It seemed that everyone on one side of politics has been clamouring to hear from Jordan Peterson, the reactionary Canadian psychologist best known for apocalyptic ramblings about the death of Western civilisation and life advice for teenage boys who just can’t seem to get a girl. But alas, the big guy was a no-show at his own conference in Sydney on Tuesday.

Peterson’s Alliance for Responsible Citizenship, a conservative think tank which counts a number of past and present Coalition figures on its advisory board, held its annual conference at the International Convention Centre on Tuesday, with the star attraction forced to Zoom in after failing to get an Australian visa. What are the chances?

CBD hears Peterson only applied for the required visa last Friday. It didn’t arrive, and since then, the doctor was called to deal with a family matter back in Canada. Guests were forced to hear from local favourites like Tony Abbott and Peter Costello instead.

Former prime minister John Howard, ex-deputy PM John Anderson, and frontbenchers Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Andrew Hastie are all on the ARC’s advisory board. And given the strong antipodean flavour at the ARC’s maiden London event last year, Sydney was the natural choice for the sequel.

But Peterson’s late scratching didn’t deter a healthy crowd of conservative thought leaders, including former prime minister Abbott, his old chief of staff Peta Credlin, ex-deputy PM Barnaby Joyce, and former minister Keith Pitt and Matt Canavan.

And rebellious Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming was in the audience but her attention was divided. She was spotted by CBD’s spies absorbed in her phone, live-streaming the final submission in her defamation case against Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto still afoot back in Melbourne.

https://www.smh.com.au/cbd/jordan-peterson-a-no-show-at-australian-conference-after-visa-fail-20241022-p5kkfi.html

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