Dear ASF Community,
What a start to the year we’ve seen! 2026 has broken out of the gates with jaw-dropping national and international events to jolt us back into engagement with our ever-changing world. We hope you’ve enjoyed a rejuvenating break over the recent holidays and are prepared to dive into an exciting new year of events and ideas, doing what you can to champion common sense and strengthen your community.
ASF’s first exciting event of the year is coming up in Sydney in just over a week, on the evening of Sunday, 8 February. This intimate, ASF members-only dinnertime gathering at one of our members’ private residences will be the inaugural event in our new series entitled Vox Libera (“Free Voice”). In the spirit of the Enlightenment-era salons of revolutionary France, ASF is proud to announce this new series of in-person gatherings to encourage rigorous, open discussion free from censorship or pressure to conform – a safe haven for free speech, offering the opportunity to challenge assumptions, sharpen thinking, and advance understanding through fearless civil disagreement.
Our inaugural Vox Libera Salon will offer participants the opportunity to engage with Dr John Lott, President of the US-based Crime Prevention Research Center and a prominent advocate for armed self-defense (author of More Guns, Less Crime), who is coming to Australia for a speaking tour in the aftermath of the Bondi massacre to discuss optimal policy responses, particularly as they relate to gun laws. Whether you agree with him or not, John Lott is aligned with what ASF stands for: trying to take a scientific approach to complex, emotive problems, and speaking freely about what you find. Reserve your seat for what promises to be a lively, informative and timely discussion about what we can practically do to improve Australians’ safety.
Our online Monthly Members’ Forums will also start up again in February, with John Lott our featured speaker on Friday, February 6th – rather than our regular Tuesday – to fit in with John’s schedule. Join ASF as a member to receive direct notifications of all monthly Members’ Forums and other valuable opportunities to learn, discuss, fight nonsense and build strength for Australia.
On Australia Day earlier this week, as a counterpoint to the Australia Day honours given out by the Governor-General, ASF announced the inaugural winners of three new awards: ASF Australian of the Year (Science), ASF Australian of the Year (Freedom), and ASF Organisation of the Year:
Science – This award recognises individuals who have demonstrated leadership and integrity in advancing scientific discourse grounded in intellectual and academic freedom, open inquiry, and the rigorous pursuit of truth through the scientific method.
Freedom – This award recognises individuals who have made a meaningful contribution to the defence of freedom, democracy, or democratic processes – particularly within academic, public policy, or political contexts – and to the protection of the principles that underpin a free and open society.
Organisation – This award recognises organisations that have made a meaningful contribution to advancing both scientific integrity and freedom, particularly through the defence of free speech, informed consent, the scientific method, and the protection of democratic principles within academic, medical, and public policy contexts.
Congratulations – respectively – to our 2026 winners, Maryanne Demasi, Stephen Chavura, and the initiators of the Cape Byron Lighthouse Declaration. We will be further celebrating the richly deserving winners of these awards throughout 2026 via interviews, articles, and other promotional activities.
Our sister organisations in Australia have also been active. Western Heritage Australia’s “Australia’s Family Court at 50: Reform or Revolution?” discussion panel will be held in Sydney on 10 February, while the Aligned Council of Australia offers us all this “Digital ID Resistance Kit” and Stand Up Now Australia has come out with a book documenting how the Australian CDC was established (also see here). Children’s Health Defense is looking for helpers and the New South Wales community has offered this petition that you may wish to consider signing (if you reside in NSW) in response to the proposed gun law reforms. The Cape Byron LIghthouse Declaration founders and supporters gathered recently in Byron Bay to celebrate the third anniversary of the Declaration (and several were interviewed on Club Grubbery). Finally, the University of Sydney Association of Professors (USAP) offers this upcoming event:
“Make Lying Wrong Again: Academic Integrity and Its Importance in Modern Society”, an online seminar scheduled to take place on May 6, 2026, at 1 pm. This timely event will bring together experts to discuss the critical role of academic integrity in maintaining the credibility and public trust that underpin our democratic society.
In an era where artificial intelligence is increasingly prevalent, honesty in education matters more than ever. The seminar will explore what academic integrity means, its modern challenges, and why it extends far beyond academia. Our distinguished speakers, including Professors Dianna Kenny and Hans Zoellner, will look at the core values that underpin academic integrity, such as rigour in expertise, commitment to advancing knowledge, and truth in all academic work.
The seminar will also examine the threats to academic integrity, including plagiarism, performance pressure, commodification of education, and the normalisation of dishonesty. We will discuss how these challenges can erode public trust and undermine the foundations of our democratic society.
To join the conversation and obtain the video link for the online seminar, please email us at usap@professoriate.org
In mainstream Australian news over the past two months, in addition to the horrific Bondi massacre which has, eventually, triggered a Royal Commission (though we are not counting on it to deliver value or increased safety), we have seen the introduction of the under-16s social media ban (covered by 60 Minutes here) that for some people passed akin to the Y2K non-event but for others has meant no longer being able to access certain forms of information (such as substack entries) without submitting to online “age verification” tests. Most recently, we have seen the rushed and clownish hate speech bill, initially a disorganised collection of attempts to Do Something in response to the Bondi massacre, and still, as it eventually passed, a poorly thought-through set of further restrictions on human rights. ASF made a submission on the original bill in spite of the incredibly tight timeline, as did many other individuals and organisations, but the somewhat revised bill was not subjected to public consultation and is now law.
Overseas, a conference in Guernsey will bring together covid-policy-era heroes, thinkers, and victims in early February. The US has now fully withdrawn from the WHO; the US Department of Health and Human Services has totally revised the food pyramid and cancelled some funding of the American Academy of Pediatrics (triggering a lawsuit (also see here) – and Children’s Health Defense is now suing the AAP!); the CDC has thinned out the childhood vaccination schedule (with supporting arguments here); and Vinay Prasad at the FDA has also penned a letter acknowledging child deaths from the covid vaccines and many failures by the FDA in the covid era. In Canada, the Federal Court of Appeal confirmed that the Trudeau government unlawfully invoked the Emergencies Act in response to the 2022 Freedom Convoy, and violated the Charter rights to freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly.
The world of research continues to produce evidence of the harms of the covid shots (e.g., here, here, here, here, and here), while a take-down and reversal of a previous claim that vaccinations reduced dementia risk and a study showing the perils of using PCR tests diagnostically have also been published.
The story of the joys, heartaches, tensions, surprises, romances and triumphs of the courageous people trying to restore Western higher education with their own blood, sweat, money and tears is told in Minds that Dare, a true adventure book co-authored by Paul Frijters, Academic Director of Academia Libera Mentis, and a young student who is no pushover and also happens to be the daughter of an ASF director. Find out in this book all about the new academy, and stimulate your thinking about the goals and challenges of real Western education reform. Order your copy here:
Finally, you may want to check out this new film on the harms of masking, and this country-style song of resistance.
Enjoy the rest of summer, and I hope to see you at an ASF event online or in person soon!
Gigi Foster
