Archive for August, 2011
NAPCAN – when protecting children is compromised by ideology
It is that time of the year when NAPCAN (National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect), an organisation founded in 1987 to advocate for the protection of children, is running its annual high profile campaign to raise funds and awareness in its fight against child abuse and neglect in Australia.
A noble cause indeed, and in support of this campaign Fathers4Equality contacted NAPCAN last year and volunteered our assistance during their National Child Protection Week.
Fathers4Equality offered to distribute a child abuse awareness survey to all our members, as well as assist with fund raising, amongst other worthwhile measures in support of this worthy cause.
After an initial positive response from NAPCAN, all correspondence came to an end.
Federal Police in fight over stolen kids
CHILDREN are being stopped at airports daily as police swoop on parents suspected, sometimes wrongly, of trying to abduct their kids overseas.
Figures supplied by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) to a Senate inquiry into international child abduction show the names of 12,000 children have been placed on a “watch” list by the courts.
The watch register operates at international sea ports and airports with the presentation of a child’s passport activating an alert to the AFP.
Child Abductions a Nightmare for left-behind Parents
TWO fathers who experienced the “nightmare” of having their sons taken from Australia by former partners have urged the federal government to make the act a crime.
Lauchlan Leishman and Ken Thompson fronted a Senate committee in Canberra today, arguing that the system surrounding international child abductions needs a desperate overhaul.
Mr Leishman, whose son was taken out of the country in 2008 and has not been returned, labelled it a “long, painful and exhaustive process” that had come at great financial cost.
Another Woman guilty of sex act with boys
A Goldfields woman has been granted bail after being found guilty of sexually penetrating a teenage boy and attempting to encourage him to engage in sexual behaviour.
But Donna-Marie Farrell, 34, was acquitted of three similar allegations made by another boy concerning the same incident.
They jury deliberated for five hours before handing down its verdicts on the charges.
Ms Farrell was found not guilty of two counts of indecent dealings with a child under 16, not guilty of one count of sexual penetration or oral sex of a child under 16 and not guilty of encouraging a child under 16 to engage in sexual behaviour.
The Gillard Labor Government Encouraging Extortion in Family Law
MEDIA RELEASE: The Gillard Labor Government supports extortion and single parent families.
A Bill called the Family Law Legislation Amendment (Family Violence and Other Measures) Bill 2011 is currently before Parliament.
The Bill has recently received the support of the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee. The Senate Committee’s Report on the Bill was tabled in theSenate on Monday 22 August 2011 ( Hansard page 74 ).
There are two (2) parts to the Bill.
Labor Greens -Shared Parenting Rollback- creating a fatherless society
Media Release: Labor Greens ‘Shared Parenting Rollback’ creating a fatherless society
Monday 22 August 2011 at 6.30 pm, the Labor Green’s controlled Senate Legal & Constitutional Affairs Committee released their report on the ‘Shared Parenting Rollback’ Bill 2011 www.aph.gov.au/senate . The Green’s member, Rachel Siewert said, “ The Greens have consistently opposed the equal shared parenting responsibility legislation ” brought into law in 2006.
Warwick Marsh, Dads4Kids Fatherhood Foundation, said, “ The Senate report and the Green’s comments show what is driving this shocking new anti-child and anti-father legislation. Never before have major changes to Family Law been enacted on any other than bipartisan agreement between the major parties. This proposed legislation is opposed by the Opposition, and rightly so, because it removes the very wise friendly-parent provision, redefines family violence to mean anything anybody wants it to be, and removes any possible penalties for perjury and false accusation in the Family Law Court.
Senate Committee divided over shared parenting rollback
Press Release for immediate release: Senate Committee divided over shared parenting rollback
The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee yesterday approved changes to family law legislation that will remove even more fathers from their children’s lives.
The Committee divided down party lines. Coalition members submitted a minority report rejecting the changes, but the Labor controlled committee agreed with the much broader definition of domestic violence, the removal of penalties for knowingly making false allegations and the requirement for parents to be supportive of each other’s role in their children’s lives, as contained in the Attorney General’s new Family Law Amendment (Family violence) Bill 2010. The Greens went further, suggesting the removal of shared parental responsibility provisions, previously known as ‘guardianship’ arrangements, illustrating their total disregard for fathers and our traditional family structure.
The Greens show their true colours in Family Law reform
The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee has tabled its report into the Family Violence Bill.
Unsurprisingly, it contains varying views from the broad collection of Senator members of the Committee.
To the un-initiated, be warned that this report is more of an expression of ideology, rather than any genuine exploration of family law reform.
As a result, many contributors with hardline extremist views, or otherwise entrenched beliefs, have been given a disproportional voice, clearly at the discretion of the Labor party and/or its Greens partners.
Open Letter to the Senate Inquiry by a Concerned Father on the Family Violence Bill
The following is a rebuttal to the Senate made by a concerned father in response to erroneous, misleading and misguided research submitted to the Senate Inquiry into the Family Violence Bill, 2011, claiming that Australia’s 2006 Shared Parenting legislation has forced children to live with paedophiles, and other absurd and unsubstantiated claims that lack any credible or relevant evidence.
This is an admirable initiative from one man, and is a great example of constructive activism.
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Dear Senators,
I am writing to rebut the “evidence” that shared parenting forces children to live with paedophiles, submitted on notice by Justice for Children.
I point out that this submission cites caselaw made 30 years before the shared parental responsibility amendments were enacted and quotes irrelevant UK judgements in which supervised contact was ordered to protect the father from further child sexual abuse allegations. Briggs consistently refers to interim orders where findings of fact cannot be made. Apparently they don’t expect anyone to check.
Majority of Sex discrimination Complaints now made by Men
Sex discrimination complaints made by men have outnumbered those from women for the first time, according to figures compiled by the Western Australian Equal Opportunity Commission.
The EOC recorded a surge in the number of sex discrimination allegations last financial year, with men responsible for lodging more than half of them.
Equal Opportunity Commissioner Yvonne Henderson said studies of the complaints indicated that men were becoming more aware of the treatment dished out to them by employers and service providers.
The majority of male complaints related to sex discrimination in the workplace, with the next biggest category relating to entry to premises.
“We have received complaints from men who feel discriminated against because they have been denied entry to bars for wearing attire similar to women,” Ms Henderson said.
