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

article from here

MP doubts court changes
Thursday, 18 March 2004

CLEVEDON MP Judith Collins doubts proposed changes to the New Zealand courts system will help to bring greater transparency to the Family Court.

The National party’s families spokesperson said the Law Commission’s recommendation to open up the Family Court, including allowing the media to cover some aspects of court proceedings, will be no improvement on the current system.

“The current system uses children’s ‘best interests’ to justify secrecy and incompetence when in reality children would be best served by having real accountability in the Family Court,” said Ms Collins.

“The report appears to recommend that there be fewer restrictions on the reporting of family proceedings. However, in practice these recommendations would amount to an inability to report on proceedings other than those relating to property, wills and those too incapacitated to look after themselves.”

She said not allowing witnesses or others connected with proceedings to be identified with leave of the court means there is unlikely to be reporting of government department incompetence, counsel for the child, bad behaviour of custodial parents and incompetence parading as cultural sensitivity.

“Under the proposed changes parents will still not be able to talk about the proceedings without leave of the court. Again, this prevents proper accountability,” Ms Collins said.

“While the problems of secrecy and lack of accountability are correctly identified, the report’s recommendations would make little impact on the seriousness of those problems,” said Ms Collins.

I just found a site dedicated to men in early childhood education.
I have no idea if these folk are incredibly brave or incredibly naive.
Check it out for yourself:

http://www.ecmenz.org/index.html

Consider the state of the NZ male when you read this quote.
Tell me if you think this describes the state of NZ men today and why. Afterwards I’ll tell you who wrote it and when.

A wise ancient declared that the most perfect popular government was that ‘where an injury done to the meanest subject is an insult upon the whole constitution’. What, therefore, can be said for a Government that deliberately inflicts injury upon a great mass of its intelligent and respectable subjects; that virtually ignores their existence in all that can contribute to their happiness as subjects; that takes a special care to strike at the root of their love of country by teaching them that they have no part in forming or maintaining its glory, while it rigidly exerts from them all penalties; even unto death? What can be said, what urged, in extenuation of this crying evil, this monstrous injustice? ‘Custom; use; it has always been so’. This may be enough to say of the past — ‘let the dead past bury its dead’; but is it to be remedied for the future?

Wellington – Single women have a problem finding a husband or partner in New Zealand
– they outnumber men.

There are 35,000 more women in the prime marrying age group of 20 to 45, according to Statistics New Zealand and the situation is so bad that a 32-year-old Kiwi woman has as much chance of finding a partner her age as an 82-year-old.

‘The reason being the 82-year-old men are dead and the 32-year-old men aren’t there,’ according to international demographer Bernard Salt, who has studied what he calls the ‘man drought’ in New Zealand and Australia.

‘Young Kiwis in their mid to late-20s leave the country, but it’s mostly the women who come back,’ he said.

Why would they come back?
In other countries they are rewarded more for their hard work. It doesn’t take them long to realise they are more highly valued by foreign women than NZ women.

What is also increasing is the number of men that either immigrate or go for a foreign bride in order to have a better future for themselves. It is time this was discussed more openly rather than by just a few.

Wikipedia (which you will know can be edited by anybody) has this to say about the stereotypical NZ female:

The kiwi female

There are few stereotypes surrounding New Zealand women, and these stereotypes are not as strong as those involving men. The two strongest stereotypes are:

* Independence: New Zealand women are sometimes thought to be more independent than women elsewhere. New Zealand being the first country in the world to give women the vote and the only to have all its most important positions of state power simultaneously filled by women is seen as evidence of this. This ignores the century in between these two events in which New Zealand was far from progressive on women’s rights: for example rape within marriage was only criminalised in the mid 1980s.

* Lack of femininity: Women in New Zealand are supposedly unfeminine, for example wearing masculine clothing and spending little time on makeup and other forms of personal grooming. This can also be seen in a positive light; Kiwi women are portrayed as not being held back by ideas about being ‘ladylike’ and are therefore willing to take on ‘masculine’ tasks such as car maintenance and playing rugby. Former Prime Minister Helen Clark is often seen as an embodiment of this stereotype, for good and bad: critics point at her lack of children and her choice on one occasion to meet the Queen while wearing trousers; supporters like her passion for mountain climbing and ability to hold her own in parliamentary debates.[22]

Just thought I’d mention it seen as there is a lot of discussion about NZ women on here at the moment.

