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.

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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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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! 

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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”

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White House Council on Boys to Men

With special guests:

• Tom Golden and
• Jack Kammer.

This week on Dads on the Air we talk to two members of the recently established “Proposal for a White House Council on Boys to Men”, Tom Golden and Jack Kammer from the USA. They are two leading members of a multi-partisan Commission of thirty-four nationally-known scholars and practitioners, who have submitted a proposal that President Obama create a White House Council on Boys to Men.  

The mere presidential announcement of a White House Council on Boys to Men makes visible an invisible crisis. A White House Conference on Boys to Men to present “best practices” within one year after the Council is created, will prove invaluable to the future well- being of our Men.

Designed to tackle a nationwide crisis of boys and men, the Commission identifies the following five main components:

• Education. Boys are behind girls in almost every subject, especially reading and writing. Yet boy-friendly programs (e.g., recess and vocational education) are being curtailed.      

• Jobs. Our sons are not being prepared for jobs where the jobs will be. Yet women rarely marry men in unemployment lines.    

• Fatherlessness. A third of boys are raised in father-absent homes; yet boys and girls with significant father involvement do better in more than 25 areas.    

•   Physical health. Life expectancy has gone from one to five years less for males than for females, yet federal offices of boys and men’s health are non-existent.  

• Emotional health. Boys’ suicide rate goes from equal to girls to five times girls’ between ages 13 and 20, as boys feel the pressures of the male role.  

Each of the five crisis components is potentially handled by a different department of the government; therefore coordination and prioritisation is best handled at the White House level.

With a Short-Term Investment of One million dollars, the Long-Term Savings will add up to Many billions of dollars. (For example, boys who are cared for become men who care for–men who pay taxes for schools rather than drain taxes for prisons.) The quality-of-Life Savings will be Priceless.

Tom Golden, LCSW is the author of two books about men’s unique paths to healing. The first is titled Swallowed by a Snake: The Gift of the Masculine Side of Healing and the second is called A Man You Know is Grieving: 12 Ideas for Helping Him Heal From Loss. Tom has given workshops on this topic in the U.S.,  Australia, Canada and Europe. His work has been featured in the NY Times, the Washington Post, on CNN, CBS Evening News, ESPN, the NFL Channel and others. Tom serves on the Maryland Commission for Men’s Health and lives outside Washington DC.

Jack Kammer, MSW, MBA returned to school at the age of fifty-four to earn Masters degrees in Social Work and Business Administration. He did so to document, highlight and take action on male gender issues and the social problems that arise when those issues are ignored and mishandled. He specialises in the Race and Gender effect on marginalized African-American men and boys in urban settings. He is also the author of If Men Have All the Power How Come Women Make the Rules: and other radical thoughts for men who want more fairness from women and Good Will Toward Men: Women Talk Candidly About the Balance of Power Between the Sexes. He has a new book (2009) for boys and young men, titled Heroes of the Blue Sky Rebellion: How You and Other Young Men Can Claim All the Happiness in the World.

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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.        

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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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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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Parents Under Siege

With special guest:

• ‘Daniel’

Biological parents around the globe, both mothers and fathers, are under siege from the brutal excesses of their own government’s crippling Family Law legislation, which sees many millions being dispossessed of their children on the bases of the flimsiest of allegations made by toxic ex partners, aided by State functionaries.    

Today we speak to one of those biological parents ‘Daniel’ [not his real name for legal reasons], a distraught Australian father who has spent the past 13 years desperately trying to have his son returned to his care and protection, following the boys’ removal from his parents’ care by Docs of NSW,  on the ground of allegations of abuse and neglect, which were subsequently proven to be false.

The desperate emotional trauma of having their son removed on the basis of false allegations, eventually resulted in the marriage breakdown, and this father is almost at the end of his tether at not having had contact with his long lost son for many years.

More questions therefore urgently need to be asked in order to establish the possible underlying causes for such a disturbing high level of government involvement in the lucrative child stealing racket that appears to be taking place.

