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.

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

Families And Elections

With special guests:

• Samantha Page and
  

• John Flanagan.
                                                                              

First up we speak with Samantha Page, who is the Executive Director of Family Relationship Services Australia (FRSA), which is the national peak body for family relationship and support services. Their purpose and mission, is to provide national leadership and representation for services that work to strengthen the well-being, safety and resilience of families, children and communities.  

FRSA member organizations deliver professional, quality assured family and relationship services across Australia through more than 400 outlets. Their membership includes faith-based and secular organizations, ranging in size and scope from small local community organizations to large state-wide and national service providers.  

Samantha faced some difficult questioning dealing with the delays in the system, the non-compliance of court orders, and the agenda driven anti shared parenting bias of some of the agencies.

Our second guest this week is John Flanagan, who is the Deputy Registered Officer of the Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting). John speaks candidly about the role of his party in the coming Federal Elections.   

While the NCPP does not expect to see any of their candidates in Parliament, the Party nevertheless plays an important role in raising community awareness to the perilous state of  the Family Justice System, and the debilitating cost to the fabric of our society.  

John acknowledges that the 2006 legislation, which provided us with the much heralded “Equal Shared Parenting Responsibility Bill”, has absolutely nothing to do with  “Equal Shared Parenting Time” for separated parents.  

Unfortunately, while Dads On The Air correctly pointed out at the time, that it was a cruel exercise in Political Spin, most of the wider community, the service providers, as well as many in the fatherhood movement, fell for this discredited political con job.

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

Winner Take All

With special guests:

• Molly Murphy
• Andrea Hayward and
• Robin Inslay.

Much has already been written about an appalling family justice system, which continues to wreak catastrophic havoc to the parent/child relationships of separating families. Molly Murphy, “Winner Take All”, who hails from Canada, decided to add her voice to the growing International chorus of authors and professionals, who have decided they can no longer stand by and watch our families and communities implode.

Her new book “Winner Take All”, provides a graphic account of the way separated parents are treated by our family justice system, and how the system fails to provide social justice equally. Molly joins us, to speak of how she came to write her book, and explains the urgent need for major changes, if our family bonds are to survive.

Molly Murphy is a registered nurse with a specialized designation in psychiatry having more than twenty years’ experience in the health-care field. She resides in Ontario with her three daughters and divides her time between her two passions. Her number one priority is family and her second is to help change family law so that the rights of both the custodial and non-custodial parents are valued equally by our judicial system.

Currently it is the father who is forced into accepting the role as the non-custodial parent to their own children in the majority of cases. By advocating, Molly hopes to one day see law reforms come into effect that truly reflect the best interests of our children. She also wants to create awareness through her writing concerning the dysfunction and discrimination that exists globally today within the family law system.

Our next guest is Andrea Hayward, who is director of DNA QLD, and who was recently asked to speak at the Lone Father’s Conference in Canberra.  Andrea outlines the procedures of a DNA paternity test and the Australian position on testing .

DNA QLD is a NATA/ISO accredited specialist Paternity testing facility offering quality world-class testing and client care. DNA QLD is focused solely on parentage testing and genotyping, unlike some other parentage testing facilities which also test for genetic syndromes. DNA QLD has a proven capability to facilitate testing for clients located in any state of Australia and in international locations such as Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, and PNG. DNA QLD does not outsource testing to other laboratories and all our cases are processed in Brisbane. DNA QLD has a free collection centre in the Brisbane CBD.

Our final guest is Robin Inslay, who is the President of the ‘Lone Fathers Rockhampton Branch’, and he joins us to provide a roundup of the National conference held in Canberra. Their website tells the story.

The Rockhampton branch of LFAA came about from a call by concerned Central Queensland residents to do something about the damaging effects of divorce. Our branch is honoured, as do all other LFAA branches, to have a membership of many women as well as men. These women are the second wives, grandmothers, daughters, step-daughters; even the sisters of divorced fathers; and are very vocal about the many issues relating to fatherlessness in our society, today.

