What's New? - Men's Rights Agency

Federal Coalition Politicians meet to discuss the need for changes to family law and child support - Nov 12, 2002

Federal member for Dobell, Ken Ticehurst has broken through the inertia of the Government to generate enough interest among MPs, Cabinet members and Ministers to create a committee to push forward changes to family law, child support and other legisalation that impacts on family separation and contributes to the alienation of fathers from their children.

MRA was invited to address the meeting, as was Michael Green, author of Fathers After Divorce and three people who have experienced the devastation caused by false allegations, biased reporting and agenda driven outcomes.

• MRA speech

• Back-bench committee to press for family law changes By Frank Cassidy, Canberra Times

• The Spoils of Post Marriage Warfare By Kevin Glancy

CSA tells only 25% of the story!

According to the latest figures from CSA separated fathers are not so badly off as they think!

Dr. Warren Farrell is visiting Australia in October 2001 for the release of his new books:

• Father and Child Reunion: How To Bring The Dads We Need To The Children We Love
• Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say

MRA and the Relaxation Centre have organised a series of three meetings, Oct 25, 26 and 27 2001 when Dr Farrell will talk about and discuss with you his ideas for reuniting fathers with their children and how men and women can learn to communicate with each other.
Go to details

Please contribute by completing the questions.

Expanding the Parameters of Parental Alienation Syndrome

Glenn F. Cartwright
Department of Educational Psychology and Counselling
McGill University
The newness of the parental alienation syndrome (PAS) compels its redefinition and refinement as new cases are observed and the phenomenon becomes better understood. New evidence suggests that alienation may be provoked by other than custodial matters, that cases of alleged sexual abuse may be virtual, that slow judgements by courts exacerbate the problem, that prolonged alienation of the child may trigger other forms of mental illness, and that too little remains known of the long term consequences to alienated children and their families.

Suicide victim 'hounded' over child support
Canberra Times Wednesday 15/11/00 RODERICK CAMPBELL
It was "a tragic indictment of the system" that a Canberra man had committed suicide holding a letter of demand from the Child Support Agency, the ACT Coroners Court was told yesterday.

Domestic violence by women is rising as the balance of power in the home shifts their way, says Melanie Phillips

November 19 2000 NEWS REVIEW

Man beaters behind closed doors

Labour and Democrat Senators reject CSA relief for payers!

Would you ever vote for them again? Think carefully when the next election is called!
The Senate has rejected most of the changes contained in the child support legislation that would benefit paying parents.
Change is essential to the child support formula
Sydney Morning Herald, Monday 13/11/00  
It will be a tragedy if the current moves to change the child support system are thwarted in the Senate, writes Bettina Arndt .
Child Support  - Cost of Contact Study
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MARRIED TO THE MOB

The Weekend Australian SAT 18 NOV 2000 By: Adrian McGregor
They call it the Club, the male-dominated legal fraternity that looks after its own.

Gloves off in battle of sexes

Christine Middap, Brisbane Courier Mail, Mon 13/11/00

WOMEN are becoming more violent towards their partners - and have overtaken men as aggressors in relationships.

Men's Rights Agency Report to the
Family Law Pathways Advisory Group

Documents referred to in the Report:

References Examining Assaults by Women on Their Spouses or Male partners
An Annotated Bibliography by Martin S. Fiebert, Department of Psychology, California State University.

Myths and Realities or All the Facts that Fit we Print
By John Coochey A paper presented to the Australian Crime Prevention Council Melbourne 17 20 October 1999

Dwelling Choices  for Child of Separated Parents - a shared parenting study by Lars Tornstam

Have morals gone down the tube?

Thank goodness decency and commonsense have prevailed. Now we can put the Vegemite jar back where it belongs, writes Padraic P. McGuinness.

The "progressive" consensus is crumbling before our eyes. In matters of policy towards Aborigines, reproductive technology and welfare policy, there has been an outbreak of commonsense. As the Prime Minister, John Howard, said at the opening of the new Quadrant magazine Sydney office a couple of weeks ago, the real divide in our community is not so much between elite opinion and popular opinion, but between political correctness and commonsense.

For all mankind   Brisbane Courier Mail 1 July 2000

In the battle of the sexes, both men and women claim they are the victims. Matthew Fynes-Clinton reports

Disorder in the courts
Sunday Telegraph (Sydney) 9 July 2000
The Family Court has consistently pursued its critics by instigating contempt charges. But lately these citizens have been beating their powerful foe. Sarah Harris reports.

