MENZ Issues: news and discussion about New Zealand men, fathers, family law, divorce, courts, protests, gender politics, and male health.

Santa Clause visited the Waitakere Family Court on Christmas Eve to deliver a present for the Judges and court staff. In some European traditions, children who are very badly behaved are said to get a lump of coal instead of presents – this Family Court received a whole bag!

Afterwards, Santa joined Union of Fathers protesters across the road from the court. He said that he was very upset that so many children would not see their fathers this Christmas because of the court’s unjust rulings. “I have met up with the Ghost of Christmas Future, and he tells me the future for the NZ Family Court is not looking good”, he told MENZ Issues. (more…)

Police have issued a domestic violence checklist to help people assess whether potential victims will be hurt – or even killed – over the Christmas period.

The rest of the 12 points not mentioned in yesterday’s post:

• There has been recent separation, issue of a court order or divorce, or responding in a dangerous manner.
• The victim believes the suspect could injure or kill her.
• The offender has strangled or attempted to strangle the victim.
• There is a history of family violence and it is getting more severe or increasing in frequency.
• The offender has easy access to the victim’s children or other family members.
• There have been incidents of animal abuse.
• History of violent behaviour against non-family members.

Christchurch’s refuges are seeing the typical busy Christmas run, with many women making the decision to leave their partners.

Battered Women’s Trust co-ordinator Sue Hastings said there was more sadness when a crisis occurred during the holiday season, with women feeling badly about the prospect of being in a refuge over Christmas.

“For many of our clients, loneliness, re-housing and isolation are often their greatest challenges and this time of year can be increasingly lonely for many.”

Hastings said in one recent instance, a woman had been victimised when a landlord would not let a flat to her, fearing retribution and trouble from her former partner.

“This discriminatory action ensures the family stays in refuge over the holidays.”

Hastings said families and businesses had donated food and toys to the refugeleading up to Christmas.

The Battered Women’s Trust crisis phoneline is 364 8900 and operates 24 hours a day, including Christmas.

Potential for family violence increases over the festive season, police warned today.

While the number of murders in New Zealand has been falling since the late 1980s, family violence homicides have not followed this trend. National Violence Reduction manager Inspector Rob Veale said over half of all murders countrywide in 2001 were family or domestic violence related.
He urged people who had concerns over Christmas to speak to local police about it.

Police have introduced a 12-point check list to help police assess if family violence victims are likely to be seriously harmed or even killed.

The list includes whether:

• The offender has threatened to commit suicide or to kill the victim, children or other family members.
• There is a history of alcohol or drug problems.
• The suspect is stalking or obsessed with the victim.
• Children are in the home when violence has occurred, or have been hurt or threatened.
• The offender has access to weapons and has a history of violent behaviour against family members.

High ranking man’s name suppressed in sex case
19 December 2004

By TONY WALL and EMILY WATT

The Sunday Star-Times is fighting to unmask a high-ranking foreigner accused of a sex crime but whose identity is being protected by the courts.

The paper is prohibited from revealing anything more about him, including where he lives and details of the alleged crime.

Sweeping suppression orders stop us from publishing the man’s name, his nationality, who he works for and the nature of his work. Nor can we describe what he is alleged to have done to the victim, a young woman.

The man has gone to the second highest court in the country, the Court of Appeal, in an effort to prevent certain evidence being used against him in any future trial at the district court.
(more…)

By using her expiring Attorney-General powers to promote unsuitable candidates, Speaker-designate Margaret Wilson raises memories of President Bill Clinton’s last days, when he effectively pardoned a batch of crooked supporters, ACT Justice spokesman Stephen Franks said today.

Mr Franks was commenting on the appointment of Ms Jan Walker as a District and Family Court Judge.

“I am extremely reluctant to comment on a particular judicial appointment but if this one goes without criticism I would be complicit in encouraging Labour’s next Attorney-General to politicise the judiciary with impunity.

“Most would-be judges take care in the years before appointment to show their capacity to be non-partisan. In appearances before the Justice and Electoral Select Committee, Ms Walker did exactly the opposite. She made a point of citing her political connections, and branding in political terms and dismissing without reflection, views she disagreed with. I was left with an impression that she lacked a capacity to understand different points of view.

“I am told by people without axes to grind that her rigid ideological insensitivity was a key reason for losing Timaru as a Labour Party candidate. These are not the right attributes for a judge..

Men afflicted with erectile dysfunction and too scared to discuss it with their doctor are turning to the internet for answers to hard questions.

Pieter Watson, Men’s Clinic general manager, said their website is getting huge amounts of traffic.

Men are not prepared to sit back and suffer any longer, he said, and are finally being more open about things in this area.

He said last August the site had 1199 visits, up from 886 for the same time last year.

“We find the guys who get round to making an appointment have already done a lot of research before they come in and see our doctors.

“They like to be well informed before they discuss their sensitive issues with the specialists and also to be able to use the right terminology”.

British teachers accused of abusing pupils should be given anonymity while claims are investigated, the Tories say.

One former Lancashire headmaster, who now works for the campaign group Falsely Accused Carers and Teachers, explains how such protection would have helped him when he was arrested in 1998.

I was interviewing some parents when my secretary came into my study and said the chairman of the board of governors wanted to see me.

