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

Experts say domestic violence is just as severe and as prevalent in same-sex relationships as in heterosexual ones, with a third of homosexual partnerships estimated to be abusive.

But a taboo exists around what the gay community calls the “second closet”, resulting in under-reporting of violence and a scarcity of support services.

Auckland’s Jo Butler, who runs one of the few programmes for lesbian victims of domestic violence, says there is an ideological reluctance from many lesbians to acknowledge women can be as abusive as men.

“I think lesbians have to get real about this,” she said.

“Nobody’s talking about it, but until we as a community face up to this, then nothing’s going to happen. It’s really hard for women coming out with this if no-one wants to hear about it.”

Her Auckland-based Breaking the Cycle programme had counselled lesbians who sustained abuse as bad as in any heterosexual relationship, including sexual violence.

Government plans to give Family Court judges the power to vet media stories is a form of censorship that journalists strongly oppose, Commonwealth Press Union (CPU) New Zealand chairman Gavin Ellis said today.

Family Court proceedings would be opened to the public and media with tight restrictions in place, the Government announced yesterday.

Changes were designed to improve transparency without compromising proceedings, ministers said.

Media and others could attend hearings with the judge’s permission, while involved parties could ask for outsiders to be excluded.

Judges could direct that draft news reports be submitted to the court to check they complied with court directions.

Any breach of those directions would mean individuals were liable of three months’ imprisonment or a $2000 fine and organisations up to $10,000 in fines.

Dr Muriel Newman - Press Releases - Social Welfare

ACT New Zealand Deputy Leader and Social Welfare Spokesman Dr Muriel Newman today predicted that New Zealand would never be able to reduce its levels of domestic violence so long as the Family Court protects perpetrators behind closed doors.

“On Radio New Zealand today, Chief Family Court Judge Peter Boshier explained that an open Family Court could impact badly on children in violent families,” Dr Newman said.

“But, by dealing with domestic violence in private, the Family Court is effectively protecting perpetrators of a particularly reprehensible act from the scrutiny of a public that has little tolerance for such a crime, and allowing false allegations to remain untested.

“The question must also be asked as to why these cases are not then referred to the District Court, so that the offenders can be brought to justice - rather than allowing domestic violence to be swept under the carpet as part of a custody and access dispute.

“The Family Court should be an open court. Those who seek to protect the court’s privacy are hindering citizens’ right to open justice,” Dr Newman said.

ENDS

Fathers in New Zealand are waiting for their own Batman to raise awareness for their cause.

A man dressed as the caped crusader has drawn world wide attention for the plight of dads estranged from their children after staging a five hour protest perched on a ledge at Buckingham Palace.

The Union of Fathers here says they are watching the activities of their British counterparts with interest and admiration.

Spokesman Darrell Carlin says his group has moved from protesting to lobbying, but he is not ruling out similar stunts being staged in New Zealand.

BBC News report and photos of Batman protest.

Audio Report: Newstalk ZB UK correspondent Gavin Grey talks to Paul Holmes about the high profile protest by a Fathers’ Rights campaigner who scaled Buckingham Palace dressed as Batman.

John Tamihere has again defended boys’ rights to be boys.

The Youth Affairs minister has attacked the media’s portrayal of boys as “problems” and society’s failure to recognise their differences.

He told the New Zealand Family Daycare Association conference in Rotorua last night: “We are told their behaviour needs to be controlled, managed or handled. It’s as if boys are ticking time bombs - it won’t be long before their latent criminal behaviour is unleashed on the unsuspecting public, or the testosterone surging through their bodies renders them incapable of any rational thought.”

Tamihere - whose “red-blooded Kiwi men” speech was seen as a ploy to win back the bloke vote - said that not recognising boys’ differences from girls’ came at a cost when boys were under-performing in educational areas.

“I want to make one thing clear - boys are not the problem. It’s time to stop blaming them.” He said most boys and young men could “deal with their hormones”.

“As a society, it’s time to show our boys we are proud of them and who they are. Let’s drop the blame mentality of the past. Let’s focus on their potential.

“For so long we have been blaming our young men - yet it is our behaviour they are reproducing.”

Following on from his red-blooded bloke speech when he attacked political correctness, saying heterosexual men needed to re-assert themselves, Tamihere reiterated the need for positive male role models.

“In a boy’s life, their father is often the most significant figure. Yet for many boys today, finding a male to look up to and seek guidance from is not an easy task.”

Tamihere said one in three boys lived apart from their fathers. A mere 18 per cent of primary teachers were men. The minister has long been a defender of men’s rights to be men. Last September he told the Sunday Star-Times that blokes shouldn’t be afraid to leave the toilet seat up or have a beer with mates at the pub.

He said too much suspicion was cast over men in matters such as marriage break-ups, child custody rights and allegations of impropriety.

“Basically, I’m sick of men having to apologise for having a penis,” he said last year. “Look at what goes on in the family court, that is a system that always presumes the man is guilty.”

The Broadcasting Standards Authority today released a decision upholding a complaint from Peter Ellis about an interview conducted on National Radio’s Nine to Noon programme in August 2003.

The BSA ordered Radio New Zealand to pay $5,300 legal costs to the complainant, to broadcast an apology on Nine to Noon, to publish a summary of the decision in the four major metropolitan daily newspapers, and to pay the maximum level of costs to the Crown of $5,000.

During the broadcast an anonymous mother and son were interviewed. They made new, unspecified allegations concerning Mr Ellis and the Christchurch Civic Crèche in 1985, which had not been part of the court proceedings concerning the Crèche.