Our branch offers support to individuals from Yeppoon to Blackwater, Gladstone to St. Lawrence; an area which encompasses a large section of the Bowen basin mining region. We offer support and education on issues relating to family breakdown/divorce and take suggestions for submission to Government for change to relevant legislation.

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

Lone Fathers And DV

With special guests:

• Barry Williams and
• Dr. Peter Foster.
  

The Lone Fathers Association of Australia, will host their 2010 National Conference in Parliament House, Canberra, from the 16th to18th June 2010.

In support of this event, we open the show with the founder and long term president of the organization, Barry Williams, who explains the reason for the theme of this year’s presentation, which in 2010 will be: 

Are Shared Care/Responsibility Laws Working ? Are these laws GOOD for our children ? Have we Witnessed ANOTHER generation of stolen children ?

The association points out an interesting statistic, and then asks the following questions:  

Nearly one million dads see their children no more than four times a year.               
Contravention Orders are part of the Family Law Act. Why are they not being enforced?
Why is the contravener of these orders never punished by the Court that made them?     
Why is Domestic Violence portrayed as only ever perpetrated by the male involved?     
Why isn’t Government Funding shared equally between Women and Men’s Organisations?

We then speak with a senior lecturer in psychology at Charles Darwin University, Dr Peter Forster, who says there is no truth to the argument that testosterone levels make men more aggressive. Dr Foster says studies show women can be just as violent as men and social changes are behind a reported rise in violence among young women, and that there is no truth to the argument that testosterone levels make men more aggressive.

Dr Foster makes the observation that social factors such as the rise of feminism in the last few decades, could be behind the rise in violence amongst women. “We’ve now taken away the expectation that women will behave differently to men,” he said. Pointing out that “It used to be that one of the biggest differences” between men and women, “was that women were more peaceful, they were peacemakers”. He draws attention to the research that shows “this kind of inhibition to be violent, has gradually diminished to the point where it no longer inhibits women at all.”

Be sure to listen to next Tuesday’s show for a special exclusive interview with Dr Richard Warshak, who is the author of ‘Divorce Poison’, and a guru on parental alienation. In his work Dr Warshak offers specific advice for parents (in Australia usually Dads) whose children are caught up in this toxic situation. 

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

Alienated Parents Raise Public Awareness

With special guest:

• Debra Cook.

More and more parents are being forcibly separated from their children, with the overt and covert assistance and blessing of a number of government agencies. It is therefore not surprising to see desperate parents taking desperate steps in order to raise awareness in the community, of what can happen to unsuspecting separating parents and their children.

One such parent is Debra Cook [Alienated Parents Australia], an alienated mother who has learned first hand, how our current family laws allow a vindictive ex partner, either male or female, to remove the children from the life of the other parent with terrifying speed, through a process commonly known as ‘Parental Alienation Syndrome’.

An unbelievably damaging and inept Family Justice System, allows such a malicious parent to psychologically and physically kidnap the children with absolute impunity. The sole parent custody model, provides the perfect setting for these dysfunctional parents to indoctrinate their children with a false perception of reality, causing them to turn against a loving, caring and protective other parent, who is desperately trying to help them.

Debra, who is an artist, recently held a public exhibition of her work, which centered on her personal experience in dealing with the forced loss of a relationship with two of her children.

Dads on the Air were there to record the views of some of those visiting the exhibition, and it was encouraging to see the level of community support Debra is receiving for her efforts in raising public awareness to these human rights abuses of so many of our children..

Another such parent is Ken Thompson, who is also a victim of a Family Justice System, which considers it in the best interest of a child to be left in the care of the most dysfunctional of their parents. Ken is currently riding a bicycle around Europe in order to search for his kidnapped son Andrew and to raise community awareness to the issue of international parental kidnapping.

