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

The boys may now need more than a condom and a pre-nuptial in their tool kit, for protection!

Previously domestic violence and sex offences were excluded, (by virtue of their penalty) from the formal framework of restorative justice, however following the launch of project restore last month, by its initiator, Dr Shirley Julich, we can expect this to be the primary point of referral. The gate keepers in this case The Police and Lawyers.
A question critical to any anticipated outcomes from project restore is - who is driving the machine? Restorative Justice Protagonists or groups representing survivors of domestic violence and sex offences. Names such as Auckland Sexual Abuse Help, The Safe Network, and Rape Crisis, feature strongly here. We can expect this to be a victim centered process. In the development of the restorative Justice conference, we will see an amalgamation of domestic violence allegations from the family court and sexual allegations from the criminal justice system. What we are seeing here is the development of “gendered violence legislation” within our legal framework. There is no indication as to the form of the compliance and enforcement regime that might operate, to ensure the success and development of this project, nor what protection might exist for the innocent people who will be subjected to false allegation, or any level of review of outcome or development, let alone funding criteria. In the male perspective – It is teenage boys who will be most vulnerable here.

Just as a post script. I am not going to try to establish the casual link between restorative justice and child support and I won’t post it in that category

Looking at the 2005 population statistics, from Stats NZ website, we have some interesting information.

We are showing a population increase for the year of 36,800 people, 19,100 males and 17,700 females. Nothing too unhealthy about that except that it is only marginally above our death rate – but wait there’s more.

If you draw a line at 50 and do a bit of addition it tells a different story. Under 50 population increased by a dismal 7,900 and the over 50 increased by a staggering 28,900.

But wait, there’s more. If you look at the Gender Balance that also tells a story. The age group between 25 – 49 has a male deficit of 41 280 of which 33 410 are between 30 – 44. The same age group 10 years ago had a male deficit of 12,770 and the same population group 10 years earlier had a male deficit of 13 450.

We have suffered an extra-ordinary male loss of approximately 20,000 in the last 10 years, and an extra-ordinary loss of 40,000 men over a longer period of time.

The Gender Balance in the under 25’s, shows slightly more males and in the over 50’s slightly more females, and would be consistent with a normal population.

So who has been hunting male lately? I would really like to know, how many of those missing men are in another country? and how many are in a coffin?

Bevan Berg
NZ Republicans.

As the push continues to fill the top jobs with women - (and we would be blind if we couldn’t see that, and dumb if we were convinced otherwise), then we must be prepared to accept the consequences. Of the big mistakes we could make in the next three years, one would be to appoint a female Police Commissioner.

Feminism is a strong ideology that did not factor in the possibility that if you change the rules people may not want to, or even feel able to play the game any longer. Dealing as I have done over the last 6 years with the sharp end of the wedge and what are often referred to as “just disaffected men” there is a clear sense of disillusionment that is quite disabling. I do not see men making a bitter and deliberate decision not to participate, but rather that the average kiwi male does not recover from the shock of having his life tipped upside down overnight. Men as we know are not always good at sharing their feelings; however I have extracted part of a recent email that I received which I think is indicative of what I sense in many men.

As a kiwi, I feel let down by legislation that robs me of my rights, hurts me, isn’t fair, and penalises my children.

If I could bear to leave my children, I’d be on the first plane out of here. I used to have a strong work ethic - now work is somewhere. I’m going no where and I despair. I have become bitter, I do not feel any sense of national pride…actually I’ve grown to hate this country and the politicians that have stitched me up. I know what its like to feel trapped and powerless and it drives me to consider things that I normally wouldn’t think of.

None of the major political parties are interested.

In terms on managing a society, we must appreciate that a very strong part of the individual male role is collectively contained in our Police Force. 20 years ago there was huge resistance amongst the conservative male leadership of the Police to the increasing role of women in the Police. While there may have been room for increased participation in retrospect I believe their fears have been realized.

At a time when we have to look to recruiting overseas and to increasing female participation in the police force to maintain currently inadequate number, then it is time for us to have a more critical evaluation of our community which cannot willingly provide the best candidates for one of our most important roles in society.

Public and Political attacks on the police force often undermine individual officers who give more than 100% to their position, however no matter how many good officers make a genuine contribution, there are three other factors besides recruitment that will continue to undermine our Police Force. The first is Government Policy, the second is Training, but the most essential element is Leadership.

You can call me sexist, bigoted, biased, or anything else that takes your fancy, but I doubt you find a convincing argument supporting the appointment of a female Police Commissioner to resurrect the Police Force from its current regrettable position

Bevan Berg
NZ Republicans

On Close-Up (TV ONE) last night Susan Wood introduced a story “that would scare any parent”, about a North Shore father accused of sexually abusing his daughter.

