Men Under Labor

With special guests:

• John Flanagan
• George Potkonvak
• Geoffrey Green and
• Phil York.

Democracy has failed the nation’s fathers. Issues of concern to dads, including men’s health, long and unreasonable work hours, poor pay, family law, child support and a host of other issues are never or rarely ever addressed by our politicians. The electoral success of leftwing governments hostage to feminist lobby groups in America, Australia and the UK has simply made the situation worse. Corrupt and unaccountable systems thrive in secrecy while the nation’s politicians look the other way.

In Australia there are serious concerns that even the modest reforms introduced by the previous government aimed at creating at least an element of fairness into family law are about to be wiped away. Extreme male bashing taxpayer funded women’s groups are mounting a spirited campaign to return the world to the dark ages when most fathers caught up in family law never or rarely ever saw their children again.

This week Dads on the Air, which began with a group of separated blokes damaged by and brave enough to raise a voice against the overwhelming anti-father bias of Australia’s family law system, returns to its roots. We talk with John Flanagan from the Equal Parenting Party, George Potkonyak, a solicitor dealing with family law and child support issues, Phil York from Dads In Distress and Geoffrey Greene from the Shared Parenting Council of Australia.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has made great play out of his devotion to feminist causes, ignoring the many issues which affect his own gender. He is following the example of his hero Barak Obama, who as made sure feminist causes are a major plank of his government’s operations. Many critics believe that as a result of this abject devotion to fashionable ideologies the situation for many fathers is getting worse under both leaders.

Bettina Arndt wrote prophetically two years ago: “IS Kevin Rudd interested in men? The answer, sadly, seems to be no. Unlike John Howard, the Opposition Leader rarely talks about issues affecting many of his own gender, such as family law, child support, fatherless families, boys’ education. Indeed, this potential prime minister seems content to hand over the running on most social issues to female colleagues renowned for their anti-male bias. For anyone keen to ensure men and boys receive a fair go, the prospect of a Labor government is all bad news.”

In this atmosphere the Labor government is expanding the power of the Family Court and the domestic violence industry while ignoring the social consequences of both.

Astonishingly, Chief Justice of the Family Court Diana Bryant has come out recently saying the court cannot be held responsible for the death of a four year old girl thrown off a bridge by her father, pre-empting the inquest and the court case. This is a man who’s entire life was being consumed by the consummate bastardy of the court and the lawyers infesting it; a man who’s every waking moment was no doubt preoccupied with how best he could deal with the onerous demands of fighting a custody battle at the same time as being financially ransacked and holding down a job. And he cracked. Yet the court is now desperately trying to wash their hands of the case. Give it a break!

The Chief Justice has also found herself under attack after announcing that she had written to the Attorney General asking that penalties introduced into the Family Law Act be repealed. The Family Court is not known as The Palace of Lies for nothing.

Geoffrey Green, a spokesman for The Shared Parenting Council of Australia, will be discussing their media release on the subject. It read in part:

“Recent media reports that the Chief Justice of the Family Court, Diana Bryant, has called upon the Attorney-General to give “urgent consideration” to repealing one of the most fundamental protections in the recent Family Law Act amendments is almost without precedent and a recipe for wholesale failure in the integrity and operation of the Family Court System.

“The Chief Justice’s call to repeal amendments to the Family Law Act in relation to awarding of costs against the party that maliciously raises untrue allegations of violence or makes untrue denials, will re-open the floodgates to increased perjury, false allegations and flies in the face of findings by two parliamentary enquiries, and natural justice - with an end result diametrically opposed to a child’s best interest”, Ed Dabrowski, Federal Director of the Shared Parenting Council said today.

“Without any supporting evidence, that there is in fact any harm at all being created by these reasonable and well accepted amendments in the 2006 legislation, the Chief Justice has engaged in a media campaign to undo one of the fundamental protections available to any litigant, anywhere in any other law jurisdiction in the world”, Mr Dabrowski said.

“Surely, the Chief Justice couldn’t be condoning the re-establishment of a ‘penalty free’ process for one parent to make false and malicious allegations against the other  - this defies every process of law in the Westminster system. If any amendment would be required, it should be to ensure that perjury is punished by criminal sanction, not the repealing of research based amendments made just some three years ago”, Mr Dabrowski said.

The Shared Parenting Council of Australia maintains that such a retrograde step would encourage a wholesale rise in mischievous allegations made in Court and to Child Protective Services. It would increase the frequency and severity of false statements including false allegations of abuse and violence against parents and grandparents simply seeking to continue parenting their children after separation and divorce.

The Shared Parenting Council of Australia receives many complaints from parents where the Court’s ‘cautionary’ approach to allegations resulted in impaired or total loss of contact without the allegations ever being proved or even investigated. Mr Dabrowski lamented; “legally unimpeachable parents were being treated like criminals and easily lose their children, without due process, at the discretion of judges.”

He said, “Diana Bryant is in effect saying that the most hostile parent ought to have the power to veto the other parent’s involvement, no matter what. She is advocating the law change to grant permission for one of the litigants to come in with fabricated or at best flimsy allegations which would veto the child’s best interest, to veto shared parenting, a remedy that fosters the best interests of children and is otherwise encouraged by the law.

“The new legislation in 2006 was designed specifically to ensure that children did not lose all contact with one parent and to ensure both parents understood their responsibilities in parenting after separation. Any watering down of the section relating to a “willingness of each child’s parents to facilitate and encourage a close and continuing relationship between the child and the other parent”, will be vigorously opposed.”

Under the Australian Constitution, there are supposed to be three sources of power in Australia – the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. Each one is held to account by checks and balances of the other. However John Flanagan maintains that a fourth power has developed in Australia – the Bureaucracy. This Bureaucracy is elected by no one. In practice, John Flanagan maintains that it is also accountable to no one.

The decisions of the Bureaucracy are based on what they believe are in the “best interests” of Australia and Australians. At the same time, these decisions are not based on consultation with the people who actually live in this country.

For example, these bureaucrats believe that it is in the “best interests” of Australians that the taxpayer should not be responsible for the costs of bringing up children from separated parents. This goal is to be commended. However the solution that has been adopted has had disastrous results.

The bureaucrat’s solution was the implementation of the Child Support Scheme. The approach was simple - forcibly extract money from one parent and give it to the other parent. It does not work. It is directly implicated in the deaths of numerous separated fathers who have been bullied and harassed by heartless CSA bureaucrats into an early grave.

An alternative approach, namely, the adoption of equal-time shared parenting was not on the agenda. This seems to be backed up by recent media comments made by the Chief Justice of the Family Court, Diana Bryant.

Policy decisions are made by bureaucrats within the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA). These decisions are then virtually rubber stamped by the Parliament as legislation.

Child support decisions are made by a FaHCSIA group called the “Child Support Policy Unit”. This unit is located on the 6th Floor of Juliana House in Woden. ACT.

The only way we can overcome this problem is for our politicians to significantly reduce the size and influence of the fourth arm of Government – the Bureaucracy.

John Flanagan says that the Question for voters at the next Federal Election will be: “Do we want to have a small group of so-called elite intellectuals control our lives or do we believe that we can plan our lives ourselves?”

George Potkonyak is a solicitor who will discuss some of his concerns with current family law and child support legislation.

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