What is often overlooked is the fact that to kidnap a child, you need not cross international borders for it to be defined as kidnapping. There are millions of children in the world today, who are kidnapped and held hostage by one of their own parents, who may live just around the corner from the other parent.

These kidnapping parents refuse to comply with court orders and are therefore engaging in a criminal act. However a hopelessly inadequate Family Justice System turns a blind eye to such criminal behaviour, and by so doing rewards the offending parent for their appalling and illegal behaviour.

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

The Search For Andrew

With special guests:

• Ken Thompson and
• Gary Bryant.
  

The pain of loosing your child never goes away, and it is a perfectly natural human reaction, that no stone is left unturned, in the desperate search to restore the most precious bond of all, the biological parent/child relationship.

Today we speak with one such parent who is doing just that, the Deputy Fire Commissioner of NSW, Ken Thompson, who has taken a very pro-active approach, in his never ending search for his much loved son Andrew.  

Ken has started an extensive bicycle journey around Europe, in order to draw attention to, not only his own dilemma, but also to the demise of so  many other children around the world who have been kidnapped and are held hostage, by the most dysfunctional of their parents.     

Next we speak with Gary Bryant of the ‘Men’s Advisory Network’ on the findings of a West Australian study into the prevalence of Domestic Violence and Intimate partner abuse of men. This is considered an important research project, commissioned by the Men’s Advisory Network (MAN), supported by a research grant from Lotterywest and executed by researchers of Edith Cowan University.

While the findings of these independent research projects continue to show a high level of female to male and female to child abuse and violence, state and federal governments around the world continue to ignore these findings. The outcome of such ignorance by our elected representatives, has resulted in the formulation of hopelessly inadequate Domestic Violence laws and regulations.   

The most commonly used weapon at the disposal of separating parents, is the use and/or threats of, false allegation of violence and abuse, made possible by badly flawed state laws, which allow one parent to separate the other parent from his/her children and property.

They do so, safe in the knowledge they can take this course of action with absolute impunity. Once such a pre-emptive first strike has been made, the other parent is left at a total  disadvantage in the Family Justice System.     

Especially since the Family Courts, which act in the federal  jurisdiction, will generally rubber stamp the ‘established arrangement’, created using these highly questionable state DV laws. Currently domestic violence laws are administered by the states and their definitions vary greatly from state to state. One thing they have in common however, is that they are all  administered in the absence of any due process provisions.  

The outcome of these miscarriages of justice is such, that in many cases the unfortunate children end up in the care of the most dysfunctional of their parents. While at the same time the better parents are excluded from any further contact with their children. The Judiciary sleeps well at night, because they simply qualify their decisions as having been made ‘In The Best Interest Of The Children’.  

In so doing, and with no effective compliance provisions, the Family Court conveniently wipes their hands of any further responsibility, leaving thousands of vulnerable and powerless children to fend for themselves.

It begs the question of how much longer our communities will tolerate the indifference and total lack of concern shown by our elected representatives, as they ignore the plight of the nation’s most vulnerable children, who are struggling to survive the inhumane conditions our collective ignorance has placed them in.     

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

Fathers Across The Tasman

With special guests:

• Ken McLaren and
  
• Sue Price.
  

Like elsewhere in the western world, the fathers of New Zealand fare no better when entering the murky world of the Family Justice System, following separation. However, just like everywhere else, some have found better ways then others, and actually end up maintaining some contact with their children subsequent to the breakup of their relationship.      

To take us through the process of dealing with a badly flawed Family Justice system and  still end up with some dignity, we speak with Ken McLaren from ‘The Union Of Fathers’ of New Zealand. While their methods may not work for everyone, it certainly shows there are more ways than one, to realize your objective. He gives some sound advice to all those struggling with a system of law that destroys so many lives and  relationships.    

Without doubt the number one commentator on Men’s and Father’s issues in Australia, Sue Price of the ‘Men’s Rights Agency’, provides us with an update of the latest reports calling for our submissions. Unfortunately it is common knowledge that the views, suggestions or concerns of men, will continue to be ignored  in the current anti male climate.        