An anonymous caller to the CYFS 0800 number claimed that he had been seen bouncing his three-year-old daughter up and down on his knee while reading her a bedtime story.

Despite the fact the couple’s son is also not school age yet, letters naming the children were imediately sent to Albany schools alerting them to the fact that the family was under investigation.

When a psychologist finally got around to interviewing the children, it took her only 15 minutes to decide the children were not at risk.

Chief Social Worker Marie Connolly defended the fact that the letters were sent even before the family was spoken to. When asked if CYFS would appologise to the family she replied:

“We take all investigations seriously. It’s inevitably difficult for families when a social worker investigates a sexual abuse allegation, but nethertheless our concern is primarily with the safety of the child, and it would be irresponsible for us to not investigate these matters.”

Watch the video here

Controversial government agency Child Youth and Family Service is to begin farming out much of its work to charities like Barnardos and Plunket.
…

Shannon Pakura, CYFS general manager service development, said the new model was the most
significant change for the service in a decade.
…

The department had been struggling to deal with the volume of notifications - 53,000 in the last year. Some might be better dealt with by other departments, or by non-government agencies involved in family support, she said.

Draft legislation enacting the changes is before parliament.
…

Every Child Counts lobbyist, Ian Hassall, and the charities themselves have welcomed the new model.

It would remove a conflict in CYFS’ role between policing families and providing support for them,
Hassall said.

No progress without struggle as they say, however we are yet to achieve any reform in child support legislation - (and given the latest legislation tabled in the house just before the election recess, it is fair to say we are still in retreat.)

I have to look back at the Family Court Campaign. That’s what it was - a hard fought campaign over several years. There is enough dirt in family court cases to sink the ship; however the tactics of Patrick Mahoney always managed to keep it afloat. He wasn’t one for just sweeping the dirt under the carpet, and hoping it never surfaced. He was a little more subtle than that. When a dangerous case arose – like the Rolly Young case for example - he would send in an investigator, one of his trusted allies to clean up. His team was quaintly referred to as “Mahoney’s vacuum cleaners”, because they went in to suck up the dirt rather than bury it. Of course, there are some cases like the Rolly Young case that you can never clean your finger prints off, because this is a case that required more than the work of an investigator - the collusion of a Judge.

You could always tell when there was a bad egg about. With monotonous regularity you would hear the same name popping up. It was like phone calls from the Hawkes Bay. They always had the name Von Dadelzen attached. As I never had a great number of calls from the region, there was never a move amongst the locals to form a lobby group and they remained somewhat isolated cases. When the Rolly Young case was suddenly moved to Napier, I became a little more suspicious.

Earlier this year I attended a public meeting in Napier, and to my surprise found the biggest anti family court meeting I had ever come across. The name in the centre of it all of course was Von Dadelzen. Somehow he had managed to keep the lid on the pressure cooking, but not now, it had just blown off. This certainly attracted the attention of the current principal family court Judge Boshier, who I have no doubt would be well aware of can of worms that could be opened up in the Hawkes Bay. Judge Boshier took the proactive step of bursting into print in the local Napier Paper to defend his court, and was quick to sideline Von Dadelzen by sending in several other Judges to preside over cases in Napier.

Since the inception of the Care of Children Bill, the court has come clean over some cases, with the odd letter of apology, and even the reversal of custody in some long running cases.

Of course there are some cases like the Rolly Young case that go well beyond the ambit of apology. You can tell there is a bit of clean up going on when you get phone calls from lawyers asking for dirt on other lawyers and psychologists, and I am sure one or two will get hung out to dry, just for good looks. Napier may however be a different story – One thing the family court cannot afford is for the name Von Dadelzen to become a household name, outside of Napier, as it may well bring some light to the goings on in the Rolly Young case, and how it ever ended up in the Napier Family court in first place.

This is not so much about child support, but about the co operation and effort required to achieve reform. It doesn’t just happen, you have to make it happen.

Bevan Berg
NZ Republicans.

To: Union of Fathers

CONSULTATION ON PROPOSALS TO IMPROVE EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE LEGISLATION

As part of its responsibility for administering the domestic violence legislation, the Ministry of Justice is working on identifying possible amendments to the legislation which would make its operation more efficient and effective. This project is not a review of the basic framework of the legislation (as that is considered to be generally sound) but is aimed at identifying particular areas that could be improved.

Since the implementation of the legislation the Ministry has collated a number of proposals for amendments, mainly from the Family Court Judiciary and members of the legal profession. The Ministry is now analysing these proposals and seeking input from other stakeholders about particular provisions in the legislation that could be improved.

We are therefore writing to invite you to submit to us in writing any proposed amendments that you believe could improve the operation of the legislation. Please forward your submission to:

Lois Holmes
Principal Adviser
Crime and Justice Policy Team
Ministry of Justice
P 0 Box 180 WELLINGTON
or
e mail to lois.holmes@justice.govt.nz

We would be grateful if you could forward to us any submission you may wish to make by 7 October 2005. If that is not possible please let us know. You can contact Lois Holmes on DDI 4949 734.

