That which has been is that which will be, And that which has been done is that which will be done, So, there is nothing new under the sun. This observation was written in about 935 BC. It is as true today as it was then. Its modern equivalent is the saying, “History always repeats itself.” Last week’s article revealed the similarities in the responses to the introduction of two parliamentary ...

Mahatma Gandhi once said that when facing adversaries, they first ignore you, then they fight you and then you win. Those people who despair at the apparent lack of progress in the fight for social justice for separated families need to take heart from Gandhi’s observation. We have successfully accomplished the first stage of the battle: they’re ignoring us.  If you doubt this success, then read the report by the parliamentary ...

The best decisions about the care, welfare and support of children are those made by their parents. However, the Child Support Agency has decided that it should take over this role. As a result, I know plenty of non-custodial fathers (and one mother) who not only have no intention of ever paying child support, but also do everything they possibly can to avoid it. I’m one of them. What do you ...

Many people have a solid, ingrained resistance to change, particularly when that change doesn’t align with the way they think. Our understanding and perception of the world around us is, to a large degree moulded by the culture of our age. When we look back to another age, another time and culture, we are often horrified by how the reasoning of the proponents of change has been trivialised, debunked or ignored. ...

A harsh statistic, which should be sobering and alarming to both legislators and their advisors, but has been largely ignored, is that about 40% of all payer clients held captive by the Child Support Agency (CSA) are effectively unemployed. Another statistic that appears to have also made no impact on government decision-makers is that 76% of all unemployed men receiving unemployment benefits are payer clients of the CSA. The cost of ...

I was 27 years old when, on my first day of teaching, I was presented with a class full of ten-year-old children. I remember thinking that I hadn’t seen or spoken to a ten-year-old since I was ten. I felt equally inadequate a few years later when I was handed my firstborn child. My knowledge of what was required of me was limited to an understanding that this creature was a ...

The observation that separated couples rarely get along with each other would come as no revelation to anyone. It is generally relationship problems that lead to the separation in the first place. Yet these relationship difficulties are often used by the Family Court as the basis for refusing shared parenting and for restricting a father’s contact with his children. I know of one case where a judge, who found no fault ...

It is a well-known adage that evil triumphs when good men do nothing. The events of history testify to the truth of this saying. Yet, there are plenty of examples in history of good men accepting the authority of a tyrannical government. The apostle Paul was a Jew living under the dominance of a conquering nation, the Romans. Despite this, he taught that it was important to be obedient and submissive ...

Each year in Australia thousands of children are being mentally and emotionally abused by the Family Court of Australia by being forced to participate in an investigation of their parents’ competency. This process is called a ‘Family Report’. Many children are severely harmed by the experience. Family Reports are a massive and unjustified violation of the rights of children and parents. They contribute significantly to the social tragedy of the separation ...

In June, 2000, a 44-year-old father experiencing family separation killed himself in the bush in the Victorian Gippsland region. Greg Wilton had a five-year-old son and a two-year-old daughter. This event made national news because Greg Wilton was also a federal parliamentarian. Each year in Australia, more than 2,500 people die by suicide. This is significantly more than the national road toll (about 1,700). Most people are aware of the focus ...

I recently represented the Fatherhood Foundation (Dads4Kids) at a national workshop conducted by the Department of Health and Ageing. Our task was to contribute towards an understanding of suicide amongst men in the 25-44 age group, and to assist in developing a strategic approach to prevention. Some of the discussions and debates about the causes of suicide within this age group reminded me of the children’s story about the animals that ...

I heard recently that over half of the Australian veterans of the first Gulf War still suffer from ‘post-traumatic stress disorder’ and that many of them will probably never recover. The focus of counselling services appears to be to encourage and help veterans learn to live with the symptoms of this disorder. A similar approach is being used to deal with problems faced by separated fathers. These fathers are being told ...

There are quite a few things that I like about the Easter holidays. I like the traditional early morning surfs at my local beach. The king tides sometimes cover a rock outcrop that normally remains exposed at high tide. When the swell is small, this produces a nice little wave that I usually get to surf on my own. By the time other surfers become aware of it, the tide begins ...

The Childcare Industry and the De-Fathering of Society Part 5 The preceding articles in this series have argued that while the Federal Government’s generosity and concern for families may be genuine, its actions are lopsided, biased against non-custodial parents, and contribute to the de-fathering of society. The crisis of fatherless children is compounded by the fact that there are few male role models working in childcare centres. And when children leave ...

The Childcare Industry and the De-Fathering of Society Part 4 Government funding of the childcare industry was not designed to remove children from their fathers. The fact that it does so is a consequence of the cultural bias against separated fathers that exists in our culture. This bias pervades every aspect and level of society. It means that in the development of government policies, and in the Opposition parties’ response to ...

The Childcare Industry and the De-Fathering of Society Part 3 The childcare industry is experiencing phenomenal growth and providing lucrative returns for the owners of private childcare centres. This growth is fed by the provision of government funding for childcare. While the subsidies are designed to encourage mothers of young children to work, the benefits are available also to sole mothers. However the ‘assistance’ sole parents get from other government agencies ...

The Childcare Industry and the De-Fathering of Society Part 2 One of the most notable features of the present Federal Government is its desire to help families. However, the impact of its policies often goes well beyond its intentions. Sometimes, at great expense, a new set of problems is created far greater than those being solved. Consider the Federal Government’s funding of childcare centres. The benefits provided have increased six-fold over ...

The Childcare Industry and the De-Fathering of Society Part 1 Prime Minister John Howard has stated that no previous government has done as much as the present one in helping families. If the degree of help can be measured by the level of government spending on assistance programmes, then this is undeniably true. Mr Howard is clearly genuine in his concern for families and in his compassion for children. His government ...

My last article mentioned a report from the Australian Institute of Family Studies that revealed that an alarmingly high number of children spend the day with their father but never sleep over. These children, and their fathers, are being denied the opportunity for a normal parent/child relationship and all the benefits that accrue from this. They are children who only visit their father. They have no sense of being at home ...

One of the reasons my life has been so good is that I have had a good father. I also want to be a good father to my own children. However, the freedom to make this choice no longer exists for separated fathers in Australian society. Family Law legislation in Australia has removed from me my authority as a father and placed it in the hands of anonymous government bureaucrats who ...