Marriage Matters

With special guests:

• Warwick Marsh  and

• Bill Kable.

First we speak with the founder of the Dads4Kids Fatherhood Foundation, which is now Australia’s largest pro-father, pro-marriage and pro-family charity, Warwick Marsh.

Warwick, together with his wife and daughter, recently attended the Smart Marriages Conference in Florida, USA. During his US tour in July, Warwick met with leaders in the American fatherhood and marriage movement and recorded many interviews for TV and radio. He speaks with us about his recent tour and his passion to promote marriage and the virtues of staying together for better or worse.

Next we introduce the newest member of the Dads on the Air team, Bill Kable. Bill is a Sydney lawyer who is also a professional mediator with a mission to encourage fathers to take an active role in the lives of their children, and to ensure they remain in the lives of their children should parental separation occur.  

Bill speaks candidly about some of his own experiences with the family justice system, and how it fails non custodial parents and their children, especially in the area of non-enforcement of contact orders.  

Also in the studio were two other new members of the Dads on the Air team, Bill’s wife Catherine, a University lecturer and Trevor Miller, a retired ABC TV editor. All of whom have had extensive experience with the family justice system and realize the urgent need to ensure the nation’s children obtain real equal shared parenting time with both of their  parents, following parental separation.  Welcome aboard. 

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Heaven, Earth, Mankind and Happy Dads

With Special Guests:

• Professor Ian Plimer and
  
• Professor John Jenkins.

This week we opt for variety, beginning the show with one of Australia’s leading climate change sceptics Professor Ian Plimer, whose new book Heaven & Earth: Global Warming The Missing Science has topped the bestseller lists and is already into its fifth edition in Australia in a month. The author of seven books, Professor Plimer is somewhat taken aback to finally find himself the author of a bestseller. Not only are issues around global warming of intrinsic worth to fathers, the propaganda techniques used to convince the general population that only politicians can save us through higher taxes and greater government control is also of direct relevance.

We then move on to Professor John Jenkins, who has just completed a study on separated dads suggesting they should learn to relax, play and have more fun with their kids. For everybody’s sake.

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DOTA Goes Spiritual

With special guests:

• Archbishop Barry Hickey and
• Fighting Father Dave.

The mainstream churches have long ignored the many issues confronting fathers in Australia today, so we decided to take a look at the issues of fathers and the various churches.

Catholic Archbishop Barry Hickey has written that the absence of fathers is the biggest family and social problem in our society. “If Father Christmas was offering me gifts, I would ask for peace in every family and a father at the heart of every family,” he was quoted as saying in the publication Perth Now. “The absence of fathers is the biggest family and social problem we face today. It is the biggest cause of lifelong difficulties for fathers, mothers and, most of all, for children.”

“The absence of fathers is bigger than anger, aggression, alcohol, drugs, crime and under-achievement by children because it is the biggest single contributor to all of them. This is borne out worldwide by every large-scale, long-term study of family. I know that Father Christmas isn’t going to solve this problem for me, but I keep praying for it,” Archbishop Hickey said.

Fighting Father Dave is Parish priest, community worker, martial arts master, pro boxer, author, father of three. His website is www.fatherdave.org. Author of Sex, the Ring and The Eucharist, is the only Australian in the Holy Order of the Anglican Church who has ever had to box professionally in order to raise the funds to keep his ministry going. He is known as “Sydney’s Fighting Father,” who combines his work as a Parish Priest with a ministry to street kids, heroin addicts and other ‘undesirables’ from the underside of Australian Society. He uses boxing and the fighting arts to teach young people self-control.

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Take Heart

Ken Thompson

With Special Guests:

• Ken Thompson and
• Maggie Dent.

This is our second-last show for the year, so best wishes of the season to all our listeners. First up we talk with Ken Thompson, the NSW Deputy Fire Commissioner, who has come to understand what many men in this country experience through the loss of his son Andrew. Andrew John Thompson, now aged four, was illegally abducted by his mother Melinda Thompson (also known as Melinda Stratton) from Australia to Germany in April this year. This is a criminal offence under the Family Law Act. The Family Court has ordered that a warning must be issued stating that no one is to approach Melinda Thompson and that any information should be provided immediately to local police and/or Interpol. Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Andrew and Melinda should contact local Police, Interpol, or the Australian Federal Police on +61 (0)2 6126 7777. If you wish to assist Ken Thompson in the search for his son by taking part in an email-circulation effort, please call +61 (0)417 416 024.

Maggie Dent is an author, publisher and a parenting and resilience specialist. She writes a free email newsletter that promotes the healthy raising of children. This week we play Maggie’s keynote address from the Men’s Advisory Network Second National Conference held recently in Fremantle, Western Australia. Titled Dear Boys: About the Healthy Mothering of Boys, her poignant and often hilarious keynote explores the vital role in boys’ lives of healthy mothering. It is especially helpful for mothers and teachers who are confused by the boys in their lives. The impact of abandonment, avoidance and misunderstanding can shape a boy for the rest of his life in very negative ways. This will show you how to engage, connect and enjoy these interesting lads from early years to adulthood.

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Resilience

With Special Guests:

• Maggie Dent and
• Michael Woods.

As always, Dads On The Air is covering a lot of ground this week. We begin by talking to author Maggie Dent about her new book, Real Kids in an Unreal World: Building Resilience and Self Esteem in Today’s Children. Then we talk with Michael Woods, Senior Lecturer with the Men’s Health Information and Resource Centre at the University of Western Sydney, on the controversy surrounding White Ribbon Day. Many critics are now expressing concern over the social consequences of the repeated linking of men with violence in taxpayer-funded public campaigns and the inflamed misuse of statistics to bolster an ideological position which paints men as violent patriarchs. We’ll also be taking a look at the demise of the Federal Magistrates Service in Australia, created in a sense as a counterbalance to the Family Court. While many questions remain over the failure of reactionary elements within family law to embrace shared parenting, the Magistgrates Service was generally seen as faster, fairer and less expensive.

We speak with Habib about his new book My Story - The Tale of a Terrorist Who Wasn’t, his experiences in Guantánamo, and how he has managed to adjust back to his life as an Australian father and husband.

We also present Maggie Hamilton’s inspirational keynote address from the MAN National Conference in Fremantle titled Capturing the public imagination: securing a better future for our men and boys.

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Princesses and Pornstars - What's Happening to Our Girls?

With special guests:

• Emily Maguire, author of the new book Princesses and Pornstars
• Maggie Hamilton, author of the new book What’s Happening To Our Girls?

This week we are delighted to have two of the country’s leading women authors on the show discussing where gender relations have got to and what is happening to our girls.

Many dads are strugling to deal with feisty, determined and often headstrong young daughters, trying to encourage them to be independent and successful young women, while at the same time as hoping like hellthey don’t turn into man-haters.

Told from an early age they can do anything and be anything, young women today are very different to the women of only a few generations ago.

As any parent will tell you, teenage girls are difficult on a good day. How as a father to deal best with them and the many issues they face can be very perplexing indeed.

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