Where is my child?

With special guest:

• Ken Thompson

Perhaps the most frightening experience a parent can endure occurs when their child goes missing. What if you then find out that you will not be getting any help or assistance from your partner or former partner because the partner has decided to disappear from your life with your child?

This situation is arising more frequently and Australia has one of the highest rates per capita anywhere in the world. When the child is taken overseas the practice is described as International Parental Child Abduction or IPCA and there is a growing recognition of the damage done to the victims.

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NAIDOC Week

With special guests:

• Rick Welsh
• Uncle Gerald Brown

We have a great music selection in our program today, starting with the Jimmy Cliff song Many Rivers to Cross as featured recently in the award winning MABO telemovie on the ABC. This is followed by a song from Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu from his Rrakala album. Translated this song refers to the Salt Water People and that describes our second guest today. The songs selected by our guests reflect some important messages that they pass on to us.

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Parental Alienation Action

 With special guests:

• Jill Egizii
• Karen Lebow

In the USA just as in Australia there are many judges, lawyers, psychiatrists and psychologists who have no idea of the damage done by parental alienation. Many in the general public do not even know there is a name for what they see happening to friends, workmates and even themselves.

For this reason it is vital that we improve the awareness and education relating to parental alienation. With that awareness of the damage done to children and parents will come social change.

Today we cross to the USA to talk to two highly motivated women who have their own personal stories to tell. They tell us how they used their own experience as a springboard to develop networks and action plans for dealing with this form of child abuse.

If you are not sure about what can be done to respond to this blight on our parenting practices listen in to hear what our guests are doing in such a big way.
 

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Familists V Feminists

 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.

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The Stats that Matter

With special guests:

• Kyle Lovett
• Barbara Kay

Kyle Lovett

Kyle Lovett is a Research Editor and Author at A Voice for Men. Kyle is based in Washington DC in the USA but even at that distance he cannot help but be disturbed about the National Council of Australia’s plan supposedly directed at reducing violence against women.

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Europe for Christmas

With special guests:

• Benjamin Wondergem
• Ken Thompson
• Peter Tromp
• Robert Whiston

In our last show for 2011 and in the leadup to Christmas we have a European flavour. In the studio we are joined by Benjamin Wondergem visiting Sydney from the Netherlands and Ken Thompson who is well known to listeners in connection with the Hague Convention and more generally in the area of reforming the law on International Parental Child Abduction.

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Breaking the Silence on Male Victims of Domestic Violence

With special guests:

• Dr Elizabeth Celi
• Emily Tilbrook

In the wake of White Ribbon Day 2011 and the recent amendments to the Family Law Act relating to domestic violence our show today presents an opportunity to discover the real story.

We speak first to Dr Elizabeth Celi an internationally recognised expert in the field of men’s health.

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What Makes Us Tick?

With special guests:

• John Flanagan and
• Hugh Mackay.

The author of an interesting new book, ‘What Makes Us Tick?’ is Hugh Mackay, who is widely regarded as Australia’s preeminent social researcher and he joins us today to discuss his latest book. Hugh Mackay has spent most of his working life exploring why we do the things we do, ranging from the television programs we watch or the politicians we vote for, to the decisions that shape our lives - who (or whether) to marry, where to live, whether to have children, what job to do.

Written as part reflection, part psychological analysis, ‘What Makes Us Tick?’ is a highly personal account of the things Mackay has learned from the experience of listening to people talk about their dreams, their fears, their faith, their hopes, their disappointments, their frustrations and their fantasies. It makes for a most interesting interview and is definitely a must listen.  

We open the show with a long overdue interview with well informed John Flanagan, who is the Deputy Registered Officer of the Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting). John speaks with passion about the proposed new Family Law amendments and claims that if passed by Parliament in its present form, the Family Law Legislation Amendment (Family Violence and Other Measures) Bill 2011 will significantly reduce contact by children with both parents after divorce/separation.  

John makes the point that at first glance, there appear to be many more submissions supporting the Bill (in a ratio of approximately 2:1), but has observed that when studied more closely, many of the submissions supporting the Bill would appear to have been actually written by the same author.

He suggests this is particularly the case with regard to the many submissions commencing with the words “I am writing to express my support”. If this should be correct, surely some questions need to be asked such as, 1. is there a process of verifying the authenticity of submissions?,  2. what that proccess might be?, and 3. how does the  AG propose to answer these claims of subversion of the political process?.

Editor

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Psychiatry and One Man's Story

With special guests:

• Prof. Miles Groth and
• ‘Tom’.

Our first guest this week is American Professor Miles Groth, who is full professor in the Department of Psychology at Wagner College, Staten Island, New York. He trained as a psychoanalyst in New York, where he has lectured residents in psychiatry on integrating existential analysis with traditional inpatient treatment. He has been in private practice since 1977.

Dr. Groth studied at Franklin and Marshall College and Duquesne University, and completed his PhD at Fordham University. He is the author of three books, and co-editor of Engaging College Men: Discovering What Works and Why, chapters in five books, twenty-six articles and fifty book reviews in nineteen different peer-reviewed journals. He is past editor of the International Journal of Men’s Health co-founding editor with Diederik Janssen of Thymos: Journal of Boyhood Studies.

