Australian Men's Rights Advocates - AustralianMRA
Newspaper Articles 1998
BBC - The One Show on Male Victims of Domestic Violence
BBC programme 'The One Show', in which the subject of domestic violence against men is discussed.
September, 2009
UK - not politically correct to fund shelters for men and their children who are victims of domestic violence.
Australian Government's assault on Separated Fathers
In July 2008, the media published banner headlines generated from media releases issued by the Australian Government's Minister for Human Services, Senator Joe Ludwig which includes:
Spies on dads dodging child support - Herald Sun, 23 June 2008,
"Human
Services Minister Joe Ludwig announced today that undercover
surveillance of parents would commence from July 1, in a bid to collect
almost $1 billion in child support debt across Australia. I want child
support cheats to be caught out on camera so the courts can see the
truth,"
Deadbeat dads fleeing to debt-free haven - The Australian, 30 July 2008,
"Separated parents living overseas now owe around $90 million in
payments to their kids back in Australia," Senator Ludwig said.
Chasing down deadbeat dads - Herald Sun, 1 August 2008,
Senator Ludwig also said
“More than 20,000 separated parents are denying their children support
by fleeing the country.
These mostly deadbeat dads owe a startling $90 million in child support and are guilty of a double betrayal.
Deadbeat dads don't need a visa to enter New Zealand and governments need to work together to identify and track down runaway parents.”
The truth
The one billion dollar debt level is a cumulative total incurred from the commencement of the child Support scheme in 1988/89. Over $500 million debt had accumulated by 1996/97. The Child Support Agency ( CSA ) has already been criticised by the Auditor General for using cumulative totals in their efforts to justify their performance.
Yet the CSA continues to do so, as well as ignoring false debts created using unsustainable or unrealistic income determinations. Neither can the accuracy of assessments be thoroughly checked when address details for 15% of clients cannot be confirmed. If the information were available it would be interesting to know how much of this debt is uncollectable because the payer is unemployed, disabled or deceased or the child’s circumstances have changed, but remain unacknowledged by CSA?
According to published CSA data, 96 per cent of all child support due has been paid.
Daddy dearest: Many men are finding out they are not the father after all
The Sun-Herald
18 November 2007
Men's groups are calling for mandatory paternity testing of all newborns as it emerges a record number of men are finding they are not the fathers of children they believed to be theirs.
Almost a quarter of paternity tests conducted by one of Australia's largest DNA laboratory companies show the man submitting a sample is not the father, compared to an estimated one in 10 "exclusions" 10 years ago.
The number of tests taken in Australia has doubled from 3000 in 2003 to more than 6000 last year.