He handed me a letter and in it, it said I had been accused of indecent assault against a pupil in 1972.

This was on the Friday, I was to meet the board of governors on the Monday – they suspended me and felt they had to inform the parents.

Then it got into the local press, then the national press and then it was on the radio.

I didn’t know the details of what I was accused of, or who the person was, for a further 10 days, by which time my name was bandied all over the place because of the allegations.

The police carried on investigating, in effect they went through pupils at the school for the previous 30 years and came up with very little. The whole thing turned into hysteria very quickly.

I didn’t go to court until January 2000, by which time there had been a major investigation and they had arrested and charged other [members of staff].

Most of them never reached court, but their names were bandied around.

I went to court, was convicted and spent six weeks in prison – my appeal was the fastest that anyone knows of.

The trial was poor, to put it mildly, and my conviction was quashed – and that’s how I got into FACT, because I was so outraged.

When children make allegations, once there are believed without any question at all, they find it very difficult to say: “Actually, it wasn’t like that”. Once the lie, or exaggeration, is told it’s very difficult to step back.

I do miss teaching very much. I would love to have finished my career properly, but that was denied and I went out under a cloud. That was very difficult to accept.

Mobile phones can be a useful safety device for children, but also make them vulnerable.

11.12.04
by Chris Barton

Whoever thought it was a good idea to equip mobile phones with cameras probably didn’t anticipate people taking photographs of their genitals and transmitting the images to websites for all to see.

But having places on the internet where people could send and publish – “post” – instant images taken with camera phones, was always part of the plan. They’re known as “moblogs” and most are innocuous – homes for electronic albums of family, pets, holidays, gatherings, and the like. Plus the weird craze of the moment in “drive-by shootings” – photos of buildings, roadsides, scenery or anything else one drives by.

But there are also a few moblogs where people have used the technology for less wholesome things – like the aforementioned instant DIY porn. Sick exhibitionists? Undoubtedly. But such sites also represent the avant-garde of mobile phone use – creativity gone mad when it comes to what one can do with a fledgling technology. Why? Because they can.

Surprising, new uses for mobiles are cropping up all time. Like the gang member in an Auckland District Court seen last week using a camera phone to photograph members of the jury. The judge was not impressed and immediately had the jury taken to a secret location.

The behaviour also has court officials and Government ministers wondering whether the incident represents a new tactic for causing mistrials – and whether mobile phones should be banned in court. Besides the spectre of pornographic postings and juror intimidation, other mobile phone behaviours may give parents pause for thought if they’re considering buying their daughter or son the latest in mobile gadgetry this Christmas.
(more…)

Amnesty International welcomes an Inaugural Human Rights Parliamentary Dinner in the Grand Hall of the Parliament Buildings on Tuesday 14 December which will highlight the issue of violence against women.

From the battlefield to the bedroom, women are at risk. Violence threatens women in multiple forms during conflict. Amnesty International’s latest report Lives blown apart lays out the global picture revealing a systematic pattern of abuse repeating itself in conflicts all over the world from Colombia, Iraq, Sudan, Chechnya, Nepal to Afghanistan and in 30 other ongoing conflicts.

Mr. Ced Simpson, Executive Director of Amnesty International New Zealand said: “But domestic violence is not something that happens over there. It happens here. It is not something that happens to other people, it happens to us, our friends and our families. In New Zealand, one woman is killed by her partner or ex-partner every five weeks. 50 % of all homicides of New Zealand women are committed by the woman’s partner or ex-partner.”

Figures show that 23,782 women and children accessed refuge services in 2003. Women’s Refuge – the umbrella organization of 50 Women’s Refuges around Aotearoa/ New Zealand and the only provider of services to battered women and children, receives 25% of their funds from Government but the remaining 75% of their funding they must raise from the community.

“Violence against women impoverishes society economically, politically and culturally. The direct economic costs of violence against women are enormous, in terms of lost working time, lost earnings and medical expenditure. The indirect costs of limiting the active role that women can take in the development of their community are unquantifiable.” said Ced Simpson.

Tuesday, 14 December 2004, 9:56 am
Press Release: Men’s Coalition

Redressing The Balance: The Men’s Manifesto

The social landscape of New Zealand will be need to be changed dramatically if men are to have a “fair go” in New Zealand society, according to James Nicolle, Coordinator of the Men’s Coalition.

Mr. Nicolle was commenting on the release today of the Executive Summary of the MENZTABLE REPORT; a manifesto for men’s rights.

“Men in New Zealand are increasingly marginalised and persecuted by powerful trends in the socio-political agenda”, he said.

”Men have reached this conclusion because of the raw deal we are getting in the Family Court, the Child Support system, social development, health and education.”

“Our political and social systems have progressively devalued the place of men in New Zealand today.”

“It is time for Men to reassert what is valuable to us and reclaim our right to be men,” he said.

The MENZTABLE REPORT has come from a meeting of representatives of men’s organisations held at Taupo in July.

The product of this meeting, the Men’s Coalition of New Zealand, is coordinating the preparation and release of the Report.

Mr. Nicolle said the body of the Report would be released in sections during 2005 to highlight men’s concerns throughout the election year.

“We see this as a seminal document which provides the vision and agenda of real men seeking to redress the balance and even out the scales.” Concluded Nicolle.