Ben Cousins has been dropped from his speaking gig at a Victorian pub amid community backlash.
The former AFL player was set to give a talk at The George Hotel in Ballarat on Wednesday evening.
Fans could enter the ticketed event for a fee of $49 but the event has now been cancelled.
The pub apologised for the “anger, disappointment and hurt” caused after the announcement of the event was met with disdain.
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“We recognise that decisions about who is given a platform carry particular significance for women, victim-survivors and others affected by domestic violence,” the pub said in a statement on Instagram.
“We understand why members of our community have questioned what this event represents and whether their experiences and concerns were adequately considered.
“They were not considered carefully enough and we are sorry.
“We have since begun reviewing how prospective speakers, performers, booking agents, and other partners are assessed.”
The statement confirming the cancellation of the Raw event came just hours before it was scheduled to begin.
Cousins was found guilty of aggravated stalking and breaching a restraining order in 2017 and received a 12-month prison sentence.
In 2020 he was again sentenced to seven months for stalking a former partner.
Promotion for the evening said Cousins would “open up like never before”, discussing his jail time and exile from the AFL community.
There was relief from some at the event being cancelled, with Ballarat Centre Against Sexual Assault manager Katrina Bevelander one of the opponents.
“To me it really flies in the face of some of the hard work the Ballarat community is doing,” she told ABC.
”Having someone of his status coming into our community and profiting off essentially behaviours of perpetrating gender-based violence, just really left a bad taste in my mouth.
“To platform someone who’s profiting off the back of behaviours that I don’t believe they’ve taken full accountability for is a bit of the slap in the face of victim-survivors and the community as a whole.
”We welcome men’s voices in that space if they have truly taken accountability for their past behaviours.
”I question that in this instance, just purely off the profiting off the back of that.”