Professor Groth will be in Australia soon to present at the Australian Institute of Male Health and Studies’ first Male Studies Symposium in Adelaide in June, at the Adelaide Convention Centre, where his topic will be ‘The Boy is Father to the Man’. As part of his presentation, he will speak about the state of the nuclear family, in particular the missing father and the effects of this on boys’ lives.

We then speak with “Tom” (not his real name for legal reasons), who tells his own story of how he was dispossessed of his children, by a legal system that he once foolishly believed to be fair and just, as it adjudicated the sensitive issues surrounding parental separation.

He made the mistake of trusting a system which has built a huge industry out of personal misery, and appears to have as its main objective the need to create the greatest amount of conflict possible, in order to fleece the greatest amount of the family wealth from warring parents.

Not taking it laying down however, “Tom” has embarked on a personal mission to warn an unsuspecting community, of the destructive practices employed by the divorce industry, and tells of the tactics he is using to expose such practices. Well worth listening to, especially for all those who are at a point where perhaps they feel there is nowhere else to go, and that there is nothing they can personally do.

Editor

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Australian MP Slams 'Trojan Horse' Family Law Amendments

With special guest:

• Greg Andresen.

The proposed Australian Family Law amendments came under attack from one of Australia’s more enlightened Federal Parliamentarians, George Christensen MP, this week, who likened them to taking the George Orwell approach to ranking considerations in his classic novel ‘Animal Farm’. Mr Christensen slammed the proposed amendments as being like a ‘Trojan Horse’ loaded full of terrible consequences that will undermine some of the most basic human rights of parents and children.  

On this week’s program we take another look at the proposed Amendments and speak with Greg Andresen, spokesperson for Men’s Health Australia, who has exposed many of the domestic violence myths being promoted by the Gillard Government and draws attention to some of the misleading claims made recently under Parliamentary privilege, by the Federal Minister for the Status of Women, the Hon Kate Ellis MP.

This is particularly troubling as it is impossible to develop fair and just legislation based on flawed information provided by self-interest groups, whose main focus in life is to protect their government funded existence, while the evidence provided by victim groups has been discounted, ridiculed and ignored.  

While Men’s Health Australia and the Minister both agree that child abuse and Family Violence are real, Men’s Health rightly question the alleged need to throw away due process in order to protect children from abuse and violence. They correctly point out that it is impossible to protect people from both abuse and false allegations of abuse at the same time as is proposed in the amendments, especially since each of them are considered abuse and cause immeasurable harm to the lives of the victims.   

George Christensen maintains that “what is inside this Trojan horse, the malicious code that will infect society, is an attempt to undermine equal access for both parents. This change would invite the court to ignore the requirement to consider the second pillar—the benefit to the child of having a meaningful relationship with both parents”.  

In his address to Parliament, George expressed his concern about the proposed broadening of the definition of family violence and made a passionate plea for sanity to prevail.  “The broadened definition of ‘family violence’ would mean that a wide range of everyday activities could potentially be construed as violence.

The broader definition includes as violence such things as repeated derogatory taunts. Under the proposed definition, much of what happens right here in the parliament would be construed as violence. Also included as violence is this little nugget: ‘preventing the family member from making or keeping connections with his or her family, friends, or culture.’ Under this broad definition, a parent could not prevent a young teenager from spending 20 hours a day talking to friends on Facebook, for fear of being accused of family violence”.

“What happens when a parent acts in a way that a reasonable person would describe as good parenting? What happens when a father says to his 13-year-old daughter, ‘No, you can’t go to Julia’s party because there will be alcohol and no adult supervision’? I will tell you what happens. An upset teenage daughter talks to a vindictive mother, who then claims the daughter is a victim of family violence—and it is their right under this definition. Another child loses the right to have a meaningful relationship with her parent. Under this definition, a parent would be too scared to ground a child as punishment for bad behaviour, for fear of ‘depriving a family member of his or her liberty.’  

Speaking in one voice with hundreds of thousands of powerless, dispossessed Australian parents and children, he concludes his Parliamentary address with:

“These amendments should be seen for what they are. They are a Trojan horse, full of malicious code designed to deprive fathers of their rights. The best thing we can do to protect the safety of children and to prevent family violence is to leave this act as it is.”    

While the rest of his Parliamentary colleagues prance about like frustrated show ponies, desperately chasing media attention to feed their inflated egos, George Christensen is scrupulously researching the subject matter of his Parliamentary responsibilities.             

Fortunately and belatedly, the Australian public has finally discovered a quite achiever to represent them, who is ethical and has the intelligence, ability and courage to challenge some of the many injustices, that an uncaring, self-centred establishment has caused to be imposed on an unsuspecting electorate over many decades.

We look forward to seeing and hearing a lot more in the years to come, from George Christensen, a principled man.  

Editor

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Do Politicians Really Care About Ordinary Australians?

With special guests:

• Sue Price
• Paul Mischefski and
• Tony Smith.