The Rape of Justice
The Spectator June 10, 2000
Melanie Phillips exposes the great conspiracy against men - the victims of a sexism that is not only legal in Britain today but mandatory

Battered by the system By: John Stapleton

The Weekend Australian, Saturday 3 -4 June 2000, Page 28

Interestingly, but not inclued in the article was the fact that in 1993 as the father began proceedings in the Supreme Court the NSW Minister for Commmunity Services, Jim Longley wrote to a women associated with the Marrickville women's refuge assuring her DOCS will defend the action vigorously and that "all the work undertaken by yourself and the other other refuge workers, has greatly enhanced the help available to victims of domestic violence". He made a one off grant of $15,000 to help with the refuge's legal costs.

Arndt comments on CSA Budget changes

"How absurd was media speculation that changes to child-support arrangements introduced in the federal budget were due to last-minute lobbying by angry dads."

Seems Bettina Arndt prefers to diminish the contribution made by dads and dads groups to bring about some changes to the CSA, in favour of academic endeavour. Does she really believe the Government would have bothered to change anything if CSA complaints  had not featured at the top of the list of complaints dealt with by each federal politician? Does she really believe the research to which she refers would have been undertaken without the level of complaint? Ms Arndt, I think you give too little credit to the "power of the people".

A paper presented by Paul Lodge, Acting Manager, Counselling, FCOA, Sydney to the Third National Family Court Conference, Melbourne, Tuesday 20 – Saturday 24 October 1998

This three-part article reviews the literature on the Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) as formulated by Dr. Richard Gardner and seeks to integrate his work with research on high conflict divorce and the work of other professionals in this arena.

Scholar sees laws on harassment as feminists' weapon
By Julia Duin THE WASHINGTON TIME 8 September 1999

Feminism has latched onto sexual-harassment laws as a successful way of bringing men to heel, says a University of Massachusetts professor and sometime feminist in a new book.

In "Heterophobia," Daphne Patai says that sexual-harassment law, once a useful tool to identify outrageous behavior, is now an albatross.

Elian, reunited with his father, at last!
sSee the joy, the real smile. How could anyone doubt that this boy belongs with his father?  24/4/00  Go to ......

• When a boy is a political football, he gets kicked. Take it from me, says Salman Rushdie.
• In the Mirror of Elián by Warren Farrell, Ph.D.*
• Quotable quotes - Janet Reno US Attorney General

Silencing abuse victims is just furthering the abuse?
March 2000
During the past month we have watched the Queensland minister for Families Youth and Community Care, Anna Bligh make political mileage out of the "boy in the box story".

Look Who Doesn't Want A Divorce
by Candis McLean       Report News, Vol 26.
New Studies Indicate Women Are First To File, But That Joint Custody Keeps Families Together

'Pregnant on the sly'
The practice of falsely attributing fatherhood is rising among women By Walter H. Schneider and Candis McLean
Alberta Report magazine

'Naggers who go yack, yack, yack are doing the family a great service,' Australian psychiatrist William Wilkie, who has written a book on stress and its effect on relationships, tells Kathryn Holmquist.

'Sorry' to man accused of sex abuse
By BETTINA ARNDT Sydney Morning Herald   15/4/00 http://smh.com.au/news/0004/15/pageone/pageone02.html
Thirteen years after accusing a solicitor of sexually abusing his three
children, the Department of Community Services has expressed its regret for the damage it caused to the man and his family.

'Problem' parents doing time
By John Stapleton - The Australian 8-9/4/00
Attorney General Daryl Williams wants to jail more mums and dads who defy family law. But as John Stapleton reports, critics say it is the system that is at fault.

Letters to the Editor 11/4/00 The Australian

From Men's Rights Agency :"For too long people suffering as a result of family separation have been kept away from the public gaze.
Two letters from fathers who cannot reveal their identity, but who are able to define the problems with the child support scheme.

Letters to the Editor -  14/4/00 The Australian

An Appeal on behalf of the Family Court by the Chief Justice Alastair Nicholson
National Council of Single Mothers and their children - Elspeth McInnes
Partners of Paying Parents - Alison Pearce

Street protester beats judges at own game
The Australian Wed. March 8 2000
The Family Court brought contempt charges against a father hostile to its decisions but, writes Bernard Lane, could not sustain them.

Canberra Times article "Child support reforms 'unfair'"

DSS document - Policy & Legislation

Media commentary resulting from the release of the ALRC report.23/2/00

Child payments: A-G's advice on jailing 'wrong'
by Aban Contractor    Canberra Times 12/1/2000
Attorney General Daryl Williams has been accused of deliberately misleading a Government Senator over plans to jail parents who fall behind in child-support payments.

http://www.healthcentral.com/news/newsfulltext.cfm?ID=23501

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -- "Wait till your father gets home!" used to be a mother's ultimate threat. But with the two-parent household becoming less and less common, University of Maryland researchers set out to study how important contact with dad is to children's development. They found that even when fathers do not live at home, children whose fathers are actively involved in their lives tend to have better cognitive and language skills and fewer behavior problems .