Of particular interest is the fact that the governments’ own reports show that tens of thousands of the nation’s children are removed from one or more of their parents every year with the help of a number of government agencies such as the Family Courts, the Domestic Violence Industry and the Departments of Community Services. This has resulted in 5.2 million innocent Australians having been denied contact with their loved ones since 1975, on the say so of the country’s worst perjurers, child kidnappers, and State functionaries, who consider this to be in “Our Best Interest”.  

Instead, the Gillard Government in Australia is proposing further Family Law amendments in 2011, which define the raising of your voice or throwing a threatening glance as abusive acts, and will immediately brand every Australian both as an abuser and a victim,  making it even easier to make vexatious claims. Currently similar barbaric State DV legislation is used to separate parents from their children, property and savings, since false allegations can be made with absolute impunity. This establishes a parenting arrangement which favors the perjurer and accommodates the insidious practice of parental kidnapping. Yet perjury is a crime that strikes at the very heart of justice!  

Any toxic parent, either a mother or father, who makes a pre-emptive first strike by taking such action becomes a winner, as such parenting arrangements obtained by deception, are generally rubber stamped by the Federal Family Court. Incredibly, in such cases the FCA in its infinite wisdom, does not want to upset the established living arrangements with the perjurer, as it considers this to not be “In the Best Interest of the Children”.  It is common knowledge, that those working in the lucrative divorce industry regularly suggest this course of action to their clients, as for them the priority is money, not children.  

Many of the children who were dispossessed of their families in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, are now adults with children of their own. Unfortunately a large number are still of the false belief that their other parent was a horrible, unworthy person who abandoned them, not caring about their child’s well-being. In most cases, nothing could be further from the truth. Sadly these children were not only denied a happy wholesome childhood, but lost half of their biological family as well. Even as adults, most still live with the indoctrinated false perceptions of reality, which were implanted during their childhood, blissfully unaware that 35,000 of their fathers have committed suicide, due to the forcible loss of their children since 1975. Countless others have turned to substance abuse as they self medicate to kill their pain.  

Our elected representatives of all political persuasions, continue to blindly accept the distorted views of the anti-shared parenting lobby, while conveniently choosing to ignore all the available data that suggests otherwise, for reasons of political expediency.

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Families In Fear Of Their Governments

With special guest:

• ‘Diana’

Seasons Greetings to all our listeners from the Dads on the Air team, and we hope that 2011 will bring some sort of sanity to the debate on Family Law reform, which has been raging around the globe now for the past 36 years. At a time when serious reform and a Judicial enquiry is needed, the Gillard Labour Government proposes another round of meaningless amendments which do nothing except wind the clock back to 1975, by returning families to where they were at the beginning of this human catastrophe.
 
Dads on the Air has forwarded a copy of our ‘submission’ on the proposed amendments, to the leadership of all our Political Parties as well as every independent member of our current Federal Parliament. Therefore Politicians of all persuasions, can no longer claim ignorance as a defense, and will one day have to face up to their lack of accountability. 
 
No Australian family is safe from a Family Justice system that belongs in the sixteenth century, and every man, woman, and child needs to ask the following serious questions of their elected representatives and the mainstream media. Talk back radio would be a good forum to start raising such awareness and encourage public discourse.
 
1. Why have 5.2 million innocent Australians been denied contact with their loved ones since 1975, on the say so of the country’s worst perjurers, child kidnappers, and State functionaries, who consider this to be in “Our Best Interest”?
 
2. Why have 35,000 innocent Australian fathers been allowed to be driven to suicide, and caused untold thousands of others to turn to substance abuse, as they self medicated to kill the unbearable pain of the forcible loss of their children, since the destructive operations of the current Family Justice System began in 1975?
 
In their twisted logic our Parliamentary representatives seem to think that only men are negatively impacted, and that to change direction now, would negatively impact the women’s vote. What they fail to realize is that for every man who is destroyed by the Family Justice System, there is a mother, sister, daughter and partner, who are also affected and who are appalled at the treatment their loved ones are receiving, at the hands of what has now blossomed into a multi-billion dollar Family Justice Industry.
 