The Doomsday Cult appears to have moved their headquarters to the environs of the Australian Federal Parliament building in Canberra, where scaremongering  and the spreading of apocalyptic predictions of meter high sea level rises and pending invasions by hordes of uninvited boat arrivals, preoccupy the national debate.

We live in a chaotic environment, that sees our Political leaders fall over themselves to see who can deliver the most outrageous daily prophecy of pending catastrophic disasters, in order to feed the frenzy of the 24 hour media news cycle.

As we watch this childish, unstatesmen like display by our Political leadership, ordinary Australians shake their head and go about dealing with the everyday concerns that affect their personal daily lives.  

As the picture illustrates, from the Prime Minister Julia Gillard down, contempt by our elected Parliamentary leadership for the real every day concerns of the Australian public is obvious, and nowhere is this more evident than in the area of Family Law.

The Nation’s, nowhere to be seen Attorney General and his equally invisible opposition counterpart, simply refuse to debate some of the most outrageous proposals ever tabled in our National Parliament by an Australian Attorney General.  This is in the form of the proposed Family Law Amendment [Family Violence] Bill - 2010,  and on today’s show we discuss a number of the contentious issues which have raised so much concern amongst the non-custodial parent groups.  

Our first guest is Sue Price of the Men’s Rights Agency, who co-hosts today’s show from her headquarters in Brisbane. Joining her from Brisbane, is well known journalist, researcher and magazine editor Paul Mischefski,  who is also executive member of Men’s Wellbeing Inc, Queensland. Our final guest is Tony Smith, a senior Queensland  lawyer, who represented the people of Queensland as a Federal Politician, when he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1996.   

With a shared wealth of knowledge about the ravages that Family Law outcomes have inflicted on unsuspecting litigants, today’s guests speak out against what some have described as “another dogs breakfast of new Family Law Amendments”.

Of greatest concern is the apathy and disinterest shown by so many of our elected representatives, when they deal with such important, sensitive human rights issues as are involved in Family Law matters. Particularly in the way they repeatedly allow themselves to be so easily manipulated by various unsubstantiated claims, made by a plethora of  self interest groups, who rely on the indifference or lack of intellectual ability of many of our Parliamentarians, to challenge the accuracy of the information provided.

It is therefore not surprising to see such a rash of poorly drafted legislation being presented to Parliament, especially when so many of our elected representatives appear to lack the knowledge, experience and commonsense to understand much of the underlying meaning and possible ramifications of what is really being proposed. For responsible parents, its a very good time to be vigilant!

Editor

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The State - The Public - The Media

With special guest:

• “Rick”

While we silently agree to live in an ignorant, apathetic, environment, passively accepting the constant  flow of mis-information dished out by an army of spin doctors, we are not unlike the 3 monkeys. As we refuse to speak out, fail to question, and continue to ignore the facts, we allow ourselves to be used and dictated to, by an establishment which is slowly strangling our Family relationships, our personal independence, and our individual creativity. Many of our human rights have been devalued or taken away, in order for the State to maintain control over our human instincts to love and protect those dear to us.  

Democracy and independence is what our fathers fought for, with many paying the ultimate sacrifice. To see our nation slowly slipping into a ruthless form of dictatorship, is against everything our ancestors stood and died for. Today a parent can be jailed for sending a birthday card to his stolen child, while another desperate parent is forced to climb the Sydney Harbour bridge, in order to draw attention to the fact he hasn’t been allowed to see his stolen children for 70 days.

This is all made possible by the lack of effective Family Law legislation, which would and should, give better protection to separating parents and their children. Instead, an apathetic community silently accepts the false notion, that in our Family Courts, the nation’s children are protected from harm by a just and fair system that prides itself on a foundation of truth, equality and fairness.

The reality however, sees a dogs breakfast of legal mumbo jumbo, created by a hodgepodge of vested interests. The original legislators who drafted such draconian legislation, came from a very different era in time than we live in today, a time when human values were somewhat different.   

It was also a time when little was known about brainwashing techniques and how the human mind reacts when another person or group has taken /or been given, total control over every aspect of a persons being. The Stockholm Syndrome, Parental Alienation, Dr. Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment and the Milgram Obedience Experiment were all still in the learning and discovery stages.   

Yet here we are, just like the three blind, deaf and dumb monkeys, living in a society that prides itself on being better informed, but accepting at face value everything the media and politicians throw at us. No questions asked, no challenges as to the accuracy of the information, and many obstacles put in our way to prevent us from discovering the truth and accuracy of any such information.  

This is the environment in which today’s parents are desperately trying to maintain some level of meaningful contact with their children, often at great personal cost and enormous level of stress. Unfortunately, since legal parenting rights have long ago been taken away by the State, engaging in the Family Court system on the premise of some sort of perceived parenting rights, is an exercise in futility. Of particular importance therefore, is to remember the fact that No rights in effect means No justice!  