For this reason and following 15 years of banging her head against a brick wall, Sue is now calling for the boycott of a Family Justice industry that does not even regard it necessary to include the views of half of the stakeholders. She is supported by many, who consider that those working within this  industry deliberately set out to avoid the risk of critical revue, in order to ensure their flow of taxpayer funded handouts are protected.    

It is no wonder therefore, that Sue Price quite rightly considers, there is no point in continuing to engage with a system that is so manifestly flawed, does so much harm to  Australia’s family bonds of kinship, and which is permitted to force it’s own agenda onto an unsuspecting community, unchallenged.  

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

Don't Alienate The Kids

With special guests:

• Bill Eddy and
  
• Debra Rankin.
  

Nothing strikes deeper into the human heart than the loss of one’s children. It matters little how the loss occurred, the intense pain is almost unbearable. It is an international  scandal therefore, that our governments through their agencies, are so deeply involved in providing the perfect mechanisms, that allow millions of  child kidnappers to go unpunished.   

The psychological and physical kidnapping of children in custody disputes, is often referred to as Parental Alienation, while it is also described by various other names when used in different settings. There are many who regrettably are still in denial that this phenomenon actually occurs, however for those parents and children who have found themselves a victim, the loss is extremely painful and very real.  

This week we speak with two people, who are very much aware of the damage caused by the failure of our legislators, to understand the horrific ramifications of the soul destroying Family Justice System they have created.  

Our first guest is Bill Eddy, author of a new book ‘Don’t Alienate the Kids! (Raising Resilient Children While Avoiding High Conflict Divorce). This is a fresh examination of the child alienation problem and an analogy of the Parental Alienation Syndrome vs. the assumption of Child Abuse debate.  

Eddy doesn’t just evaluate the Parental Alienation Syndrome vs. Child Abuse Presumption debate, he proposes his own theory of “1000 Little Bricks”, based on recent breakthroughs in brain research about how children learn.   

We end the show interviewing Debra Rankin, founder of  ‘Alienated Parents Australia’, herself an alienated mother, who together with her children has joined the ever swelling ranks as victims of Parental Alienation Syndrome.

Debra has decided it is time to look at new ways to educate the community about the  hidden effects that badly flawed Family Laws can have on unsuspecting separating parents and their children. 

As an artist, she has created a collection of works illustrating the ravages of Parental Alienation Syndrome, and will hold an exhibition at Lismore on the NSW north coast from 3rd to the 14th May. Every interested member of our community who would like to learn more about PAS, will be made very welcome. 

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

Shameful Political Apathy

With special guests:

• Greg Andresen and

• Sue Price.

When dealing with issues relating to the health and well-being of the men and boys of our society, the silence from our legislators is deafening. Apart from paying lip-service to the importance of sound policies to ensure the protection of all of the nations citizens, our legislators are completely indifferent to the plight of the male half of our citizenry.

This is especially noticeable in the area of Family Law, Domestic Violence, Child Support, Men’s Health, Boys Education, and Suicide prevention. Today we speak with Greg Andresen of (Men’s Health Australia) and Sue Price of the (Men’s Right Agency) about these issues and the lack of urgent government attention to the desperate needs of our fathers, husbands, brothers and sons, as they face an ever increasing level of persecution and neglect. 

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

Crimes Against Humanity

With special guests:

• “Rick” Part 2
  

It is a dark time in our history when we are indifferent to the plight of 700,000 of the nations’ children, who have been forcibly torn from half of their biological family.

It is a dark time when we see nothing wrong with jailing those parents who dare to want to love and protect their children from harm and remain an important  part of their lives.

Today we present Part 2 of the interview with ‘Rick’, a dad who has found himself in jail several times as punishment for trying to remain in contact with his children.

