OFF PAT – The Runaway Dads’ $500 million Cop Out.
Cow Pat was a more polite rendition of my first thought after reading Pat Booths column — The Runaway Dads.
I know this column will have irritated and angered many in the community. To be frank it is inaccurate, poorly researched, one sided, and grossly misleading rhetoric. Its inclusion in suburban newspapers is neither a credit to the writer nor the publisher. The unnecessary and unacceptable treatment of men in New Zealand over the last 20 — 30 years is an indignity that the older generation is generally unfamiliar with, and perhaps the source of ignorance that inspired this article.
Initially I would like to outline two reasons while I reply so strongly.
Firstly the indignities to which I refer often happen to men, while they are isolated and out of sight, in the presence of the police, judges, lawyers, people whom we expect to have integrity, wisdom, impartiality, patience, understanding, consideration and a genuine concern for society. In so many cases I have seen exactly the opposite and the severe consequences of loss of identity and self esteem have raised the male suicide rate to the second leading cause of death for men in NZ, ahead of car accidents, but behind cancer.
Secondly a subsequent consequence of the issues I make reference to above can be clearly seen in our population statistics. Analysis of the most recent statistics contains many interesting anomalies; one of the most interesting is the growing imbalance over the last 20 years between the numbers of males and females between 20 and 50, which currently stands at minus 40,000 men.
Let us next separate out two issues.
First -The Runaway Dad. Personally I have no time for any man who unjustifiable fails in his responsibility to his child, and compassion for every mother who suffers the indignity of raising a child without the necessary contribution a father should and can provide, given the appropriate circumstances. I deliberately avoided the raise a child alone phrase.
Second – Child Support. If a man incurred a debt of many thousand of dollars, due to the presence of a child and having paid that debt, saw no benefit to his child, would his life not be a wasted life, and if all he did was pay his debt would his responsibilities be fulfilled. To whom — to his child, to society, to himself.
It may come as a surprise to the general public, but a large group of men have been running a child support strike for several years now, actively refusing to participate in a charade which pretends to benefit our children. The current legislation referred to as the child support act, does not deserve the valuable time of a select committee, amending what is already a failure.
The new Minister for Revenue the Hon Peter Dunne, would do this country a great service if he were to drop the hospital pass he was given by Mr. Cullen and Mr. Cunliffe, (who in no way given their behaviour in the previous administration around this issue deserve the word honourable, prefixing their names.), and introduce legislation that is both fair and workable.
The 500 million Pat Booth is so concerned about is government penalties and should they be paid would amount to a pole tax on children. A simplistic formula based calculation cannot conceivable work for both DPB situations and separated parents.
I could write much more but I would like to finish by saying this. Before we condemn all those absent fathers for their behaviour lets look a two sets of circumstances involving child support and women’s behaviour.
First, take the 18 year old girl who fancies a life on the DPB and seduces a 12 — 13 year old boy to obtain a pregnancy, and an income, and take a minute to examine the impact on that child’s life.
Second, take the mother who teaches her child to hate his or her father because she can’t hate him enough herself. Take a minute to think what it must be like to face a child who fears your presence through no fault of your own, and if you lived in a country that condoned and protected that sort of behaviour, would you want to stay there?
Bevan,
Hope to see you on the barracaides when direct action against CS starts.
Jim
Comment by Scrap_The_CSA — Fri 25th November 2005 @ 1:43 pm
Bevan,
I sent a request to [email protected] laying out my lack of respect for someone who goes in without being properly informed and invited Pat to start talking with us so as we can better inform him.
You have to believe that he, Cun[silent-T]liffe and Dunny-boy are good mates.
The “dead-beat” Dad syndrome started by National, Laboura and Bradford needs to be converted into “dead-beat” Mums: the DPB is significantly higher than the average wage.
The “dead-beat” politicians and self-righteous newspaper editors of this world need to be asking why we are paying so high a DPB. Perhaps if the DPB were not so high, New Zealand would not lead the world in single-parent and separated families?
Thanks for publishing this editorial so it can be seen for what it really is,
Mark
Comment by Mark Shipman — Fri 25th November 2005 @ 5:05 pm
I got about a quarter of the way through Pat Booth’s article, and I had to throw the local rag into the rubbish in utter disgust.
What was this idiot thinking ?
3 reasons I can think of:
1. He had to publish an article which would be lapped up by the general public to save his job.
2. He’s trying to get a raise because his boss is a radical feminist.
3. He has been brainwashed by the media on this subject, and is just plain stupid.
Surely someone writing such material about society, and occupying an office as such, would have the nouse to actually do some research on the subject as any responsible journalist would.
