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.      

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.      



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