that trivialises or distorts the reality of domestic violence. Each act of domestic violence is an individual atrocity. There are no excuses for it,” Senator Payne said yesterday. “I understand that correspondence about Ms Arndt’s award will be referred to the Council of the Order of Australia. I welcome that referral. The Council is an independent body and decisions about individual award recipients are a matter for it.” It comes as there are calls for Ms Arndt to be stripped of her Order of Australia honour over the comments. Ms Arndt last week said Brisbane murderer Rowan Baxter “might have been driven too far”. Baxter murdered his estranged wife Hannah Clarke and their three children Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4 and Trey, 3 in Brisbane last week. Baxter doused Ms Clarke and the three children in petrol and set them alight. He then killed himself. “Congratulations to the Queensland police for keeping an open mind and awaiting proper evidence, including the possibility that Rowan Baxter might have been ‘driven too far’,” Ms Arndt said on Twitter last week. “But note the misplaced outrage. How dare police deviate from the feminist script of seeking excuses and explanations when women stab their partners to death, or drive their children into dams but immediately judging a man in these circumstances as simply representing the evil violence that is in all men.” The Governor-General’s office has referred calls for Ms Arndt to be stripped of her Order of Australia to Council of the Order of Australia.