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

Oh, this is quite cute.

Helen Clark’s Bebo page
What a shame. You have to sign in to get political information about the polls from her.

Maryan Street has the best one. You can check anyone’s criminal records on her advertisement above her page.

Sue Bradford, well she is just telling us what we already know.

I will fight for what I believe in, even if that means going into your home and telling you how to do something right. Support me and my party. Go Green for a better New Zealand today.

Crikeys, the people are giving it to her in her comments except of course Helen and Maryan.

Don Brash is a worry. He is a friend to them all. At least he is not advertising for them.

I have never been able to work this Electoral Finance Bill out. No one can advertise or speak politics on their site. But Labour and the Greens can on Bebo.

Winston Peters is there also. And heaps of others. Cullen too.

Minister of Housing Maryan Street, under pressure for exorbitant spending of taxpayers’ money, has come a long way since 1981 when she was a teacher at Westlake Girls’ High School. (Herald 28th May)

Back then she was a lesbian activist prominent in the Feminist Teachers group who were busily spearheading the push to abolish corporal punishment in schools.

She was also writing enthusiastically in their June newsletter about how well was going their politicising of “high school feminists” from various Auckland schools.
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I noticed a job advertisement in the local paper for the Bay Of Plenty District Health Board concerning a position in the “Woman, Child and Family Service”. Notice anything? Well, it struck me as leaving out one slightly important member of the family and I wondered what the aim of the service could be. Turns out it’s an umbrella management team covering the obstetrics and gynaecology department and paediatric services including the children’s ward. This did not include social work or other services that might be work alongside these departments. I spoke to the two female managers only one of whom was forthcoming with information while the other seemed to believe that a citizen had to identify himself and presumably be the right kind of person before he had any right to know about her (taxpayer-funded) service. (more…)

Recent ‘not guilty’ verdicts in high profile child homicide cases could be examples of an ideological bias in police policy, according to UnitedFuture deputy leader, Judy Turner.

Mrs Turner refers to the ‘New Zealand Family Violence Policy’, in which section 47 instructs that, “The specific offence ‘Male Assaults Female’ will be used in most circumstances”.

“While this policy may seem little more than ill-considered discrimination, it effectively orders police to pre-judge incidents of family violence before they even arrive at the scene and assume the male is at fault.

“It is my concern that this guideline fosters a mindset where police make assumptions before establishing a perpetrator, and leads to an attitude of, ‘if in doubt, arrest the bloke’.

“I think people are starting to question whether we are seeing this happening now. Is the police family violence policy leading to blinkered investigations and the wrong person being arrested by police?” asks Mrs Turner.

“This policy should be condemned and it be made clear that police should arrive at a given scene without preconceptions about the perpetrator, but rather look at the evidence and take action accordingly and on the merits of each case.

“Hopefully this will lead to fewer people being arrested and charged with crimes that no jury could possibly find them guilty of, while destroying the life of the falsely-accused, or resulting in the real perpetrator walking free,” says Mrs Turner.

Date: 01/05/2008

Introduction

Men and boys, who make up 49% of the New Zealand population, fare better than women and girls in a number of human rights areas. These include employment participation and income, and representation in leadership and governance roles. In others, they are disproportionately represented in negative outcomes and statistics. These include significantly worse outcomes in terms of assault mortality, road casualties, suicide, qualifications gained at school, participation in tertiary education, and workplace injuries. Men dominate criminal justice and imprisonment statistics and are significantly affected by certain health issues and concerns.

Neither men’s nor women’s human rights feature as a separate theme in the Commission’s Statement of Intent. However, each year a number of relevant activities are carried out under various themes and within projects and programmes of work. This paper canvasses some main areas of concern and outlines how these issues are reflected in the Commission’s work programme.

Education

At school, boys dominate the suspension, exclusion and expulsion figures, and have lower retention and achievement rates than girls. They are two to four times more likely to be stood down, suspended, excluded or expelled than girls, and they account for 76 percent of exclusions and 81 percent of expulsions. They are more likely than girls to be granted an early leaving exemption and less likely to stay at school until the ages of 16 or 17. Students who are least likely to stay at school are Māori, male, and attend a decile 1 or 2 school. Slightly more boys than girls left school in 2006 with little or no formal attainment, with 12 and 10 percent respectively. Although the performance gap between girls and boys has narrowed since 2003, in 2006 girls still outperformed boys with 65 percent of girls achieving at least an NCEA Level 2 qualification compared to 56 percent of boys.
At tertiary level, women are slightly more likely than men to participate in tertiary education (14.6 percent compared with 12.8 percent of men in 2006). Men and women had the same rate of participation in sub-degree courses (10 percent), but women are slightly more likely than men to be enrolled in degree and post-graduate courses (six percent and four percent, respectively). Recent declines in tertiary participation have been greater for women, and the participation gap has narrowed in recent years.

Men continue to participate in the Modern Apprenticeship Scheme in far greater numbers than women, making up 91 percent of Modern Apprentices in 2006.

Men still have a slightly higher rate of educational attainment than women across the population as a whole. In 2006, 78 percent of men and 76 percent of women had attained an educational qualification at upper secondary level or above. Sex differences in educational attainment have narrowed over time. For younger age groups, women are more likely than men to have higher qualifications.

