The Office of the Governor-General said on Thursday afternoon that it yet to receive the letter, but had been referring all correspondence it received about Ms Arndt's award to the Council for the Order of Australia. Former Australian of the year Rosie Batty says she is thrilled with the Victorian government's response to Bettina Arndt's Australia Day award. Credit:AP Anti-violence campaigner Rosie Batty said she was thrilled Ms Hennessy had written to the Governor-General, and urged more male leaders to "express their dismay". Ms Batty, a former Australian of the year, said Ms Hennessy's letter would be welcomed by abuse victims and their advocates who had received Order of Australia awards in the past. "I was thrilled and I would like to see letters of that calibre and type being addressed to the Governor-General across the board, but I would like to see more men – more male journalists, male leaders – also expressing their dismay," Ms Batty said, "and not just leaving it up to women to be alone in this battle."

Ms Arndt, 70, is facing an investigation into her media appearances under the title of psychologist, after the health practitioner regulator received a complaint accusing her of falsely representing herself as a member of the profession. Ms Arndt has come under fire for working to dispel what she has called the myth of a sexual assault crisis at Australian universities and residential colleges. She has also been criticised for a number of interviews, including a 2017 exchange with Tasmanian sex offender Nicolaas Bester, who was jailed for raping his 15-year-old student, Grace Tame. During the interview, Ms Arndt accused the teenage victim of "sexually provocative behaviour". "The question that remains for me is whether there's any room in this conversation for talking to young people, particularly young girls about behaving sensibly and not exploiting their seductive power to ruin the lives of men," Ms Arndt said to the camera.

Loading In a statement to Nina Funnell, a journalist and co-founder of the Let Her Speak campaign, Ms Tame said: “I believe that honouring someone who actively defended a paedophile on a public platform is a blatant example of the protracted, systemic moral corruption that still hampers our society. "[Survivors of sexual abuse] will not let such a clear case of rewarding [such] behaviour deter or enfeeble us. It is precisely this manner of injustice that strengthens our collective courage and motivation as survivors to share our experiences." In a tense exchange with ABC Radio Melbourne host Virginia Trioli on Thursday morning, Ms Arndt described Ms Hennessy's letter as "ludicrous", and said her interviews with abusers had been taken out of context. When asked about her comments in 2005 that "minor abuse rarely has long-lasting consequences", Ms Arndt doubled down and said there was "ample" evidence that sexual abuse did not always have long-lasting consequences.

Trioli said abuse victims would be "deeply wounded" by those comments, to which a fired-up Ms Arndt responded: "Well, I don't, listen Virginia, wait, I, I talk about what research says and I will not be cowered by ideologues like you who believe we're not allowed to discuss research. Bettina Arndt has described the Victorian government's reaction to her award as "ludicrous". Credit:Joshua Morris "Sexual abuse can be devastating, absolutely, and I've always acknowledged that we need to care for victims who've suffered with that experience, but as the research shows, there are degrees of experiences," Ms Arndt said. "There's a difference between having someone pat you briefly on a breast or rape you. And the evidence shows there's an enormous difference to how people respond to this – that is the sort of research I talk about, that's the sort of research presented at these inquiries, which gets totally ignored because the only narrative people are interested in is pretending that all abuse is equally damaging." Ms Hennessy said the Andrews government was acting on behalf of all domestic violence and sexual abuse victims across the country.

Loading "We take our advocacy on behalf of improving gender inequality, which we know is one of the great drivers of family violence, very, very seriously," Ms Hennessy told ABC Radio. "We're not going to look at Victorian women who have suffered tremendously in the context of family violence, and the many, many victims of child sexual abuse at the hands of paedophiles and say 'This is OK, we're not going to put our hand up and not contest it." A spokeswoman for the Australian Honours and Awards Secretariat confirmed the organisation had received correspondence from the public calling for Ms Arndt's award to be annulled. "Speaking generally, rather than in relation to a specific example, appointments can be terminated," the spokeswoman said.