If the incoming Government agrees that this project remain on the Ministry work programme we aim to circulate a discussion document to the relevant stakeholders early next year to seek comment on the range of proposals raised, before proceeding to seek policy approval for amendments.

Yours sincerely
Victoria Crawford
Manager Crime and Justice Policy Team

Stephen: A commentary from USA but very interesting food for thought when applied to the NZ scenario.

Why Men Avoid Commitment

by Marc H. Rudov

In the past few months, I’ve encountered several single women who registered this common complaint about the men they’ve been dating: I just can’t find a man who wants to commit. To compound this chorus of woe is the recent rash of books and articles about why men can’t commit, don’t commit, or won’t commit to women. One would think, by seeing these literary titles, that men are socially inept, irreparably ambivalent, and emotionally stunted cavemen.

There’s a simple explanation for drawing such a dour conclusion: The overbearing feminist movement in our country—supported by the liberal media, spineless legislators, and a Napoleonic judicial/law-enforcement system that presumes men guilty before proven innocent—has made it socially acceptable to bash males.
…

Take a gander at the social pages of any newspaper, and you’ll see that plenty of men are getting engaged and married—to women. It is true, though, that some men avoid commitment—not the simplistic can’t or won’t or don’t that dejected women will decry. Why is that? Anticipated pain. It’s that simple. A man who avoids commitment foresees a lot of pain. Tony Robbins, widely regarded as the world’s number-one success coach, teaches us that, in general, people will do more to avoid pain than to seek pleasure. This is true about every aspect of life, and it is especially true about relationships. Consequently, although a man believes that a particular woman—or, based on his past experiences, women in general—will bring him pleasure, he believes the anticipated pain will exceed that pleasure. Such a man will want no part of commitment.

Frequently, a woman will presume that a man’s commitment avoidance is a general intimacy problem, rather than accept the painful truth: he doesn’t want to commit to HER. So, if a woman becomes involved with a man who won’t commit to her, it’s her fault. Why? It’s very easy to determine his desire to commit by asking him, at their first meeting, what kinds of relationships he’s had and what kind he wants now. More important: she should listen to his answer! Too often, he will tell her he just wants to date casually, but she will assume she can change him. Lunacy. Whether he doesn’t want to commit to her, or to anybody, is irrelevant: he doesn’t want to commit. So, if a woman fails to discern and accept his answer, BEFORE getting emotionally attached to him, shame on her.

Read the full article: Why Men Avoid Commitment at MensNewsDaily.

By DONNA CHISHOLM - Sunday Star-Times

Advocates of prostate cancer testing believe the Health Ministry is about to change its controversial advice which discourages men from being screened unless they have symptoms.

Wellington pathologist Professor Brett Delahunt, president-elect of the International Society of Urologic Pathologists, says he is optimistic the recommendations will change after lobbying from the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

The foundation wants men to be told that if they want a test, they should ask their GP to explain the procedure a blood test to check levels of the prostate specific antigen and the implication of a positive result.

It wants to encourage men aged 50 or more to be tested every two years, although there were indications annual tests were appropriate.
…

The Health Ministry believes population-based screening such as the free mammograms offered women to check for breast cancers is not cost-effective. But the prostate lobby groups say their stance may make men believe individual PSA tests are not useful, when they they can save lives.

The Sunday Star-Times understands Health Minister Annette King has been receptive to a change in the recommendations, but until now the ministry has been “dragging the chain”.

Answering my Critics.

And all this is nothing new. This news item would carry a lot more weight if its author actually did something positive about changing the Child Support situation in New Zealand instead of just talking about it.

The above comment was placed on Menz in response to the article I wrote “Why Child Support is failing”.

I would like to tell you why I wrote this article. This week a man contacted me about child support. He has a child support debt which he cannot pay, and is being pursued by the IRD. He is also facing bankruptcy action for costs incurred in the family court. He has been depressed and was placed on a medical benefit. He is living in his car with his dog in the electorate for which I am a candidate. I have spent time with this man during the week. I was able to attract the interest of a reporter and during the week facilitated a two and half hour interview. It was during this interview I was again reminded as I have been many times before that so many people who are busy getting on with their lives just simply don’t have an appreciation of the situation we are dealing with.

Having written the article and posting it on Menz I also sent the same contribution to the Herald along with the recently obtained IRD statistics, showing the increased death rate on men dying without an estate. I certainly hope that my contribution for this week will meet anyone else’s expectations should they be determining whether or not I :

“actually did something positive about changing the Child Support situation in New Zealand instead of just talking about it.”

Your sincerely
Bevan Berg.
NZ Republicans Candidate
Maungakiekie.