Yes campaigner and university professor is charged after allegedly SPITTING at a No voter during tense clash at Voice event

EXCLUSIVE

A university professor and Yes campaigner has been charged with assault after she was filmed allegedly spitting at and slapping a No voter.

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

NSW Police have confirmed Prof Ferris, 70, has been charged with common assault and is set to appear at Cooma Local Court on November 22.

‘Officers attached to Monaro Police District were told three people had been involved in a physical altercation,’ a police spokesperson said.

‘No injuries were reported.’

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

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

In the footage Mr Thaler can be heard calling Prof Ferris a ‘stupid m*le’. 

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

She then allegedly spat at Mr Thaler. 

Subsequently Mr Thaler shared other videos that show him demanding to know from those in Labor party’s Yes23 tent who know who the ‘crazy b**ch’ was that 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 in bringing charges against Prof Ferris.

‘She should have been charged from the get-go and it has taken over three weeks and public pressure to get some action because she’s Labor, because she is Yes they get special treatment,’ he said. 

‘It’s complete bulls**t.’ 

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

Mr Thaler criticised 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 taken leave.

Prof Ferris, who has an unpaid position with the university, was the head of the School of Art & Design since 2013. 

She denied spitting on Mr Thaler following the incident.

In the statement she claimed she ‘felt intimidated’ by Mr Thaler because he was holding the camera out ‘like a weapon pointed at me’.

‘I was more than 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 over the investigation into confrontations with Yes campaigners

‘I did not spit on him. I wanted to block his camera without engaging in physical contact. Flight? Am I to turn my back on him — no way, too scared of his actions, it was so traumatic.’

Mr Thaler claimed he was walking over to the Yes23 tent when Prof Ferris tried to block him from getting close. 

He told Daily Mail Australia the tent had a petting zoo with lambs, and that he believed it was a ploy to lure in children and families to discuss the Voice. 

The altercation started while he was trying to take photos of the lambs ‘to show they (the Yes campaign) would do anything… even exploit animals’.

In further video taken by Mr Thaler on September 17 a man in the Yes23 is seen pressing his face close to camera.

‘Hey, f***wit, p*** off. F***wit, p*** off,’ the man says as .

‘No, I’m standing my ground,’ Mr Thaler replied. ‘Stop pushing into me.’ 

In a separate video the man appears to strike Mr Thaler who holds up his right arm trying to ward him off. 

‘One metre,’ Mr Thaler says. 

‘Do it again.’

Police said they were investigating the second incident.

Mr Thaler courted controversy over the past two years. 

He was branded a ‘parasite’ by 2GB presenter Ben Fordham after he claimed he spoke on behalf of the family whose grandmother, Clare Nowland, 95, was fatally tasered 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 staff member four years earlier. He avoided a conviction.