MENZ ISSUES

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

Archive of June 2005

ACT supports equal rights for men

Tue 28th June 2005:

Dr Muriel Newman Speech to the Christchurch Mens Political Forum, Christchurch Community Law Centre, 7pm. Today we are being asked what our parties would do for New Zealand men. For a long time I have been extremely concerned about government policies, which disadvantage men and marginalise fathers. Since entering Parliament, ACT has consistently campaigned to […]

Loophole in DPB payments to be shut

The Government will close a loophole that enables DPB recipients to block the collection of child support payments. Social Development and Employment Minister Steve Maharey revealed the planned change yesterday, after being questioned about assertions by National that more than 200 fathers on the Domestic Purposes Benefit refused to “name” the mother of their child […]

Labour Government’s feminist agenda undermines the family

Mon 27th June 2005:

This week Newman Online looks at the Labour Government’s feminist agenda and how it is undermining the New Zealand family. It is difficult to understand how a government that deliberately undermines the family – disadvantaging children and marginalising fathers – can retain popular support? That is unless the unsuspecting public is not really aware of […]

The male backlash

By Farah Farouque The Age (Melbourne) What has made the dominant sex feel like victims? Paul Black is not the sort of bloke to take to the streets in protest. But this week he did something atypical: fuelled by intense feelings of frustration, he got in his car and made the long trip from Mulgrave […]

Mist of ritual child abuse rises again

Sun 26th June 2005:

Martin Van Beynan Christchurch Press You would have been shocked, as I was, by a story from Britain last week about the latest terrible turn in child abuse. The story, which would have found its way into most major world newspapers, was about a study done for the London police by a social worker and […]

Three Great Men’s Events in Queensland

Fri 24th June 2005:

Announcing the Manhood 2005 Conference (open to women). The Men’s Health and Wellbeing Association (Queensland) Inc. is delighted to announce the Manhood 2005 Conference, to be held on the 20th — 23rd October 2005 at the Novotel Twin Waters Resort, on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. This inaugural conference will bring together organisations and individuals who […]

Solo parents a political football

Wed 22nd June 2005:

Across New Zealand society, marriage has become unfashionable. Sole parents have increased from 10 per cent of families with dependent children in 1976 to 29 per cent today – higher than in any other developed country except the United States. By the age of 20, 35 per cent of Pakeha children, 49 per cent of […]

Young women flock to NZ

Women of “marriageable age” are flocking to New Zealand at rates of up to one-third higher than men. A new study has found that New Zealand has a higher ratio of women to men in the peak childbearing ages of 30 to 34 than any other industrialised country, with 9 per cent more women than […]

ACC Sponsored Conference Under Fire

Sat 18th June 2005:

An ACC sponsored conference dealing with sexual and physical abuse is creating a stir over comments made by some of its speakers. Streaming Video of TV One News item The National Party’s Katherine Rich says: ACC must clarify role in abuse conference. “This fringe conference has a wacky, and what appears to be in some […]

Fathers want to be left holding the baby

By Alexandra Frean, Times Online A HUGE shift in attitudes towards fatherhood has occurred, with the present generation of fathers considerably more willing than their fathers were to stay at home to change nappies and warm bottles. A survey by the Equal Opportunities Commission of 1,200 fathers of 3 to 15-month-old children disclosed that almost […]

Revaluing the family

By Kate Legge, The Weekend Australian Thirty years after the introduction of no-fault divorce, Australia is experiencing a grand correction of the 1970s revolution that provided unhappy couples with an escape clause and introduced benefits to help single parents. Changes that brought adults greater freedom are being corrected at the shrine of personal responsibility. Sole […]

Ideology behind anti-smacking lobby

Trickery, ideology and a largely sympathetic media behind anti-smacking lobby Barbara Faithfull As usual with the corporal punishment issue, with the publicity surrounding Sue Bradford’s bill to repeal Section 59 of the Crimes Act I see a mass of misleading and biased media coverage. Having followed attempts to ban smacking in N.Z. for 25 years, […]

Bitter feminist hissy fit

Fri 17th June 2005:

Alexis Stuart God does not think like MP John Tamihere and feminism hasn’t gone far enough. Men don’t wake up in the morning to give power away. One can only assume that these claims from the Wellington Town Hall explain why Telecom and Westpac chose to sponsor the 2005 Women’s Convention June 3-7, their banners […]

Where Have All The Real Men Gone

Thu 16th June 2005:

What do our Prime Minister, Chief Justice, Governor-General, Speaker of the House, Chief Executive of Telecom NZ, and 60 per cent of those with degrees and post-graduate qualifications, have in common? They are the so-called weaker sex – the tender gender.

PM rules out total ban on smacking

Wed 15th June 2005:

It is inevitable parents will lose the defence of “reasonable force” when punishing their children, the Prime Minister says, but she would not ban all smacking. “The Government has been on quite a careful course with respect to this issue,” Helen Clark said yesterday. “That led us to absolutely rule out legislation banning smacking. That […]

Better deal for [Australian] divorced dads

A radical new formula for calculating how much divorced parents should contribute to raising their children is the centrepiece of an overhaul of the nation’s child support system to be released today. Under the more controversial of two models being proposed, the biological parents’ incomes would be combined and fathers would then pay a percentage […]

Children made vulnerable to disinheritance

Children can be disinherited under radical changes to property laws giving new power to estranged, de facto and surviving partners. The “last will and testament” is no longer that say legal experts who want an overhaul of laws relating to the division of relationship property after death. Under the death provisions of Property (Relationships) Act […]

Sidelined partners cashing in

Mon 13th June 2005:

Women who put their careers on hold to raise children or support their partner’s career are getting bigger payouts when they separate. … Changes to property laws in 2002 allow men and women to sue estranged partners for lost earning potential as a result of being in a relationship. So far most payments have been […]

The Evils of Child support.

Sun 12th June 2005:

Child Support has no integrity as it purports to be something it is not, and for that reason it will continue to be the case that some will challenge its deceit, some blindly comply and some wander off and wonder why.

The test of parenthood

Fri 10th June 2005:

The current focus on DNA paternity testing to deal with child support disputes should not divert attention from the real problem — the growing burden of child support debt and the disheartening number of parents who blithely abdicate their responsibilities towards their children, writes The Press in an editorial. … The fact that the amount […]

Call for DNA testing at birth

Thu 9th June 2005:

A pro-fathers’ group wants to see DNA testing at birth to help men who are paying for children that are not theirs. … The suggestion comes as the Ministry of Social Development is reportedly having to pay $10,000 to a Christchurch man who was forced to pay for another man’s child. Spokesman for the Union […]

That 70s show

By Rosemary McLeod Feminists are out in force this weekend in Wellington, and they’ll be crowing. The Janus Women’s Convention celebrates 30 years since the United Women’s Convention in the capital in 1975, a Great Leap Forward into success. … I don’t blame them if they’ve come to gloat. There’ve been victories un-dreamed-of 30 years […]

Compo wanted after 21-year fight with bureaucracy

Wed 8th June 2005:

A Christchurch man who has won a 21-year battle against bureaucracy will continue to seek compensation after being forced to support another man’s child since 1984. The Ministry of Social Development has agreed to pay Gordon Dowler $10,000 after a battle that has dragged on since 1984, first with Social Welfare and then with Inland […]

Christchurch a ‘living hell’ for Asian brides

Christchurch has become a “living hell” for some Asian women married to abusive Kiwi husbands, a Chinese-language newspaper reports. iBall, a bilingual, weekly paper, says under the headline “Living Hell” that at least eight Chinese women were assaulted by their Christchurch husbands last month. It published harrowing first-hand accounts from two women, brought to New […]

CYF social workers inexperienced

Press Release: Dr Muriel Newman, ACT New Zealand New information on the Department of Child Youth and Family shows the organisation is being staffed with inexperienced social workers, the majority of whom have had less than five years experience, ACT Deputy Leader and Social Welfare spokesman Dr Muriel Newman said today. Answers to Dr Newman’s […]

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