Our Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, speaks proudly of the virtue of transparency and for the need of openness in discussions about what is best for Australia’s inhabitants. However the transparency he speaks about is very very limited, we cannot even reveal the identity of  ‘Rick’ in case it reveals all those involved in his case, which of cause is rolled out as protecting the “Best Interest Of The Children”.

Even blind Freddy knows, what it really means is that on no account must the identity of the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity be revealed, like all those engaged in the removal of our children from their biological families. This multi-billion dollar family justice industry which forcibly removes our children from our care and protection is protected by the ignorance and indifference of our legislators who show not a shred of interest in the plight of  700,000  of our children.

The forcible removal of children from loving parents are barbaric crimes against humanity by whatever form of measurement you use, to think these appalling crimes have been allowed to flourish under successive governments for the past 35 years is even more frightening. It happens because of community apathy and indifference and our blindness to realize how easy it can happen to anyone who has children of their own.

Removing aboriginal children from their families was also once legally possible and morally condoned by our community as was slavery, however this didn’t make it right! 

The stolen generation numbered around 50,000 aboriginal children and their removal wreaked havoc on the fabric of indigenous society. We currently have a stolen generation numbering 700,000 children in our community and not a whisper of concern from Canberra.

Our politicians from the Prime Minister down have been informed of these statistics and those that troubled themselves to answer the call, advised they had forwarded the information onto another department as it was not part of their portfolio.

Even the Australian Attorney General Robert McClelland, who is responsible for the administration of Family law, tried to pass these statistics off as belonging to the responsibilities of the minister for home affairs. Not one member of parliament from either side of politics, showed any concern for the welfare of these children or the despair of their dispossessed parents.

These are crimes against humanity, therefore if we want to be seriously viewed by the world as a caring society, then we still have a very long way to go.

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

Jailed For Trying To Be a Dad

With special guests:

• “Rick”
  

Today we play part 1 of an in-depth 2 part interview with a father who has been jailed several times for such dangerous crimes as sending a birthday card to his daughter and for daring to watch his son play school sport.   

Rick, not his real name for legal reasons, joins us to tell us his story in the hope it will alert people, as to how easy it is to spiral into an impossible situation which severely punishes you for daring to attempt to remain in your children’s lives.    

This fathers’ plight clearly exemplifies everything that is wrong with the worldwide family justice system, now a multi billion dollar industry of which the symbolic head is the Family Court.     

We sincerely hope that this father’s experience is another wake-up call to all those mothers and fathers who think this could never happen to them.

We hope everyone seriously re-assess their perceived legal rights as a parent, because the truth is you have none. I repeat Parents do not have legal parenting rights.

Unfortunately the mistaken believe in these perceived rights, cause many parents to seek justice in a family justice system which does not offer due process of law and is more interested in serving the economic well-being of thousands of meddling bureaucrats. A corrupt system that has now grown into a multi billion dollar worldwide industry.

Unless you have made a pre-emptive first strike or have a million dollars to spare, the Family Court will do nothing for you except sever your relationship with your children and confiscate your family wealth, thereby stealing your kids’ inheritance. It is a social engineering Hell Hole to be avoided at all cost.

Ask anyone who has been there, they will all tell you the end result will leave you emotionally and economically destitute. The stealing of children is a crime against humanity and fighting this crime in the family courts will only make your situation impossible. If you decide to go this way and persist in seeking equality, justice and your human rights, it will cause you to spiral into the devastating situation this dad finds himself in. 

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

The Parental Alienation Debate

With special guest

• Dr Ned Holstein.  
  

With an ever growing body of evidence supporting the existence and devastating effects of the Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS), we felt it necessary to again raise awareness to this debilitating disorder. Today we enjoy an informative discussion  with Dr Ned Holstein MD MS, who is the founder of the prominent American family support group Fathers & Families.  

The website of Fathers & Families describes the disorder in the following manner.    