Our guest today is one such parent, who has tried everything to remain in contact with his children, but all to no avail. We call him  “Rick”, not his real name for legal reasons, and he joins us to speak about his recent six month in jail for trying to communicate with his estranged daughter. We are not to reveal the identity of this father, supposedly in order to protect the identity of his children, but as everyone knows, in reality it conveniently protects the identities of all those involved with the forcible stealing of his children from his love, care and protection. Welcome to the Monkey Cage! 

Editor

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Dispossessed Australian Mothers Speak Out

With special guests:

• ‘Diana’
• ‘Hayley’ and
• ‘Marissa’

In an amazing show of solidarity, dispossessed mothers are joining the ranks of dispossessed fathers in calling for genuine reform of Family Law, instead of the smoke and mirror reforms regularly dished up by successive governments. Like the many fathers, these mothers are concerned for the welfare of their children, and slam the next round of proposed Family Law Amendments by the Australian ‘Gillard’ Government, as another exercise in futility.

Joining us on this special program of gender solidarity, are three courageous dispossessed mothers, ‘Diana’, ‘Hayley’ and ‘Marissa’, (not their real names for legal reasons) who share a little of their personal stories, and offer their views on the proposed ‘Gillard’ government’s Family Law Amendments.   

They are appalled at the way the system has allowed their ex-partners to remove the children from the love, care and protection of their mothers, and how it then protects itself from public scrutiny, by not allowing them to reveal their true identity when telling us their story.

These mothers are determined to expose the damaging gender divide, which has been artificially created, in order to cause the maximum level of conflict between parents, for maximum economic benefit of the divorce industry. The outcome of this intrusive industry interference, which shelters under the ‘Best Interest of the Children’ umbrella, is the on-going unnecessary destruction of countless loving parent/child relationships.  

The increasing number of distressed mothers who are falling victim to the ravages of these deeply flawed Laws, hold grave concerns that the proposed new amendments, which astonishingly include the abolition of penalties for perjury, will see a growing number of fathers take advantage of the many  unbelievable weaknesses in the legislation.   

Many mothers now share the incredible grief and pain the current Family Laws inflict on separating families, and are horrified at the way an unsuspecting community has allowed itself to be manipulated into believing these gender divisive outcomes, are the result of naturally occurring battles between Men and Women. They are determined to help close this perceived gender divide, by drawing public attention to the fact that this whole gender divisive myth around Family Law, has been artificially created in order to enhance the divide and conquer principle underpinning the lucrative divorce industry.  

While most fathers have also generally believed the legislation to favour mothers, many mothers have discovered the now wide ranging definitions of Domestic Violence legislation, which is administered by the States, make it relatively easy for either one of the parents to make a malicious first strike by making false allegations of violence and abuse against their ex-partners. They do so in order to obtain an insurmountable advantage over the other parent, as the children are automatically left in the care of those making the allegations.

Such vexatious claims take considerable time and money to investigate, and because during this period the children are left with the perjuring accuser,  such valuable time is used to indoctrinate the children and turn them against the accused parent. Then along comes the Family Court Judiciary, who generally rubber stamp such established living arrangements, claiming them to represent the “Best Interest of the Children”.

The vast majority of both mothers and fathers around the country, find it difficult to believe that Australia’s chief law officer, the Attorney General, Robert McClelland, would actually propose the abolition of punishment for the crime of perjury in any jurisdiction, but especially so in the emotionally charged jurisdiction of Family Law, where so many children continue to be removed from loving, protective parents, based on the evidence provided by perjurers.  

Forcibly separated and alienated from their children, Australian mothers are joining forces with the fathers and will continue to speak out and raise public awareness in an unsuspecting community. A community not yet fully aware, that by providing the perfect platform for tearing apart important family bonds, the Australian government is unwittingly engaged in the destruction of the very fabric that holds our fragile society together.

Editor

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The On-Going Debate

With special presenters:

• Ian Purdie and
• Ray Lenton.

With most of the crew away during the Easter break, Ian Purdie and Ray Lenton decided to engage in a lively fashion and discuss some of the many difficulties faced by separating families. The debate ranged from Child Support issues to that of Parenting in separate households and how the Education system deals with separated parents.

While the unnecessary problems created for separated parents and their children, remains firmly embedded in the form of demonstrably flawed Family Law legislation, the debate will continue to rage. The fact that the delivery of Family Justice has blossomed into a multi-billion dollar industry, ensures the nation’s families will continue to be torn apart and stripped of their family bonds and emotional well-being.

The only hope of reprieve for Australian families from these legislative attacks on their dignity and inhumane treatment at the hands of this despicable “Industry”, is that a future more enlightened and empathetic Parliamentary representation will eventually emerge. Only then will the sheer stupidity of what we are presently engage in surface, and the many horror stories be listened to.

The more than one million Australian children, who have been forcibly prevented from enjoying the protection a loving relationship with their other parent could have offered, and who were denied the support of extended family members, will speak out and condemn the appalling apathy and disinterest shown by our current crop of self-interest filled parliamentary leadership and bureaucracy.

Sooner or later our nation will bow its collective head in shame, as it ponders how on earth it failed to recognize the atrocities it was inflicting on our innocent children, and how we failed to speak out in order to protect them from so much unnecessary suffering.