AVOs: Apprehended violence industry or disease?
By Trevor Nyman
Law Society Journal (NSW, Australia), December 1999, page 52. Cite as (1999) 37 (11) LSJ 52

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN PATTERNS OF RELATIONSHIP VIOLENCE IN ALBERTA

MARILYN I. KWONG and KIM BARTHOLOMEW, Simon Fraser University, DONALD G. DUTTON, University of British Columbia
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE, 1999, 31:3, 150-160

Riding the Donkey Backwards: Men as the Unacceptable Victims of Marital Violence

MALCOLM J. GEORGE
Department of Physiology, Queen Mary and Westfield College, London, United Kingdom
The Journal of Men's Studies, Volume 3, Number 2, November 1994, p. 137-159

Friday 31/12 Feminists revolting next year?
The Australian -  31 December 1999.
Melba   Edited by Graeme Leech
Revolt and retribution

Thursday 30/12 "Family Court makes disputes worse"

Letters to the Editor in The Australian

Violence made to order for Lawyers
by Bernard Lane - High Court correspondence
The Australian, Wednesday 29 December 1999

Striking a balance on violence orders
Editorial - The Australian, Wednesday 29 December, 1999

An editorial appeared in the Australian on Monday 27/12 -
here is MRA's letter published  29/12 in response to the Editorial and the "Court Out" articles.

Editorial - "Families need new ways of ending strife"

MRA Published letter - "Family court unfair to men"

Tuesday 28/12 More on "Court Out" Letters to the Editor from
Chief Justice Nicholson and Dr. Vincent Patrick
Melba's Column  Right on, Sister
"Some feminists have chosen to excuse themselves from conventional modes of human decency....."
COURT OUT (2 articles discuss the Family Court of Australia)
One man's battle for his kids
by "Mr X"

The Australian, Weekend Focus, Friday 24/12/99

[Thank you to the Editors of the Australian for publishing these two articles, well done! Thousand of fathers are extremely thankful Mr X's story has been told. His experience closely mirrors their own.]

More than a million Australian children will spend Christmas in a broken home. As the Government tries to improve family justice, 'Mr X' tells of his personal voyage of despair.

Trial Separation
by Bernard Lane

A supporting commentary examining attitudes to the recent changes to reduce the Family Court's caseload by tranferring simpler cases to a Federal Magistracy

Men Behaving Sadly
by Bettina Arndt , Melbourne Age 8/12/99
Why does nobody care about men killing themselves?

Scholar sees laws on harassment as feminists' weapon
By Julia Duin THE WASHINGTON TIMES October 1999

Feminism has latched onto sexual-harassment laws as a successful way of bringing men to heel, says a University of Massachusetts professor and sometime feminist in a new book.

In "Heterophobia," Daphne Patai says that sexual-harassment law, once a useful tool to identify outrageous behavior, is now an albatross.

Child Custody Policies and Divorce Rates in the US
 Study by Richard Kuhn, Children's Rights Council,  and  John Guidubaldi, D.Ed. John Carroll University (Cleveland, OH)  and and Kent State University (Kent, OH)

Australian Crime Prevention Council Conference

Presentations from John Coochey and Graham Stockdale to the Australian Crime Prevention Council Conference, Melbourne Australia 17-20 October 1999:

Graham Stockdale: The Hidden Domestic Violence: Myths and Realities
John Coochey:  Myths and Realities or All the Facts that Fit we Print

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN AUSTRALIA:
ARE WOMEN AND MEN EQUALLY VIOLENT?

Bruce Headey, Dorothy Scott, David de Vaus

University of Melbourne University of Melbourne La Trobe University

Conventional wisdom holds (i) that physical domestic violence is mainly perpetrated by men against women; (ii) that violent men, being physically stronger, inflict more pain and serious injuries than violent women; and (iii) that physical violence runs in families. To examine all three beliefs, we bring to bear nationwide sample survey data.

The Domestic Violence Industry in Massachusetts

John Maguire has written three important articles on the DV industry in
Massachusetts News. The content closely parallels the situation in Australia. August 1999

Pressure on sole parents to find a job  By MICHELLE GUNN
The Australian Monday 30th August 1999

Since the long-awaited, disappointing changes to child support were accepted by the Senate (December 1998) we have been inundated with queries, especially for the start dates. Here they are, together with a brief summary of the changes. (Posted 13/1/99)

A report from: Family Resources & Research (US) by Revs. Sam and Bunny Sewell (Posted 31/12/98)

June 9-11, 1998 Canberra
Under the auspices of Prime Minister, John Howard's "Partnerships against domestic violence" initiative, the Attorney General's department convened a men's forum to discuss relationship issues.