“Parental Alienation is a disorder that arises primarily in the context of divorce/separation and/or child-custody disputes. Its primary manifestation is the child’s campaign of denigration against a parent, a campaign that has no justification. It results from the combination of a programming (brainwashing) of a parent’s indoctrinations and the child’s own contributions to the vilification of the targeted parent. Parental Alienation is also sometimes referred to as “Parental Alienation Disorder” or “Parental Alienation Syndrome.” 

“Few family law cases are as heartbreaking as those involving Parental Alienation. In PA cases, one parent has turned his or her children against the other parent, destroying the loving bonds the children and the target parent once enjoyed”.

“Fathers & Families wants to ensure that the DSM-5 Task Force is aware of the scope and severity of Parental Alienation. To this end, in December we asked our supporters to write the Task Force to urge them to consider including Parental Alienation Disorder in DSM-5. As usual, your response was overwhelming. It also helped lead to progress–while as expected the newly-released draft version does not specifically include Parental Alienation Disorder, the DSM-5 Task Force has now listed Parental Alienation Disorder among the “Conditions Proposed by Outside Sources…that are still under consideration by the work groups.”

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

Re-Empowering Dads

With special guests: 

• Ken Thompson
  
• Damien Diecke and
• Greg Stocks.  

First up we speak with NSW Fire Brigade Deputy Commissioner, Ken Thompson (COPAC), whose 5-year- old-son, Andrew, was abducted in 2008. He points out that, “Australia now has the highest per capita rate of IPCA in the world”, highlighting the need for new laws. “It’s far too easy for a parent to abduct a child” he said. 

The Family Law Reform Association (FLRA) has called for the introduction of new laws to protect children from being abducted from Australia. As part of the support for this campaign, Ken Thompson has recently formed a group called the Coalition of Parents of Abducted Children (COPAC).
 
Our second interview is with Damien Diecke, a motivational speaker and Master attraction coach, who asks men to join him at the “Be That Confident Guy” seminar in Sydney 19th December.  
 
Damien points out that if you are a man who finds the following familiar, than you will definitely benefit from his re empowering seminars.
 
“I see a woman somewhere at a club, across a room, or perhaps just in the queue in front of me, who makes my heart race and I want so badly to go over and talk to her - but I don’t, I can’t - for no matter how much I have struggled in the past to overcome it, again, I find myself in the grip of an overwhelming self-consciousness and fear of rejection - once more I feel paralysed”
 
We end the program with an interesting recording of the ‘HEY DAD’ workshop for facilitators presented by Greg Stocks at the recent National Mens Health Conference, which was attended by the Dads on The Air team.
 
It provides an insight into how men are working together to re-engage and re-empower themselves, following years of relentless persecution, stereotyping and isolation from our communities. They are encouraged by the many women who are supportive and who are starting to speak out against the perpetrators, under the banner of ‘We Want Our Men Back’

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

Managony

With special guests: 

• David ‘Smiley’ Byrnes  and

• Ian Purdie.  

Dads on the air has witnessed the slow emergence over the last two years of the album Managony by Horizon Shine. It is a collection of songs written specifically for DOTA, dealing with issues that have featured on the program relating to fathers’ experiences during and around the subject of divorce. The songs were written, recorded and produced by David “Smiley” Byrnes and DOTA’s Ian Purdie who has been a presenter on the show for the last 4 years. Today’s program features Ian Purdie and Smiley and most of the other musicians they co-opted to help create Managony, as well as the songs and some insights into their composition and the recording process. The album is available through this website for $20. 

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

Men's Business

With special guest:

• Ian Watson.    
  

A leader in the field of mentoring his fellow man, Ian Watson is a shining light of hope and encouragement to those suffering at the hands of agenda driven zealots, who are hell bent on destroying the resilience and natural inner strength of men and boys. 

He runs popular monthly men’s gatherings where men talk men’s business. Ian’s well attended “Transit Lounge” gatherings, provide a welcome sanctuary from the many real life experiences men suffer at the hands of government sponsored agencies and the media, whilst many of their kids are forced to live in fatherless households.