The BSA ruled that the broadcast seriously breached standards of fairness and balance. It noted that Mr Ellis was being anonymously accused of criminal but unspecified offending of a very serious kind. Mr Ellis had previously declined an invitation to participate in a ’sympathetic’ interview. He had not been made aware of the new allegations before they were broadcast. Even so the allegations were so vague they would have been impossible to defend.

With regard to balance, the BSA noted that the allegations made by the interviewees were neither substantiated nor critically examined by the broadcaster. In any case the nature and type of allegations would have made balance very difficult to achieve.

In its decision, the BSA said: “Mr Ellis has been convicted of and has served a prison sentence for sexual offences…. He is nonetheless a citizen of this country and, like all other citizens, is entitled to be treated justly and fairly. The Authority notes its deep concern at what amounted to a serious disregard for Mr Ellis’s rights.”

Other possible penalties able to be imposed by the BSA include requiring the broadcaster to cease broadcasting for a period. The BSA did not invoke this option as it did not see an overriding merit in disadvantaging the programme’s usual audience. As Radio New Zealand is a non-commercial broadcaster the BSA could not impose the other major penalty (previously imposed on other broadcasters), that of requiring the broadcaster to cease broadcasting advertising for a period.

A copy of the decision is available here. In line with its usual policy, the BSA will not be making any further comment.

Maharey defends penalty on solo mums

Media Release

10 September 2004

Jim Nicolle
NZ Child Support Reform Network

DPB recovery is not Child Support

“Given the fundamental flaws of the Child Support Act 1991, it is not surprising that mothers refuse to lodge a so call Child Support application,” commented Jim Nicolle, spokesperson for the New Zealand Child Support Reform Network.

“Let’s call a spade a spade. The Child Support Act 1991 is focused on collecting money, not on supporting our children, and is nothing more than a tax applied to ‘liable’ parents. The bulk of this child tax is extracted to the consolidated fund to ‘recover’ the DPB.

“A parent can be paying thousands of dollars a year in compulsory assessment, via this unfair and unreasonable regime, knowing that it never reaches their children.

“Labour should be honest and admit that this legislation is failing our children, depriving them of a financial future, and placing them at risk that can be avoided, ” Nicolle stated.

“Parents do not object to supporting their children, they do object to being viewed as working chequebooks by the Labour Government. Its time this dated and fundamentally flawed Child Support Regime was replaced by a fair and reasonable child support system that focused on supporting our children, not benefit recovery, ” concluded Nicolle.

Jim Nicolle Co-ordinator
NZ Child Support Reform Network
Wellington regional contact.
NZCSReform@slingshot.co.nz
(04) 586-0880
(021) 452-628

NZCSReform is a network of groups and individuals working in their area
of interest, to bring about a fair and reasonable child support system
replacing the current unfair and unreasonable Child Support Regime.

The Government is not convinced major changes to the structure of courts are needed but has ordered officials to look into this further.

However, Justice Minister Phil Goff and Courts Minister Rick Barker said its focus was first on improving efficiency in the courts system rather than planning radical changes to its structure.

The Government yesterday released its response to a report by the Law Commission that recommended a raft of measures aimed at making the courts simpler, quicker and cheaper for those going through them.

The commission released its report in March.

Among its many recommendations was axing the district court and replacing it with a community court to deal with minor cases – the prime reason for many of the current backlogs – and specialist criminal and civil courts to deal with more serious cases.
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Labour tells us ” its on the radar” .The ACT Party responds with a call to “scrap the Ministry of Women’s Affairs” .

Let me take you back to Monday 6 September :

Over tea last night Jim, Kerry, Jack and myself discussed the Men’s Picnic on fathers day at Parliament. It was a great day full of fun and clowns,face painting, balloon’s, radio controlled cars, soccer, frisbees, lollie scrambles, sausages in sauce,music and fizzy. It was a day when some fathers where able to celebrate their fatherhood with their children. Be it balloon sword fights or or cooking the sausages together. I know my little man had a ball and will remember the picnic for a long time.

Not all dads who came had the opportunity to spend fathers day with their children. A number had been deprived of their children by the outdated, adversarial system of Family Law in our country. A system that fuels existing conflict and creates conflict where none exists. All the while tearing families apart and stripping away “liable parents” and their children’s financial future via “Child Support”. Everyone knows that New Zealand Family Law is a failed social experiment in need of real reform.

The fatherlessness of our children is a very worrying social trend. Kids need dads. Parents are demanding a system of shared parenting. Equal parents, jointly making decisions and sharing the care of our children.

It was a Fathers Day picnic on Parliament grounds , the start of a tradition that will continue for a long time. One day it will be a celebration of real reform of Family Law and the Child Support Act. The fesivity did carry a subtle message. Men have identified who has the power to bring about the radical change required to redress the balance. Political Parties have been put on notice.

Which brings us back to the current debate.

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The ACT Party has a way to deal with John Tamihere’s suggestion for a ministry of men’s affairs – even things up by scrapping the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.

ACT MP Heather Roy said Mr Tamihere was right when he said men were not treated the same as women.

“But rather than setting up a ministry of men’s affairs we should even things up by simply scrapping the Women’s Affairs Ministry,” she said in a statement.

“The ministry does nothing for women but tell them that the white, middle-class heterosexual male is to blame for everything – all the while treating women with patronising sympathy and telling them they need closer relationships with the Government.”