Unlike the problems that a lack of documented evidence produced for our Indigenous population, there is a mountain of documented evidence and written accounts of the horrors inflicted on our children and their parents, at the hands of this “Industry”, which has been allowed to decimate the lives of so many.

This evidence will show the world, that while we liked to bath in the glory of our proud achievements on foreign battle fields, we thought nothing of removing our children from the arms of loving parents at home.

It will clearly show that while we were quite prepared to send our young men off to die for the freedom of others in foreign lands, we were happily engaged in denying our own children the freedom to love and be loved by both of their parents back in our own country.

But sooner or later these  children will tell their stories and people will begin to listen. It is then, that we will triumph over tyranny “Lest We Forget”

Editor

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Family Law and Feminism

With special guests:

• Wayne Butler and
• Suzanne Venker.

Hot on the heels of the Pink Bats fiasco, the Gillard Government in Australia, is now rushing headlong into another policy debacle, that of the proposed Family Law Amendments [Family Violence] Bill 2010, which will cause many thousands of Australian men, women and children, to lose contact with their families. It will also result in an increased associated loss of life, as a growing number of desperate parents and children see no alternative, but to put an end to the extreme emotional pain they are experiencing as a result of appalling legislation, forced upon them against their will.  

Under the guise of needing to protect children from ‘alleged’ abuse while on contact visits with their non-custodial parents, the proposed [Family Violence] amendments will provide a perfect platform, from which toxic custodial parents will be able to launch their perjurious, child-kidnapping raids, safe in the knowledge that they will be able to do so successfully with absolute impunity.   

In a further act of Political arrogance, the Attorney General, the Hon Robert McClelland MP, has refused to publish any of the publicly invited submissions from organisations and affected members of the public. There is widespread community dismay at this contemptuous, secretive behaviour, which many believe to be because publication of the submissions would expose the glaring flaws in the proposed amendments.  

Once again we witness an example of a bungling Government, happy to engage in a deliberate attempt to keep the electorate in the dark for Political expediency. It has been suggested that perhaps this is the Gillard example of what’s  ‘In the Best Interest of Children’?    

Our first guest this week is Wayne Butler, Executive Secretary, Shared Parenting Council of Australia (SPCA), who will speak in detail about the issues involved with the proposed Family Law Amendments [Family Violence] Bill 2010, and discuss the contents of the combined media release of a number of like minded, concerned parenting organisations.   

Wayne was a foundation member of the Shared Parenting Council of Australia which was formed by Geoffrey Greene in 2002, and was appointed as the Executive Secretary role in 2003 and has retained the post since.  

Wayne has been involved in preparing extensive submissions and representations to Government since 2000 in relation to Family Law and Child Support Legislation changes. In particular the HORISP report, Child Support Taskforce and submissions / attendances to various Senate committees, review work on the SRL project in the Family Court and other legislative reform submissions including works on relocation cases, and Change of Circumstance submission. 

Our second guest is American Author and Freelance Writer Suzanne Venker, who will discuss her insightful new book ‘The FLIPSIDE of FEMINISM: What Conservative Women Know — and Men Can’t Say’  

Suzanne’s writing tends toward the provocative — as evidenced by her first book, 7 Myths of Working Mothers, which argues that young children and demanding careers are incompatible. Her book is a Main Selection of Bookspan’s American Compass Book Club and is listed on Jeff Rubin’s Guide to Best Conservative Books.

Suzanne has appeared on ABC, CNN, FOX, C-Span, PAX, EWTN — as well as hundreds of radio shows throughout the country. Suzanne’s work has also appeared in Human Events, National Review, World Net Daily, and the New York Post.  

“Since the 1960s, American feminists have set themselves up as the arbiters of all things female. Their policies have dominated the social and political landscape. The “spin sisters” in the media (aptly named by Myrna Blyth in her book of the same name) and their cohorts in academia are committed feminists. Consequently, everything Americans know — or think they know — about marriage, kids, education, politics, gender roles, and work/family balance, has been filtered through a left-wing lens.  

But what if conservative women are in the best position to empower American women?   Forty years have passed since the so-called women’s movement claimed to liberate women from preconceived notions of what it means to be female – and the results are in. The latest statistics from the National Bureau of Economic Research show that “as women have gained more freedom, more education, and more power, they have become less happy.”  

Enough, say Suzanne Venker and Phyllis Schlafly. It’s time to liberate America from feminism’s dead-end road. Cast off the ideology that preaches faux empowerment and liberation from men and marriage. While modern women enjoy unprecedented freedom and opportunities, Venker and Schlafly argue that this progress is not the result of feminism.  

Women’s progress has been a natural evolution – due in large part to men’s contributions. American men are not a patriarchal bunch, as feminists claim. They have, in fact, aided women’s progress. And like women, they have been just as harmed by the feminist movement”.

Editor

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What Our Policy Makers Need To Hear

• 
• Family Law Amendments Discussion

Today’s on-air DOTA team of  Ian Purdie, Phillip York and Ray Lenton, discuss the hidden deceptive  details of the  Family Law Legislation Amendment (Family Violence and Other Measures) Bill 2011, as proposed by the Gillard Government.  