More and more innocent mothers are also falling victim to the current system, as malicious separating fathers are starting to use the system in the same way malicious mothers have behaved for many years. Not unexpectedly, the proposed amendments will ensure the Family Court will remain a Palace of  Perjury.                                                                                          

Our program today is a pre-recorded interview with one such mother ‘Diana’, [Not her real name for legal reasons]  ‘Parental Alienation Australia’ who has lost contact with two of her children because of the appalling behaviour of her ex partner, who engaged the same deceitful tactics used by so many mothers, who continue to be encouraged by a parasitic industry, because of badly flawed Family Justice Legislation.

Accordingly, we would hereby like to extend an open invitation to any Australian Politician, who would like to join us on the program in order to defend the proposed Family Law Amendments of 2010.

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Chaos At The Crossroads

With special guest:

• John Stapleton.

Joining us this week is well known and respected Australian Journalist, Author and co-founder of Dads On The Air, John Stapleton, who will launch his new book, ‘Chaos At The Crossroads’, which tells the story of the long struggle for family law reform in Australia. It also tells the interesting story of the formation of Dads On The Air.

There is no doubt this book will be much sought after by future historians, as it provides an important account of the anguish and despair suffered by so many thousands of Australian families, made possible due to atrocious Family Law Legislation, during an extremely dark period in our history. It also documents the work of those who stood up to the anti Men, Father and Family lobby, many of whom have devoted thousands of hours of their own time, to alert the wider community to the destructive excesses of the prevailing multi- billion dollar Family Justice Industry.  

John wrote for a variety of Australian publications including The Bulletin and The Financial Review before joining the staff of The Sydney Morning Herald in the mid 1980s. He spent the last 15 years of his journalistic career, until 2009, working as a general news reporter on The Australian. He is the proud father of two teenage children. His work has appeared in several anthologies, including Men Love Sex and Australian Politics.

In 2000 he joined a small group of separated dads at 2GLF in western Sydney and helped to found Dads On The Air, now the world?s longest running fathers radio program. Over the next nine years he spent many hundreds of hours keeping the then struggling program alive. He is currently living in Bangkok. The shown continues to prosper without him. On a visit to Sydney in October 2010 he participated in Dads On The Air?s tenth anniversary program, which featured some of its original members and most enduring supporters.

About ‘CHAOS AT THE CROSSROADS’:  

“An early draft of Chaos At The Crossroads went up at the old Dads On The Air website in 2004, when the environment for family law reform was entirely different to what it is today. Six years after that first rough draft, the first edition of the evolving story of family law reform in Australia is complete and becomes available for purchase as an e-book this week. It is a case study in community activism, institutional resistance to change, political chicanery and the damage that can be done by allowing ideology to dominate public policy.

Chaos At The Crossroads: Family Law Reform in Australia will be available at all major e-book retailers including Apple’s iBookstore, Amazon.com, Sony’s Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Borders Books, and Diesel eBook Store, which combined cover 98 per cent of the eBook market.  

The book unabashedly looks at the issues of family law from a father’s perspective. Without the hundreds of millions of dollars that are poured into supporting women’s causes of all kinds, including advocacy groups and grants to university researchers, father’s voices are often invisible in the public debate. We try to redress the balance a little in our own humble way.

Chaos At The Crossroads is the first manuscript to be published by Dads On The Air Books. In the future we hope to encourage other authors to come into the stable. For fathers there can be all too many stories to tell; and we would ultimately hope to support a wide variety of work, from exposes of the divorce industry to memoirs of fathers and the roles they have played, picturesque, piquant, sad, appalling, wonderful; as well as to disseminate academic texts and journalese, fact and fiction.

Chaos tells the story of the long and frustrating struggle for family law reform in Australia, not just by separated fathers, their supporters and their lobby groups, but by grandparents and other family members cut out of children’s lives by the sole-custody model purveyed by the court, second wives, children of divorce, non-custodial mothers and those with a concern for social justice and the poor personal outcomes for fathers and children alike post-separation, or for the unfashionable issue of the consequences of state-created fatherlessness and the community disfigurement that results.

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Wrap-Up of a Men's Month

With special guests:

• Diane Sears
• Warwick Marsh and
• Yousaf Jamal.

