Australian Men's Rights Advocates - AustralianMRA
Newspaper Articles 1999
COURT OUT One man's battle for his kids
The Australian, Weekend Focus, Friday 24/12/99 [Thank you to the Editors of the Australian for publishing this story, 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. "Don't cry, you will lose your children for sure," your barrister says sternly; and inside all you can feel are waves of distress. For you are vulnerable though what you love the most - your children. Welcome to the Family Court of Australia. Behind the imposing facades of the courts lies the deepest hurt. Close to a million children now live away from their fathers.My dearest children
The Howard Government is trying to make life easier for non-custodial fathers. But the Family court seems to be working in the opposite direction.
Sydney Morning Herald, Bettina Arndt, Saturday 16th January, 1999
If you are male, working long hours to support the family but facing a shaky marriage, watch out. In the event of a marriage breakdown, you would find that dedication to work would leave you thoroughly the loser in divorce negotiations.
For a start, your busy working life would mean you would be likely to miss out in battles over custody (residence) of children and be hard pressed to gain significant access (contact). And then, under the rules of the Child Support Scheme which determines how much financial support divorced men are required to pay for their children, you'd be locked into continuing to work to your maximum capacity, even if that meant you saw less of your children.
In a recent case decided by the full bench of the Family Court, a divorced management consultant with five children had cut back his average 60-70 working hours per week to care for two children then living with him, halving his $200,000 income. His wife had received 80 per cent of the $500,000 property settlement.
False Child Abuse Allegations Frequent In Canada As Well
National Post ( Canada's 2nd largest national newspaper), 26 May 1999
Putting an end to child abuse is a noble and necessary goal. Putting an end to false and self-serving accusations of child abuse that arise in divorce proceedings is an equally deserving, but largely ignored, pursuit.
This week, two law professors from Queen's University released a remarkably even-handed examination of child abuse allegations. Given last year's release of the Special Joint Committee on Child Custody and Access, and the recent response to it by the federal Justice Department, this is a timely and important piece of work.
The academics looked at 196 abuse allegations involving separated parents. Of these, 46 cases resulted in judgments that abuse did occur. Of the 150 unproven cases, the trial judges believed the allegations were intentionally false (either a parent or child made them up) 45 times. Thus it appears there are as many cases of false accusations of child abuse as there are provable, true incidents.
After lifting the veil on the prevalence of false claims, the two law professors then detail the costs — emotional, financial and legal — of such accusations. Since mothers make the preponderance of abuse claims — true and false — it is fathers who bear the bulk of this burden. Further, it is important to remember that even if the charges are found to be baseless in criminal court, they can subsequently re-appear in family court. This means the father may never escape the stigma of being falsely accused of child abuse. And just one instance of a mother being charged with making false accusations was reported in the study, even though the data suggests one quarter of child abuse charges are likely to be deliberately invented.
Biological Mothers Murder More of Their Own Children Than Do Biological Fathers
Australian Institute of Criminology statistics show there were 270 child homicide incidents in Australia from July 1989 to June 1999, involving 287 identified offenders and resulting in the deaths of 316 children under 15.
For example, the revised National Homicide Monitoring Program 2006-07 Annual Report states 11 homicides involved a biological mother and 5 involves a biological father.
The Western Australian figures shed light on who is likely to abuse children in families. Mothers are identified as the perpetrator of neglect and abuse in a total of 73% of verified cases.
Biological mothers account for about 35 per cent of all child murders, while biological fathers account for 29 per cent
Family Courts’
Violence Review
October 2009
The Attorney-General commissioned a review of the practices, procedures and laws that apply in the federal family law courts in the context of family violence. The Family Courts Violence Review considered whether improvements could be made to ensure that the federal family law courts provide the best possible support to families who have experienced or are at risk of violence.
Men's Rights Agency Reply to the Family Courts Violence Review
Dr Phil TV Show - Men's Rights
September 2021
Dr Phil mixes both the mainstream men's rights advocates and a nutcase guy looking for publicity to make men look bad to create a controversial and ridiculous show to attract an audience of mainly middle aged non-working women who watch TV in the afternoons.
Advertisers love such controversial shows aimed at women who control over 80% of household spending. The more ridiclous some person on the show is, the better the ratings. Dr Phil is the upscale Jerry Springer. These shows really insult the intelligence of women.
In the show, Dr. Phil, who is no longer registered as psychologist, admits that all of his show management are females as are 90+% of his staff.
The show does have the "Martin Luther King" of the Men's Rights Movement - Warren Farrell. It also has Cassie Jay of The Red Pill documentary fame. Jerry Cox who was falsely accused of rape and kidnapping by a woman is featured. He had the ridiculous charges dropped and successfuly sued the woman.
Do men get a rough deal?
National Times
January 11, 2011
Seems a bit rich these days to claim there is a ‘‘glass ceiling’’ for female jobs. Load of cobblers, isn't it? I mean, Australia has a female Prime Minister and a female Governor-General.
Has there really been discrimination over the years against mothers who work -- or against women without children?
The National Council of Women thinks so and no surprise there. I recently chatted with Victorian leader Jennie Rawther who pointed out that, among other things, women at the end of World War 1 had to give up their jobs to returning servicemen -- even though their husbands may have been killed in combat. There was no widow’s pension, nor child support.
Sounds tough but Age reader Steve Hills of Rosebud is not impressed. “There is overwhelming evidence that female health, safety and female lives were held as more valuable than men’s lives,” he says. “Men’s lives were routinely regarded as disposable. The view that women alone were discriminated against is an ignorant one.”