Areas of greatest concern are: 1. The Repeal of s117AB relating to costs orders for false allegations. 2. The proposed amendments to s60CC (3) (c ) the benefit to the child having a meaningful relationship with both parents. 3. The 4AB Definition of family violence, 4. Subsection 4(1)(c ) which deals with the definition of abuse.  

There is a general apathy by our elected representatives to take an active interest in these amendments, even when there is no doubt the outcome will be disastrous for the nation’s children and their families.

The fact that these proposed amendments show the same bungling ineptitude in policy development, as that used in the Pink Bats and Cash for Clunkers fiasco’s, does not even appear to register with our elected members.  

In short, what the amendments propose is to actually reward liars for their criminal acts of perjury and perverting the course of justice and also recommends rewarding the most unreasonable parent for being unreasonable. The amendments further propose lowering the definition of family violence bar, to ensure every member of the community will qualify as an abuser in one form or another.   

Astonishingly, these proposed Gillard Government Family Law amendments, have not caused alarm bells to ring in the ranks of our Federal Opposition, causing further dismay and disillusionment at the lack of quality and competence of our elected representatives.  

Any parent about to separate, who is contemplating going to court in the hope of obtaining a just outcome for their children, would be well advised to listen to to-day’s Family Law discussion, in order to prepare themselves for what lies ahead.

It is also important to remember, that you will not receive any genuine sympathy or help from your elected representative, unless you are a dysfunctional parent who is willing to lie and kidnap your children and indoctrinate them into turning against their other parent.        

Editor

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What Our Attorney General Doesn't Want You To Know

With special guests:

• Toni McLean and
• Dr. Kim Halford.

The disturbing worldwide trend of disenchantment with the quality of Parliamentary representation is not without good reason. Witness the growing abandonment of all the major parties in recent democratic elections around the globe, and it becomes clear the electorate is tired of being treated with contempt by their elected representatives.  

A case in point is the secretive, evasive behaviour of our AG, Robert McClelland, who, without providing one shred of documented Police evidence to support his hysterical rhetoric of many children being abused while on Court ordered contact visits with their non-custodial parents, is now in the process of attempting to ram through draconian legislation without proper public scrutiny.  

Mr McClelland claims that more than 70% of public submissions support his proposed legislation, and incredibly considers this to indicate that the majority of the community supports his proposed legislation. However, despite repeated requests from the public, he refuses to release these submissions to public scrutiny.  

In a Democracy, transparency is required in order that justice is not only done but can be seen to be done, this is what the community demands and expects. The continuing aversion to public scrutiny by our AG, will only help to increase community suspicion and concern, about the hidden agenda and competence of the Gillard Government.   

On today’s program, we again take a look at the facts behind the hysterical Domestic Violence debate, which is widely used to label all men as perpetrators in order to separate them from their children, and underpins the proposed Family Violence Legislation.  

Our first guest is Toni McLean, Counsellor, Psychotherapist, Coach, Workshop Presenter, and Trainer, who is the principal counsellor for the “Think Twice!” suite of services. She offers a complete range of options for individuals and couples experiencing difficulty in their relationships from normal conflict through to all forms of abuse, as well as physical violence.  

Toni is an experienced counsellor and psychotherapist, with particular experience in the areas of relationship counselling; individual counselling; abuse and violence; trauma; anxiety and depression; and self-harming. Toni has significant experience in working with victims of domestic violence and with those who are abusing in their relationships.

Toni is also an experienced group facilitator and an accredited Myers Briggs Personality Type practitioner. In group counselling, Toni is assisted by experienced and supportive group facilitators. In addition to working with couples experiencing normal conflict, Toni has also developed a framework, based on current best practice from around the world, for assessing the complexity of the violence in a relationship, in order to tailor the solution to the situation and the couple.  

Our second guest is Dr Kim Halford, Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director of Clinical Programs at the University of Queensland speaking about his recent research finding on Relationship aggression, violence and self-regulation in Australian newlywed couples.   

His past work includes that as a Visiting Professor at the University of Oregon (1989), Manchester University (1993), University of North Carolina (1997) and Chinese University of Hong Kong (2006), as well as being a regular visitor and collaborator with colleagues at Denver University, Brigham Young University and the Technical university of Braunschweig. These experiences have sparked a keen interest in him, regarding cross-cultural issues in family psychology.

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Brazil Criminalizes Parental Alienation

With special guests:

• Brian Ludmer
• Dr. Tamara Brockhausen and
• Judge Elizio Perez.

Finally the world has witnessed the first Government with the courage and insight to recognize and legislate for the criminalization of Parental Alienation. Brazil is the first country in the world to actually enshrine the cursed criminal behavior of Parental Alienation into its criminal code of justice. By so doing, Brazil is now leading the way into facing up to the  world’s human rights responsibilities, which obliges every country to protect the human rights of it’s nations’ children, by ensuring all their children enjoy a continuing relationship with both of their responsible parents.  