This week signals the end of November, a month which has seen a number of men centric initiatives take centre stage around the world, as it celebrates and honours the importance of men in our societies. The Movember campaign, along with International Men’s Day, head the list of actions taken by men, to draw attention to societies’ current devaluation of the role of Men, Fathers and Boys. 

Our first guest is Diane Sears, who is the USA Coordinator of International Men’s Day [IMD] 2010 and who is a member of the IMD Coordination Committee. Sears is a member of the University Council for Akamai University’s Fatherhood and Men’s Studies Program, which is located in Hilo, Hawaii.  She advises the President of Akamai University on Fatherhood issues and assists him in the enhancement of the institution’s Fatherhood and Men’s Studies curriculum and in forming strategic alliances with national and international Fatherhood organizations.  

Diane Sears is also a celebrated author and the following is an excerpt from one of her books ‘IN SEARCH OF FATHERHOOD’. “Men play an important role in our lives. They are the glue that holds our families, our communities, and our world together. Yet, despite the valuable contributions Men make, as a whole, they are generally taken for granted, summarily dismissed, ridiculed and negatively stereotyped in television situation comedies, and mis-characterized as emotionless automatons. Men laugh, love, grieve, dream, and cry. They are very complex individuals. Their hearts and souls can be easily crushed. Men want to be treated with dignity and respect. They have valuable life lessons to teach about integrity, courage, sacrifice, faith, commitment, compassion, loyalty, unconditional love, transcending boundaries, and successfully navigating the world outside of our immediate environment”.

“When Men know deep within their heart of hearts that we respect them and when we have demonstrated that we are nonjudgmental and willing to listen, they will bare their souls. It is a magical and moving moment when a Man shares his innermost thoughts and feelings – when he tells his story. The next time your father, uncle, grandfather, son, brother, husband, cousin, nephew or “significant other” engages you in a conversation, stop what you are doing and listen —really listen with an open mind and an open heart. He is telling you his story.”  

Our next guest is Warwick Marsh, who is the Media Coordinator for IMD 2010 and Founder of the Dads4Kids Fatherhood Foundation. The Dads4Kids Fatherhood Foundation is honoured to work with the founder of International Men’s Day, Dr Jerome Teelucksingh, as well as many other family-friendly men and fatherhood groups all over the world. Working together, in order to promote a unified celebration of manhood and the positive contribution that men make to society.  

Actively involved with improving the image and well being of men and boys, the Dads4Kids Fatherhood Foundation is also an Australian Harm Prevention Charity. Formed in 2002, their aim is to help turn the tide of fatherlessness as well as resource and encourage fathers. The mission of the Fatherhood Foundation is to improve the well-being of children by increasing the proportion of children growing up with involved, responsible, committed and loving fathers.  

Our final guest is Yousaf Jamal, who is the Pakistan Coordinator for International Men’s Day and the President and Founder of the first and only Men’s activism organization in Pakistan Rights and Rights International. Yousaf lives in Kot Addu and is the father of 8 children - 3 boys and 5 girls.   

Yousaf has observed in Pakistan over the last few years, that a lot of feminist organizations paint the whole male gender as cruel. Likewise in some prevailing laws there are many discriminatory clauses against men, particularly in Family Law. The Harassment in the Work Place Act is totally anti-male. And he has witnessed the steady decline of male participation at Higher Education and University level.

He also believes that the observance of an International Women’s Day by the United Nation without a counterpart is discriminatory. In order to highlight the issues being faced by men in Pakistan he started the male activist organization Rights and Rights International, this year in 2010.  

Yousaf Jamal held a very successful seminar on International Men’s Day, with many lawyers, educationists, social activists and representatives of Women’s organizations attending the seminar. Special tributes were paid to prominent male role models. Problems such as the under-representation of males in university and other education settings were discussed at the seminar. Female students in Karachi University total 90%, in Punjab University 70%, while in BZ University 52% students are female. This is really an alarming situation for males in Pakistan.  

Yousaf cautions that we should avoid the “EACH GENDER FOR ITSELF” approach and instead promote better gender relationships. He proposes that we should celebrate both Men’s Day and Women’s Day and asks everyone to join hands with Rights and Rights International for the elimination of Gender Based Discrimination.

