With special guests:
- Kingsley (Kip) Miller
- Gil Ronen
Kingsley (Kip) Miller
Kip Miller is a fathers’ rights activist who is described by Lord Justice Thorpe of the UK Family Division as having a history of responsible campaigning and writing on issues relating to family relationships. He holds qualifications in Research Methods and is trained in Child Psychology and Child Sociology with a Teachers’ Certificate and a Masters Degree.
The author of even Toddlers Need Fathers joins us today from Southampton in the UK. Kip Miller wrote to the Australian Attorney-General Nicola Roxon on 16 January 2012 with the support of the Shared Parenting Council of Australia about particular concerns with the contribution to Australian law making of Psychologist Dr Jennifer McIntosh.
Jennifer McIntosh has been trying to influence Australian lawmakers and even those of some other countries including the UK and Israel to adopt the theories of Dr John Bowlby dating from 1951. In his theory of attachment called ‘Maternal Deprivation’ Bowlby links mothering to the state of mental health in children. The faulty understanding of the theory leads to some odd conclusions such as that a child under two years old who sleeps overnight in her father’s home is going to be harmed in some way by the experience, although it is OK to sleep there during the day.
Kip Miller brings real expertise and the wisdom of the world leaders in this area of research as a welcome respite from the feminist twaddle that passes itself off as an authoritative voice.
Gil Ronen
Our next guest comes to the program from Israel where Gil Ronen is the Founder and Chairman of The Family Lobby. While feminists call him a chauvinist he prefers the description of “familist”. Gil is a social activist and is considered a leading figure in the growing camp that opposes militant feminism in Israel.
We hear about the conflict between the Halacha (traditional Jewish law) and the state legislation. The state legislation has a “tender years” clause which grants women automatic custody of children up to the age of 6. The effect however is not limited to children under 6 because if there are several children involved, the courts will not split them. When this is coupled with draconian child support legislation under which the father’s real income may not even be considered and the excessive use of “visitation centres” for supervised access it amounts to a family crisis.
Of interest to Fathers in Australia and elsewhere is that an Israeli fathers’ group went to the United Nations to seek an investigation. Following a report by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights the UN demanded that the Israeli Government amend its laws. And following this demand the Israeli Minister of Justice, Yaakov Neeman has declared that divorced parents must now share custody of children in accordance with recommendations from the Schnitt Committee which has been debating this issue for over five years. And into the Schnitt deliberations came an inappropriate intrusion from Australia’s own Jennifer McIntosh with her half-baked research to muddy the waters. She was subsequently accused of persistently meddling with Israeli families. But the battle is far from over.
Listen in to get a personal perspective from a man of action on some issues in common and how we can fight them.
Song selections by our guests:
Kip Miller: Lonely Boy by Andrew Gold
Gil Ronen: Lady Madonna by The Beatles