First up we speak with Brian Ludmer, Lawyer and Expert on Parental Alienation in Toronto Canada. Brian is a highly credentialed lawyer with expertise in corporate /commercial and securities law and Family Law, most particularly with Parental Alienation.

The advantages of having exposure to both fields is that his commercial background brings a perspective to what Family Law could be or should be when Family Law is often dysfunctional. The understanding promotes negotiations between parents. The difference is that in business the benefits are often shared which may not be the case in Family Law. In Family Law it is often a zero sum with winner takes all instead of the optimal situation of two healthy homes.

Brian has written many papers on PA. He defines PA as a pattern of behaviour or a strategy by an aligned parent leading to a rejection in whole or in part of the other parent. You look at the results to determine if it is mild, moderate or severe. It is sometimes called “Parental Alienation Syndrome.”

We then speak with Tamara Brockhausen Psychologist and writer on Parental Alienation from Sao Paolo, Brazil, who is the wife of Judge Elizio Perez, the Brazilian Judge who wrote the world’s first Law criminalising Parental Alienation from Sao Paolo, Brazil. Tamara kindly volunteered to translates the interview with Judge Perez.

Judge Perez commented that although parental alienation occurs in Brazil as it does in other countries the justice system ignored it until the legislation that he introduced.

The law has been in place in Brazil since August 2010. There is still some resistance in Brazil to even the existence of PA among professionals such as therapists so the Judge sees this as a good thing that the law is in place.

The broader application of the law is that parents who are worried that there may be PA occurring can read the law for themselves and then ask questions. They are worried about the penalties to which they may be exposing themselves.

A good thing about the new law is that PA is set out and defined so Judges can do something without having to wait for a report from Psychologists or other professional experts.

Judge Perez said that the list of symptoms set out in the law came from the professional advisers such as therapists and affected parents. When proved in Court the Judge can impose a fine or one of the other penalties.

The penalties available include uncapped fines. The Judge determines the amount of the fine after taking everything into account including the severity of the alienation and the means of the parents. Fines have ranged from $100 to $1000 a day while the alienation continues. Other remedies include increasing the time with a parent or making it joint. If joint is not possible the Judge can reverse the residence order.

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But No Tears For Decimated Families

With special guests:

• John Flanagan and
• Dr. Demosthenes Lorandos.

Tears flowed freely in our National Parliament for the victims of powerful unstoppable forces of nature, as the nation publicly mourned those who lost their lives in the recent string of natural disasters. The tears were accompanied by emotional words about those left behind to pick up the pieces. It reminded us of previous Prime Minister’s Bob Hawke’s tearful performance and the quivering bottom lips of Malcolm Fraser and Kevin Rudd. But the public is no longer fooled by such highly suspect displays of empathy by our elected decision makers, and with good reason.

These same hard-nosed Politicians, see nothing wrong with the man-made human disaster they themselves created in 1975, which has caused an estimated 35,000 parents to take their own lives since then, as a result. We see no tears shed by our elected representatives for the dispossessed children of these sad parents, who have been denied the checks and balances their parents’ love, care and protection could have provided.

No Parliamentary quivering bottom lips either, for the 5.2 million Australian men, women and children, who have been forcibly denied contact with their families since 1975, as a result of the Archaic Family Law legislation they created and continue to administer, via a number of Government agencies and bureaucracies.

Instead we find the Gillard Labour Government, using advocacy research provided by government funded self-interest focus groups, is proposing further amendments to the current Family Justice legislation, which will take it even further back into the horse and buggy days, ensuring the continued decimation of many more fragile family relationships.

Conveniently ignored are the rights of every child to a meaningful relationship with both of its parents, which is enshrined in the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, and to which the Australian Government is a signatory. Various wide ranging State Domestic Violence Legislation is being used to nullify and sabotage our National responsibility to uphold our UN duty of care obligations to the Nations’ children.

Great leaders are those who recognize the abuse of their constituents’ human rights as it occurs, and sets about correcting the wrong, not those that wake up 200 years after the event and grandstand with an apology.

Our first guest this week is John Flanagan who is Deputy Registered Officer, of the Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting), and will discuss in detail the proposed Family Law Amendments [Family Violence] Bill, 2010. John will also discuss the Party’s Family Law Amendment submission and the Family Law Reform submission.

The Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting) was formed in Australia in 1998. It is registered with the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) as a political party. It has a large membership base consisting of divorced fathers, divorced mothers, second wives, grand parents  and other relatives who believe that all children have a right to be cared for by both their parents, in the event of separation or divorce.

The Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting) has participated in all federal election campaigns since registration. We have fielded candidates for both the Lower House (House of Representatives) and the Upper House (the Senate) in four (4) States. We have achieved a consistent increase in the number of votes it has secured since its first campaign.

The core policies centre on the issue of family law reform, emphasising legislative changes in order to enshrine  a child’s natural rights to a meaningful relationship with both parents, and legal and procedural changes to ensure that the Child Support system is fair, equitable and aimed at fulfilling its primarily goal, that being to support the child/ren.