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The Recognition Of Parental Alienation

With Special guests:

• Dr. Glenn Ross Caddy and

• Prof. William Bernet, MD.

Incredibly, there are still those who believe the earth is flat, and others who are adamant that the holocaust never took place. These delusional skeptics are joined by those who are still in denial about the existence of Parental Alienation. 

Despite the availability of a mountain of documented evidence, in the form of peer reviewed academic research, a host of books and articles, as well as numerous court documents and victim accounts, there are still those who refuse to accept, that indoctrination of millions of vulnerable children, could possibly be taking place. 

 

The only conclusion that can be drawn from such delusional reasoning, so dangerous to our children’s well being, is that many of these so called ‘experts’, are either terribly incompetent or highly motivated to protect their lucrative source of income, which is derived from their involvement with the Family Justice Industry.

 

Today we speak with two academic experts on Parental Alienation, who live in the real world, and who share the disbelief that this form of child abuse is still not more widely acknowledged.

First up we speak with Australian Clinical and Forensic Psychologist Dr. Glenn Ross Caddy, who explains the pathology of Parental Alienation. Dr Ross Caddy describes in detail the terrible consequences of such child abuse, and how it negatively impacts not only the child, but also many other extended family members.

 

Our second guest is Professor William Bernet M.D, who is Professor of Psychiatry at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, USA.  Dr. Bernet has been a member of the faculty since 1992, and is the director of Vanderbilt Forensic Services, the program that applies psychiatric expertise to legal situations.  Professor Bernet’s research provides valuable insight into the Parental Alienation Syndrome, and his work and efforts for better recognition of this phenomenon is to be applauded. 

 

The many parents and children who have had this unwanted abuse inflicted upon them, are well advised to listen to the interviews with these highly respected experts, and perhaps find some understanding and solace, for their undoubted emotional torment at having been forcibly separated from those they love most.

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Celebrating A Decade Of Dads On The Air

With special guests:

• Dr. Stephen Baskerville
• Sue Price
• Geoffrey Greene
• Barry Williams
• Warwick Marsh
• John Flannagan and
• Tony Miller.

In a remarkable show of solidarity and a sign that hope can defeat despair, a determined group of fathers and supporters gathered at Sydney radio station 2GLF this week, to celebrate 10 years of Dads On The Air. Both past and present members of the DOTA team came from far and wide, and proudly renewed a steadfast resolve to continue with their mission, to expose the immoral practices of an atrocious family justice industry, made possible by appallingly ineffective Family Law legislation.     

As they stood around the studio kitchen table, focused on a birthday cake, singing happy birthday DOTA, these traumatized Dads resembled a group of returned soldiers who, having been highly traumatized by the ravages of war, are in the process of rebuilding their lives. Their common bond was forged by the trauma suffered at the loss of access to their children, which has been forced upon them against their will, by a number of Government agencies.  

Successive Governments continue to inflict this trauma upon their citizenry, by persisting with the protection of the child removal industry, rather then protecting the family bonds of their constituents. For many years now, Governments of all persuasions have allowed their social policy platforms to be hijacked by a corrupt and inhumane anti-family, anti-male, Family Justice Industry, which is removing children from families in ever increasing numbers, leaving every family vulnerable to the destructive ravishes of this Industry.  

But what is now the world’s longest running radio program dealing with Men and Father issues, Dads On The Air, will continue to expose and broadcast to the world, the excesses of these crimes against humanity.  

Members of the DOTA team in the studio, were co-founders of DOTA, respected journalist John Stapleton, retired Police Detective Rick Torning [Uncle Buck], and former police officer Rod Hardwick, other team members present were, Author and Musician Ian Purdie, Musician and Entertainer Peter van de Voorde, Co-ordinator of Dads in Distress Phillip York, Researcher with Men’s Health Australia Greg Andresen, Lawyer and Mediator Bill Kable.

They were joined on air by a number of other leading advocates calling for urgent changes to Family Justice legislation, from both Australia and overseas, all of whom are united in purpose and working hard to inform Governments, that they are failing in their duty of care to protect the bonds of parent/child relationships Internationally.   

