Yes campaigner and university professor is charged over alleged spitting incident with No campaigner during tense clash at Voice event

EXCLUSIVE:

A university professor and “Yes” activist has been charged with assault after she was filmed spitting and slapping a No vote advocate.

Emeritus Professor Denise Ferris, of the Australian National University, was charged on Wednesday night with assault over confrontations she had with Andrew Thaler at Centennial Park in Cooma, south-east NSW on September 17.

NSW Police have confirmed Prof Ferris, 70, has been charged with common assault and will appear in Cooma Local Court on November 22.

“Monaro Police District officers were told that three people had been involved in a physical altercation,” a police spokesman said.

‘No injuries were reported.’

Prof Ferris is an Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University of Canberra, which is an unpaid position

Andrew Thaler was at a Yes campaign event in Cooma, south-east NSW, when he filmed himself being spat on by Voice supporter and ANU emeritus professor Denise Ferris

A video showing the alleged incident has been widely shared on social media.

In appearance, Mr. Thaler can be heard calling Prof Ferris a ‘stupid motherfucker’.

‘Don’t… don’t you dare call me that,’ she says, as her face comes close enough to the camera to fill the entire screen.

She then allegedly spat on Mr. Thaler.

Mr Thaler then shared further videos showing him demanding to know from those in the Yes23 Labor Party tent who know who the ‘crazy b**ch’ was who spat on him.

Prof Ferris will face court at a later date.

Mr Thaler told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday that police had taken too long to lay charges against Prof Ferris.

“She should have been charged from the start and it took more than three weeks and public pressure to take some action because she’s Labour, because she’s Yes they get special treatment,” he said.

“This is complete bulls**t.”

Andrew Thaler claims he was allegedly assaulted by another man at the Yes23 tent after the alleged spitting incident

Mr Thaler criticized how the officer investigating the case had gone on leave during the investigation.

“She should have been charged on day one,” he said. ‘Justice delayed is justice denied’.

NSW Police confirmed the officer had been cleared.

Prof Ferris, who holds an unpaid position at the university, has been head of the School of Art and Design since 2013.

She denied spitting on Mr Thaler after the incident.

In the statement she claimed that she “felt scared” by Mr. Thaler because he was holding the camera out ‘like a gun pointed at me’.

“I was beyond terrified, he was literally in my face, I had a visceral response, a panic attack, fight or flight,” Prof Ferris said.

Mr. Thaler (pictured) has accused the police of dragging their feet during the investigation into the confrontations with Po activists.

‘I didn’t spit it out. I wanted to block his camera without engaging in physical contact. The flight? Should I turn my back on him – no way, scared of his actions, it was so traumatic.’

Mr Thaler claimed he was walking towards the Yes23 tent when Prof Ferris tried to stop him from approaching.

He told Daily Mail Australia that the tent had a petting zoo of lambs and that he believed it was a ploy to lure children and families into discussing The Voice.

The row started as he was trying to photograph the lambs ‘to show that they (the Yes campaign) would do anything…even exploit animals’.

In the further video taken by Mr. Thaler on September 17, a man in Po23 is seen pressing his face close to the camera.

‘Hey, wit, out. F*** mind, f*** out,” the man says.

“No, I’m standing,” replied Mr. Thaler. “Stop pushing me.”

In a separate video, the man appears to punch Mr Thaler who holds up his right arm in an attempt to push him away.

“One meter,” says Mr. Thaler.

‘Do it again.’

Police said they are investigating the second incident.

Mr. Thaler has caused controversy over the past two years.

He was branded a ‘parasite’ by 2GB presenter Ben Fordham after he claimed to speak on behalf of the family whose grandmother Clare Nowland, 95, was bludgeoned to death at a nursing home in Cooma on May 17.

He has also run for political office at various levels of government, and in 2022 pleaded guilty to intimidating a Rural Fire Service worker four years earlier. He avoided a sentence.