While the gender war against men and boys rages unabated around the globe, we see an apathetic and ignorant community laughing at all the demeaning anti male advertising propaganda, that sees them easily drawn into joining the “all men are perpetrators ” domestic violence hysteria. 

However, there are encouraging signs that men have just about had enough, and are collectively starting to show their enthusiasm for more pro-active engagement with one another. Mentoring is fast becoming the accepted new communication tool to support those that have fallen victim to some of the worse excesses of male bashing persecution, the world has ever witnessed.
 
We also broadcast a recording made at the National Men’s Health Convention recently, of the presentation made by psychologist Drew Cowen who works in the Family Court in Newcastle, and who’s theme was “Giving Kids the Best Dad they can have: Helping Fathers and Kids to have strong healthy relationships when they don’t live in the same home”.
 
Now on the face of it, such a caring sounding title would indicate an understanding of what fathers and their kids are forced to endure , as they desperately try to keep their parent/child relationships intact following separation. But to many dads in the audience it appeared that the one preaching to them, was part of the problem and not the solution.

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

Threats To The Family

With special guests:

• Barry Maley   
  

• Dr Elizabeth Celi and

• Sue Price.  

We start the program interviewing Barry Maley, who is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney. Barry has released a report Family on the Edge – Stability and Fertility in Prosperity and Recession in which there are surprising findings leading to some major recommendations. Birth rates have been studied between a low point of 2001 and a recent high point of 1.93 per woman in 2008. The increase is strongly associated with the rising prosperity of that period.  With the financial threats and the continuing prevalence of children bei ng born to single mothers Barry argues for a change in family law and policies to encourage family stability. This would be a major factor in being able to sustain the buoyant birth rate.

Our second interview is with Dr Elizabeth Celi, well known Psychologist and social commentator who in the course of her work in mental health has encountered examples of domestic abuse which are sometimes too subtle to affect our sensibility. Elizabeth discusses recent television advertisements that would cause immediate offence if a female character were to be substituted for the male character in the script. We also talk about communication strategies and ways that can improve relationships and mental health.

Our final interview is with Sue Price from the Men’s Rights Agency. Sue has been conducting a survey on the Family Relationship Centres and we discuss progress with the survey. One of the problems that has been identified so far is with regard to a particular psychological theory that may be imposed by the Centres. We might have expected that the Centres would use the Government money to mediate and listen to the parties rather than impose a particular theoretical approach on the parties in dispute.

In coming weeks we will be presenting interviews obtained at the National Men’s Health Gathering held in Newcastle last week, at which Dads on the Air was represented by Peter van de Voorde and Greg Andresen.

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

The Menace of Extreme Feminism

With special guests:

• Amfortas.
  

This week we look at the struggle of the community to deal with the outrageous effects of extreme feminist dogma on our daily lives. Much of the discourse centers around myths and rogue statistics which paint a very negative picture of the men and boys in our communities.

This propaganda machine which rolls out a production line of inaccurate information of a misandrist nature, is being used as a template to formulate anti male government policy, and which is proving so detrimental to the health and well-being of the males in our society.

Unfortunately our leaders ignore community calls for them to more aggressively enquire about the accuracy of the anti male information they receive, and on which they base their judgement and ultimately cast their vote.

We recently saw our Australian federal opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull, make the mistake of not checking the accuracy of the information presented to him. He did this to his own detriment and is now paying the political price for ignoring the need for scrutiny.

Yet when Senator Steve Fielding goes on a search for the truth regarding the global warming climate debate, he is ridiculed by fellow politicians and the media, for doing so. While at the same time government members, like lemmings jumping over a cliff, blindly toe the anti-male line and continue to refuse to question the accuracy of the extreme feminist dogma that permeates our corridors of power, and continue to vote against equality and justice for men.

Amfortas together with other concerned citizens, has put together an excellent series of podcasts on the need for accuracy in reporting, on what can only be described as the human rights abuses of men and boys, and explains how, when and why, this is happening.