Our first guest was celebrated American Author and Assistant Professor of Political Science, Dr.Stephen Baskerville, ‘Taken Into Custody’ , followed by Sue Price, Men’s Rights Agency, Geoffrey Greene, former federal director Shared Parenting Council of Australia, Barry Williams, President, Lone Fathers Association, Australia, Warwick Marsh, Fatherhood Foundation, John Flannagan, Non Custodial Parents Party, and Tony Miller, Order of Australia Medal recipient, and founder of Dads in Distress.   

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Supporting Australian Dads

With special guests:

• Akiva Quinn and

• Darren Atkinson.                                                                          

In an era when fathers are treated as a disposable commodity, there are those in our community who actually care enough about the plight of Australia’s dads, to help them cope with the difficulties of trying to be a dad during this difficult period.

This historically discriminating anti Men/Father era, is also shared by our Indigenous brothers. The only difference is that the dispossession and dis-empowerment of Indigenous men, started long before the wider community turned on its own men, fathers and boys. 

On today’s show we play two interesting interviews, recorded at the last National Men’s Health Convention in Newcastle with two such supporters of our Dads, who speak about the work they are doing in support of Australian Dads. 

 

The first interview is with Akiva Quinn, of Dadslink, a support group for dads in Victoria. He explains in detail the exciting programs made available by his organization, which go some way in helping Dads to better connect and bond with their children.

 

Our second interview is with Darren Atkinson of the support group, I’m an Aboriginal Dad. Darren is an Indigenous leader, with a passion to improve the parenting role of young Indigenous fathers. He explains how the child removal policies, and the prolonged dis-empowerment and persecution of Indigenous males, all but destroyed the fabric of his culture.

 

Many young Aboriginal men, have not benefited from a father figure during their childhood and lacked a good role model to prepare them for fatherhood. Interestingly, now that we have fine tuned this discriminating, government sponsored, child removal policy via our Family Courts, there is no doubt we will inherit the same aftermath as that now experienced by our Indigenous brothers. 

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Fatherless Day 2010

With special guests:

• Barry Williams

• Stephen S Holden and
  

• Warwick Marsh.
                                                                              

Despite all the evidence available in the form of a multitude of credible research and statistics, which clearly shows the immense damage being done to the bonds of family kinship in our Australian communities, the unrelenting push for a fatherless society continues.

The fact that this mountain of evidence continues to be ignored, is a sad reflection on the way our parliamentary system of government has been hijacked, by the anti-male zealots within the political parties and the bureaucracy.

 

Hundreds of thousands of Dads will not see their children this Fathers Day 2010, yet this did not even rate one mention during the recent federal election.  It is no wonder the wider community has turned their back on the main parties, who have ignored the many concerns of their constituents for far too long.

 

Speaking about some of these concerns, Barry Williams, President of the Lone Fathers Association Australia, describes the current Family laws as being in breach of anti discrimination legislation. He plans to take 4 points of discrimination to the Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick.

 

We also speak with separated father Stephen S Holden author of The Other Glass Ceiling, who details some of the anti-father legislation and how easily it can destroy a fathers’ relationship with his children.

We end the show with Warwick Marsh, of Dads4Kids, who speaks about the importance of dads in a child’s life, and the celebration of fatherhood this special weekend on Fathers Day.

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The Plight Of Modern Man

With special guest:

• Paul Mischefski.  
                                                                              
  

This week we feature an interesting pre-recorded interview with investigative journalist Paul Mischefski of Mens Wellbeing, who speaks on a range of issues facing modern man in the 21st Century. In particular, there is considerable discussion around the way Domestic Violence issues are dealt with in Australia and elsewhere.  

Paul throws much doubt on the way information is gathered and how studies are conducted, which is reflected in poor domestic violence policy formulation by our governments. The resulting damage to generations of innocent men and boys by such discriminating anti male Domestic Violence propaganda, is incalculable.         

The ‘Mens Wellbeing’ website provides much helpful and informative information, including the following:  

At their deepest level, most men yearn to participate in some small or large way in the creation of a better world, and in doing so serve their families, loved ones and community. How to fulfil this yearning in these complex times is a conundrum that leaves some part of just about every man struggling for clear direction within himself about what it means to be an authentic, healthy man in our society.