Comment by Moose — Sat 26th November 2005 @ 11:36 pm
Moose,
On would hope he may have been coerced by threats into writing such tripe…otherwise he is simply a pussy-whipped-excuse-for-a-man.
Comment by Ethos — Mon 28th November 2005 @ 3:49 pm
Agree with all the above comments BUT, it keeps coming back to the same thing all the time doesn’t it?
The Politicians are AWARE of the problems and INJUSTICES of the CSA. But none of them want to stick their necks out and do anything about it. WHY? IF it was a womens group who faced similar problems and injustices, these matters would rectified post haste.
The only way to deal with the problems we have is to take drastic action and that means every man should refuse point blank to pay anything in Child Support until such time as a fair system is implemented.
Problem with this is of course, who is going to elect to be a martyr until recognition and the snowball effect eventually overwhelms the Govt into making popular and appropriate change?
Personally I would not like to see a few take the challenge and face the risks..so to me, we have to organise and recruit and face up with large numbers of opposition to the CSA. A good reporter would help the cause, but it seems they are few and far between.
We NEED to establish a network. But HOW, without funding? The prospect of creating a network is quite daunting in itself, without funding…almost impossible.
Comment by Morris Lindsay — Mon 28th November 2005 @ 10:01 pm
Morris, I fully agree that some drastic action needs to be taken, and now.
And I agree that if something effective is to be done about these gross and growing injustices, it isn’t enough just to do what is being done now.
I believe the most effective way is to lay bare and expose the full truth about the radical feminists agendas and schemes, the PC frenzy bunch, and the consequences they are having on our Youth, Men and Families.
I know attempts have been made, and have either never been taken seriously or never really made an effective point.
I guess in a way a point is being made, by the millions ( or was it billions ?) of ‘money owing’ on child taxes, but it isn’t understood why by the public in general. People in general just assume for this reason that Fathers are just downright not paying for the sake of it.
There already is a network in place, and this website is a node of that I guess…
Having a Martyr sounds initially like a good idea – to have a single representative backed by many, many Men and Fathers, but strategically a single critical target is never a good idea….
Anyway just some thoughts i guess.
Comment by Moose — Mon 28th November 2005 @ 10:52 pm
I am waiting for David Knibb of CS to officially put down the departments position in writing for justifying the continuance of Deducting Child Support from me after the declaration of Abduction by Judge Adams.
Once received, proceedings will commence under the quoted legislation previously posted under IRD FUNDS CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR
Comment by paulc — Mon 28th November 2005 @ 11:49 pm
Morris,
Martyrs aside, a child
supporttax “payment strike” sounds like a good start. Numbers become imperative, but the network is growing daily.My only wish is that I may see Mrs Clark and her queer hangers on get shafted by the people they have actively sought to penalise into penury with their unlawful tax on children.
Comment by Sparx — Wed 30th November 2005 @ 10:21 am
It is quite sickening that Mr Clark and her goons obviously believe that extorting money from Fathers to give to thier ex family is more important than giving the children a chance to have thier Fathers in thier lives.
Comment by Moose — Wed 30th November 2005 @ 10:38 am
I too was similarly shocked that a man of Mr Booth’s advanced years, with his experience in journalism, could write such simple-minded nonsense. He has lost all credibility.
I was indeed sufficiently jolted that I also e-mailed the senile old git and pointed out that his article was so devoid of truth as to be outright propoganda. David Udy couldn’t have been more pleased.
The only way to deal with the CSA is to fight fire with fire, and some of the suggestions I have read above would seem not to be without merit in the current circumstances. I know for a fact that each year the day before the day the menz convoy were to arrive in Wellington an e-mail would be sent to IRD staff at head office warning of the possible forthcoming disruption and noisy protests by hundreds. (glee became glum when I saw the actual numbers). The point is, I suppose, that the CSA is very aware of the movement and are also clearly concerned by it. Its imperative that the organised pressure be maintained and increased.
Comment by John Self — Wed 30th November 2005 @ 9:10 pm
A factual error Mark. The DPB is NOT higher than the average wage; it is NOT even higher than the minimum wage. The DPB is $260 per week. With all other entitlements, Family Support, Rent Assistance etc, the maximum a person on the DPB (with one child) can claim is approximately $400. And as anyone who has a child will know, child-rearing takes significantly more than 40hours per week. Thus the DPB is drastically lower than the average wage.
Comment by mikey — Wed 20th December 2006 @ 12:47 pm