Our second guest is American Lawyer, Dr. Demosthenes Lorandos, who is a trial lawyer and a clinical/forensic psychologist who protects the rights of clients involved in complex, high-stakes legal battles. From home offices in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Washington, D.C., his work takes him across the nation, serving as criminal defence lawyer, custody lawyer, expert witness, of counsel lawyer, case strategy consultant, lecturer and author.

His legal and scholarly work on the psychology behind cross examination of experts, parental alienation and false allegations has earned him national recognition. This credibility allows him access to resources that another lawyer might not have — all in the name of protecting our clients.

His team handles litigation matters where others may fear to tread, across virtually every legal discipline, including criminal law and white collar fraud, civil litigation, matrimonial litigation and commercial litigation and appeals.

For instance, Dr. Lorandos has:

Elicited the truth behind false allegations of sexual assault when the prosecutors thought they had a lock, and revealed issues of how adults and counsellors “tainted” memories of small children to make it look like a parent or day care teacher had harmed them. He has also turned the tables on bad custody decisions and parental alienation through painstaking investigations and knowledgeable behavioural science

Dr. Lorandos has co-authored such works as Cross Examining Experts in the Behavioural Sciences, The International Handbook of Parental Alienation Syndrome, and Benchbook in the Behavioural Sciences.

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Family Law or Legislative Terrorism?

With special guests:

• Greg Andresen
• Dr. Colin Jory and
• Sue Price.

Once again Dads on the Air is well ahead of the media pack, by investigating and separating the facts from the spin. Further to our own submission, today’s show will focus on the way our Government is about to use unsubstantiated claims and mis-information, in order to hoodwink the public into believing some sort of Domestic Violence pandemic is forcing it to ‘reform’ Australian Family Laws, as per the Family Law Amendment (Family Violence) Bill 2010. Oh and surprise, surprise, this is all for the ‘Best Interest of the Children’ of cause.  

The general public, who still thinks it can’t happen to them, will eventually be horrified to learn how their fellow citizens are being treated with absolute contempt and fleeced of everything dear to them, by a multi-billion dollar government sponsored divorce industry, which is driven by fanatical ideologues who hold our legislators to ransom with hysterical hyperbole about the level of Domestic Violence in the community.   

Unfortunately, to their own peril, it is not until families face the somber prospect of being permanently separated from each other, that they belatedly start to look around at what they face. In most cases however, by then it is far too late, and the outcome for the vast majority is soul destroying.   

First up we speak with Greg Andresen, who is researcher and media liaison with Men’s Health Australia - Australia’s primary source of information about the psychological and social wellbeing of men and boys. He is also senior researcher with the One in Three Campaign. The One in Three Campaign aims to raise public awareness of the existence and needs of male victims of family violence and abuse; to work with government and non-government services alike to provide assistance to male victims; and to reduce the incidence and impacts of family violence on Australian men, women and children.  

Greg worked on submissions from both Men’s Health Australia and One in Three to the recent Family Law Amendment (Family Violence) Bill 2010. He is with us today to talk of his concerns about the proposed bill from both a men’s health and a family violence perspective.  

Next we speak to Dr. Colin Jory, secondary school teacher, historian and Shakespeare scholar, who recently wrote in News Weekly (Letters, October 30) “that if the pro-family political parties want to make huge gains in their vote, all they need do is make a sustained assault on the Family Law Act, the Family Law Court and the domestic violence industry”.  

He further stated “that of all the factors which harm the Australian family and do draconian injustice to individual Australians, nothing remotely compares with these in scope or severity”.  

“Now the Gillard Labor Government has revealed its intention to amend the Family Law Act to make it even more draconian and unjust. In 2006, the Howard Coalition Government amended the act to require judges to approach custody cases with the “rebuttable presumption” that both parents are equally important in a child’s upbringing. The presumption is rebuttable in the sense that if there is compelling evidence that one of the parents is likely to harm the child, access should be limited in proportion to the risk”.   

We close the show with the ever vigilant Sue Price, Co-Founder and Director Men’s Rights Agency. The Men’s Rights Agency also reluctantly responded to the proposed Family Law Amendments, as their experience has shown it is a complete waste of time, due to the outcome generally already having been pre-determined. Accordingly in their submission she writes the following:  

“We are responding to your suggested amendments to the family law act under extreme protest. In fact, we would prefer to boycott the whole process because our community well understands the uselessness of responding to government inquiries, when there is a strong suspicion the government has already predetermined the outcome. However, we are placed in the position of having to respond or be accused of failing to do so when the limited opportunity was provided.  

While there is a need to protect women and children from abuse there is also a need to recognise men and children need protection from women who are abusive and violent.  

There is also a need to recognise the 2006 changes were initiated because too many children were being denied an opportunity to develop a relationship with their father.”  

We again extend an invitation to any Federal Parliamentarian who would like to join us on air, in order to defend the proposed Family Law Amendments. The community would dearly like to hear from their elected representatives in order to find out the truth about such an important issue, which ultimately will adversely affect so many of their fellow Australians.  

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