Being a man in the 21st Century is no easy task.  In just one generation, the expectations on men have changed dramatically. Our roles as fathers, lovers, workers, community members, brothers and friends have all changed from what was expected of our fathers, in some cases almost beyond recognition. This rapid rate of change has left many men without adequate role models and in a state of confusion about what it means to be a man in the modern era.

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Men's Health, Alienation and Votes

With special guests:

• Ed Dabrowski
  

• Greg Millan and
  

• Joseph Goldberg.
                                                                              

The rights, and roles of men and fathers, have never been under more pressure at any time in human history. The gradual stereotyping and marginalizing of men and fathers in our communities, is witness to the decimation of the family structure as we know it. Children born today only have a 1 in 3 chance of remaining in meaningful contact with both the maternal and paternal sides of their family, in the event their parents should separate.  

It would not be unreasonable to assume therefore, that with a Federal election in Australia looming, the media and the major parties would have had something to say about an issue which has destroyed millions of parent/child relationships, as the result of a 35 year reign of terror waged on families, by the International Family Justice Industry.

Predictably however, with the exception of the NCPP, the silence has been deafening. Not one question raised by the mainstream media, not one caller to a Radio or Television station, not one comment was heard on this subject, by any of the candidates representing the major parties. It also raises the serious question as to why there is such apathy amongst the multitude of victims of this travesty of justice? Where were their voices? 

On today’s program we will discuss some of the causes and ways to deal with the ongoing debasing of maleness. Our first guest today is Ed Dabrowski  of mensvote.com, who discusses the policy positions of the major parties, concerning men as fathers and the issue of family values, in an attempt to understand the platforms of the political parties concerned.   

Next we speak with Greg Millan of Mens Health Services , who has just launched his latest book ‘Men’s Health & Wellbeing: an A to Z guide’. Greg is a men’s health consultant, who speaks about his new book and the men’s health services, who provide professional expertise in the design and delivery of effective programs and resources for men, as well as offering professional training designed specifically to help address the unique needs of men and boys.  

We then speak with Canadian medical - legal consultant  Joseph Goldberg, of Goldberg & Associates, who specialises in the area of Parental Alienation cases. Joseph has an intimate knowledge of this disorder, being an Alienated parent himself, and now has many speaking engagements and organises a number of symposiums which focus on the subject of PAS.     

Equal Parental Involvement

With special guests:

• Professor Thea Brown and
  

• John Stapleton.
                                                                              

This week we have an interesting interview with Professor Thea Brown, from Monash University, who speaks about her paper “Shared parenting and parental involvement in children’s schooling following separation and divorce”.

Professor Brown was appointed as Professor of Social Work in 1988, serving as Head of the Department, the Director of International Programs and Deputy Head and is now Professor, Research.  Her most recent research focus has been on separating parents and their children, on family violence and parental separation and divorce and on services supporting separating parents.

 

Professor Brown, speaks about the important need for Governments to act, in order to ensure that non-custodial parents continue to be involved with their childrens’ progress, especially in the area of their education. She points out the unacceptable policy differences in this area, which vary from State to State and from school to school.

 

We also spoke briefly with John Stapleton, who is in Thailand at present. Unfortunately the phone connection was not very good, and eventually dropped out. We hope to speak with John again in the near future. 

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A Vision Of Justice

With special guests:

• David Dufour and
  

• Coral Slattery.
                                                                              

An interesting program this week, where we discuss just some of the many issues facing Men and Fathers in 2010. First up we speak with American film maker David Dufour, Mediadads, who recently came out to Australia, to record material for a documentary he is making, about what it means to be male in 2010. Now back in America, he speaks about the interesting experiences of his journey.  

An organization of volunteers that has put an immense effort, into providing a continuous supply of updated information regarding the many ramifications of poor Family Law legislation in Australia, is the Family Law Reform Association.   

We speak with the secretary of this worthy organization Coral Slattery, and discuss some of the issues facing fathers. In particular the way the education system deals with the sensitive problems facing fathers, when they attempt to obtain access to their childrens’ educational progress.

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