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

The Canadian Special

With special guests:

• Karen Selick
• Rodger Gallaway and
• Jeffrey Asher.

This week we look at the struggle for family law reform in Canada, the home of some of the world’s most extreme anti-male anti-father legislation. Recently Dads On The Air interviewed Canadian MP Maurice Vellacot, who has introduced shared parenting legislation into the Canadian parliament. This week we follow on from that interview by talking with the highly experienced family lawyer Karen Selick, who has been an outspoken proponent for reform of the system; Roger Gallaway MP, who co-chaired an inquiry into shared parenting in Canada and Jeffrey Asher, a lecturer on men’s studies who taught the last men’s studies course in the country.

With Australia’s left wing government heading in exactly the opposite direction to the rest of the western world and winding back the modest reforms of the previous government promoting cooperative care of children after divorce, now is the perfect time to look at the situation around the world. Canadian society and many tens of thousands of fathers and their children have paid a very high price for the country’s previous embrace of extreme anti-male ideology; and numerous voices are now united in a call for sanity to prevail.

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

The Barbara Biggs Show

With Special Guests:

• Barbara Biggs and
• concerned citizens.

Barbara Biggs has become the new “poster girl” for the anti-shared parenting movement. While many fathers have been disturbed by her comments in the media against shared and co-operative parenting after divorce, this is the first opportunity for many to hear what she has to say directly. Barbara Biggs spoke at a Fellowship of the Roundtable forum at NSW Parliament House with the subject Family Law - Is The Man The Loser? This is the speech she gave followed by her answers to questions from the floor. Family law reformers around the country have been alarmed at the scurillous campaign, including a number of demonstrations outside family courts and other locations, to return family law to the dark ages when more than half of all children entering the Family Court arena rarely if ever saw their fathers again and almost no fathers were ever given any substantial time with their children.

The campaign is being conducted under the guise of preventing domestic violence against women and sexual abuse against children. Biggs claims that the shared parenting laws have forced children to spend time with abusive parents, but her target is clearly fathers. One simple point reformers make: child abuse is committed by both genders, it is a crime, and is a police matter, but Biggs only focuses on sexual abuse of children ignoring child homicide, infanticide, neglect, emotional and physical abuse where women make up the majority of perpetrators. Most sexual abuse of children occurs at the hands of other siblings, step parents, mother’s boyfriends/defactos and other relatives. Fathers are the least likely to sexually abuse their children.

For the vast majority of family law cases, the research is clear: children benefit from a continued relationship with both parents after separation.  Barbara Biggs has made a career out of her colourful life, including alleging she was sold as a sex slave by her grandmother at 14 as well doing stints as a prostitute, mental health patient and property developer. Her books include In Moral Danger, The Journey Home, The Accidental Renovator and Money and Sex: How To Get More. Whether Biggs is a dangerous hysteric promoting irrational hatred against men or a true champion of the nation’s abused children, you can decide for yourself.

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

Family Law - Is the Man the Loser?

With special guests:

• Mark Yousseff
• Peter van de Voorde and
• Warwick Marsh.

Dads on the Air was pleased to accept an invitation from the debating group Fellowship of the Round Table. We were asked to contribute to their debate called Family Law: Is the Man The Loser? We argue men, women and children are all losers under the present system. With the current left-wing Labor government preparing to wind back the modest family law reforms of the previous conservative Howard government which encouraged shared and cooperative care of children after divorce or separation, there could hardly be a more controversial subject in Australia today. Prior to the reforms more than half of the country’s dads barely if ever saw their children again after divorce. With the enormous pain this was causing parents, and the enormous damage the destruction of the relationship between children and their fathers was doing to the kids and to society at large, these reforms were long overdue. This week we play a fascinating speech from senior family law lawyer Mark Yousseff as well as speeches from DOTA representative Peter van de Voorde and Warwick Marsh from the Fatherhood Foundation.

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...