The Chief Justice of the Family Court in Australia, Alastair Nicholson came to the attention of the Americans and Canadians for his outspoken  anti-male comments .

Court to investigate custody 'bias'
Janet Fife-Yeomans The Australian - October 1 1998
The Australian Family Court's reaction to the emergence , during the recent Federal election , of the Abolish Family Court/Child Support Party.

A report authored by Miranda Kaye and Julia Tolmie Fathers' Rights Groups in Australia and their Engagement with Issues in Family Law.
Published in Australian Journal of Family Law (1998) 12 (posted 22/9/98)

Parentectomy is the removal, erasure or severe diminution of a caring parent in a child's life, following separation or divorce..
Frank S. Williams MD Director of Family & Child Psychiatry at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles. (Posted 31/5/98)

The Toronto Globe and Mail today (May 25, 98) buried a story on page A5 about a survey which the paper commissioned.Posted 29/5/98

Government's CS Amendments pass 2nd and 3rd reading. Independant Tribunal to replace Review (Departure) Office rejected.(posted 19/5/98)

Not that we're superstitious, but Friday 13th March 1998 marked the culmination of a week of announcements by Prime Minister John Howard, that must have left many non custodial parents wondering why they changed their vote for the coalition.(Posted 21/3/98)

(Posted 28/2/98)

It's Canadian, but the examples and principles extend across international boundaries. False allegations are being used by elements of the legal fraternity and by many malicious ex-wives to gain legal, custodial and financial (property) advantage (Posted 12/2/98 False18d)

Speech delivered by Senator Anne Cools to the Canadian Senate on March 28, 1995. Alerts the Canadian Parliament about the impact of maternal abuse during the a child's early years. Posted 11/2/98

By Erin Pizzey.. the founder of the first women's refuge in UK. After writing the book "Prone to violence" in which she discussed violent women she fled to Italy for her family's sake to avoid the anger and threats from the extreme feminist movement. Posted 17/12/97

Dodgy figures and suspect ideological interpretations give the impression that violence by men against women is rampant says JOHN COOCHEY. The reality is very different. Posted 17/12/97

Sue Price MRA Posted 16/12/97
In response to articles published in the Sydney Morning Herald
Dealing with Dads who don't care Adele Horin 6/12/97
Women won't go back to the '50s Kathleen Swinbourne 3/12/97

Kathleen Swinbourne Social commentator Posted 16/12/97
Single mothers should not be targets of social criticism and their children should be supported not patronised.The Australian 11/12/97

Aggression in British Heterosexual Relationships: A Descriptive Analysis Michelle Carrado, M.J. George, Elizabeth Loxam, L. Jones and Dale Templar (Posted 6/12/97)

American TV Transcript - ABC 20/20 programme - 21st Sept. '97 (Posted 18/11/97)

The sexual abuse by women of children and teenagers

UK TV Programme - Panorama - BBC1 - 10 pm Monday 6th October 1997 (Posted 18/11/97)

Reprinted from The Backlash! - October 1997 by Sam & Bunny Sewell (Posted 18/11/97)

Cabinet "Rolls" CSA Sub-Committee
Posted 30/9/97
D - day for the Partyroom meeting between the Cabinet and the CSA Sub-committee was today!!!

Update on CSA Changes
Posted 24/9/97

Progress of Cabinet discussions re CSA changes and Party room response. More to follow on Thursday!
NOTE: Partyroom meeting postponed from 25/9/97 to Tuesday 30/9/97 to give Ministers time to consider their position!!!!

This is the inquiry you've all been waiting for and focuses on what should be done about parties who ignore Court Orders and what penalties should be applied.

A report on the findings of Dr Martin Richards who studied 17,000 children born in 1958 to classify how divorce affects children in comparison to those who remain in intact families or to those who lose a parent through the death of that parent.

MRA has received a comprehensive study, conducted by a Family Court associate, questioning the legitimacy of the application of the "lingering doubt" premise that was relied on during two landmark cases during the late 1980's. The result of these decisions totally denied access to the fathers even after it was shown there was no evidence of child sexual abuse.

Under the heading "Child abuse undetected, MP warns" (Brisbane Courier Mail, 18/8/97) Federal Family Services Minister Judi Moylan expresses her concerns that "many child sex abuse cases were not being detected by authorities".

Babette Francis is a regular contributor to The Journal of the Australian Family Association. As MRA considers this excellent article defines the problems with modern day feminism and details the damage caused by extreme feminism to our legal system and our families, we sought the permission of the Australian Family Association to reproduce the article on the net.

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