Human Rights Commission Activities: Children and Young People and the Right to Education
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Too many people here are misunderstanding child support. Where did it come from? Why are Governments so invested in it? Why are they so determined to get it and what is it used for?

Child support was designed to get back tax for welfare payments made to single mothers raising their children on state care.

It was designed as a tax for the father to pay towards the social welfare money being paid out from the Government.

The formula was made and the actual designer of the formula had stated that this would not work on families outside of the welfare system. But the Governments didn’t care about that. They just wanted money to be coming in more than going out.

Why do countries operate child support systems?

This is a matter that needs to be deduced from the history. But time after time the answer always appears to be for one or both (ultimately both) of the following objectives. Everything else is just detail.

1. To reduce child poverty.
2. To reduce welfare spending.

Perceptions depend on the order in which things are done. For example, suppose that the social security (welfare) programme makes the first move (eg. Income Support) in order to relieve child poverty, and child support is added later. (This is the typical sequence – in the USA AFDC came before the latest child support reforms).

Sequence Perception

First: Income Support tops up a lone parent’s income to poverty relief levels. “Social security reduces child poverty.”

Later: Child support dictates how much the other parent pays. It enforces this payment. The child support goes to the lone parent, but the Income Support is reduced by exactly the same amount. “Child support is a Treasury-driven exercise to reduce social security expenditure (hence taxes), even though this keeps children at poverty-relief levels.”

But suppose things happened in a different order, and child support came first. (This does not normally happen. Child support tends to be an after-thought when nations realise they can’t afford the full implications of social security / welfare without help from the other parents).
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One of the best ways to get change to come about is to use the media, and change needs to come about.  It seems to me that those that are leading our country are a long way off solving the problems that hound us with Child Support.  No matter if you are a liable parent or the spouse of a liable parent there is no question that to some extent you have experienced unfairness through this antiquated system.

I am putting together a documentary to outline these problems and expose the often financially cripling heartache with in the IRD.  I would like to get stories and interviews from both those that are affected and the powers that be. 

If anybody would like to contribute to this documentary please let me know by leaving a comment or contacting me on tigerseye@xtra.co.nz

I’d love to hear from you.

Peace to all,

Tigerseye

Fathers aren’t needed say MPs: Commons decides IVF babies can do without a male role model
Evening Standard 21 May 08

Fathers were last night effectively declared an irrelevance in modern Britain. The requirement for fertility doctors to consider a child’s need for a male role model before giving women IVF treatment was scrapped by MPs. In a free vote, they swept away the rule despite impassioned pleas that the Government plan would “drive another nail into the coffin of the traditional family”. Labour rebels said it would send entirely the wrong signal to society as Britain faces a crisis in responsible parenting.

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, had warned it would remove the father from the heart of the family. He accused the Government of putting the interests of “consumers” who want to become parents before the welfare of children. But in the Commons, ministers won support for the legislation.
thisislondon

MPs reject need for father in IVF (UK)
BBC News 20 May 2008

MPs have voted to scrap laws forcing clinics to consider the need for a “father and mother” before allowing women to seek IVF treatment. Iain Duncan Smith led the cross-party bid, saying the absence of a father had a “detrimental effect” on a child. His plan was defeated by 292 votes to 217. Currently, IVF clinics have to consider the “welfare” of any child created, including the need for a father. But the government wants the focus instead on “supportive parenting”. MPs also opposed a further bid to ensure there is a “father or a male role model” before fertility treatment, by 290 votes to 222. The issue of the role of fathers in IVF comes in the second day of committee stage debate of the controversial Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, aimed at updating laws from 1990.

…On Monday, MPs voted down a cross-party attempt to ban hybrid human animal embryos. Roman Catholic cabinet ministers Ruth Kelly, Des Browne and Paul Murphy voted for a ban, while Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Tory leader David Cameron both opposed it. A bid to ban “saviour siblings” – babies selected to provide genetic material for seriously ill relatives -was also voted down.
bbcnews

‘Father’ to go from birth certificates (Aust)
Sydney Morning Herald May 18, 2008
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In recent hours two extremely high profile court cases have ended.

A man charged with the murder and sexual violation of a 10 year old. Not Guilty.

A man charged with murdering two babies. Not Guilty. (In about 10 minutes)

A wise Man once said:

Confirmation Bias

“There is a phenomenon known to psychologists as Confirmation Bias.

Make up your mind on an issue before you have all the facts.

Thereafter look only for the evidence to support your hunch.

Ignore contradictory evidence or dismiss it as irrelevant or untrue.

This is a phenomenon to which some New Zealand Police and Prosecutors seem susceptible”.

Gender-political corruption accompanies the favouritism, financial and employment corruption recently uncovered in the Immigration Service. On National Radio today Immigration lawyer Ms Olinda Woodroffe exposed a case in which the NZ Immigration Service in Samoa assisted a woman to remove her two young children to NZ without the father’s agreement. (Hear it here or if the link has expired request it from me.) This apparently was based on the woman’s claims of domestic violence for which no evidence existed such as previous police complaints, medical evidence or corroborative accounts. Once in NZ the Immigration Service here assisted the woman in applying for residency for herself and the two children, and obstructed the lawyer’s efforts to obtain information needed to represent the father in legal action to have his children returned.

The Immigration Service joins the many other government departments and indeed most political parties in parliament that operate as extensions of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.