In today’ press, the violence industry is at it again.

To get funding they need to show the numbers up. So what do they do? they create them by encouraging women to break up their families. They have the tools for that. As one admits in this article you can’t encourage a woman to break and drop them her in a hole afterward. This is backed by reality. A woman who breaks through Women’ Refuge gets a free lawyer, the house and all the other assets. + the children of course and a salary for life. Who would refuse that? (more…)

The series starts Wednesday 31st of March and thanks to the online men’s network, I will be able to post links for your viewing pleasure. But for now, a preview will suffice…………..

Sara Feilden, the producer for Films of Record, who made the BBC series says she is glad to have found the brief window of opportunity in which to tell father’s stories since the UK allowed journalists to report on the family courts. Unfortunately, there is a Bill going through Parliament that would make it impossible, once again, to film people who have been involved in family legal disputes. “It’s unlikely that we would ever again be able to make a programme about this important issue,” she says.

Journalist Cassandra Jardine of the UK Telegraph says watching the review of the BBC series made her feel ashamed to be a woman and that…. the men on the programme appeared to be loving, attentive fathers who only wanted to play their part in the upbringing of their children while it seemed, vengeful, short-sighted women were selfishly trying to thwart them.
(more…)

I am sure most people still remember the No smacking referendum where 87.6 percent of the 1,622,150 New Zealanders who participated in exercising their right to democracy voted ‘NO’ (full provisional results) and the petitions that circulated New Zealand to make the referendum possible. (more…)

Carey Roberts’ latest piece highlights how the International Violence Against Women Act, VAWA, appears to violate the US constitution. Sooner or later, keen rights advocates are likely to challenge this sexist and divisive legislation and, like many other temporary US laws, it will be shafted.

New Zealand on the other hand has no constitution. There is little protection here for any basic rights or freedoms. We have a Bill of Rights, but just this week the Key government showed how weak and irrelevant the Bill of Rights is. The fact that Key’s law changes regarding benefits was found to contravene the Bill of Rights on various grounds was simply disregarded, treated with utter contempt by that government, without consequence. Hence we put up with all manner of male denigration and anti-male sexism in law, jurisprudence, state services, advertising and business practice even though discrimination on the grounds of gender is supposedly banned under the Bill of Rights.
(more…)

Check out this on the return on investment of children.

The Australian government worked out middle income folk spend $160,140 raising a child to age 18. This article considers what do you get for your $160,140?

National’s flagship welfare reforms have been found to unfairly discriminate against 43,000 solo mums and dads.

In a report just tabled in Parliament, Attorney-General Chris Finlayson says the reforms breach the Bill of Rights Act on three grounds by discriminating on the basis of sex and family and marital status.

Report Here

Regards

Scrap

This is a very thoughtful insight by Mark Brandenburg.  The full article can be found here.

“Can we possibly continue with a system in which half of our children witness the breakup of their parent’s marriage? Is a divorce rate near 50% enough to have us consider new ideas about how we decide about marriage and divorce?

One idea we might consider is educating young people about the qualities of a successful marriage. The best way to do this is to model these qualities for your children. In addition, we can talk to them about the specific qualities and actions which make a marriage successful.

Here are some of those qualities:

1. Commitment:
(more…)

Stuff.co.nz has an article on Author Kathy Lette about her latest book titled, ‘Men: A User’s Guide’. It’s a collection of clever and caustic quips collected from her writing and observations from her marriage to human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robinson but it sounds like a lot of feminist spin.

Lette tells the interviewer that her human rights lawyer husband is bad because he doesn’t do enough around the home, while her housekeeper serves them tea and biscuits.

When asked about her book being man hate Lette replied….

It’s not man-bashing, it’s just annoying them until they start paying us more attention and pull their finger out,” she says.

First reaction would have to be, “Sack her husband as a human rights lawyer” but being raised by a single mother, it is possible Lette’s angry for not having her father around.
(more…)

It was reported in the NZH that there will be welfare reforms.

In this article it claims that:

“They also involve tightening the requirement procedures for those who repeatedly receive hardship grants, and extend part-time work obligations to domestic purposes beneficiaries with children over six years old.”

Since when have there been part-time work obligations for DPB? Is there any substance to this?

I had a look at WINZ site and all I could find was:

”

Your obligations

You’ll need to take part in a planning process to help you set goals for your future, including:

• coming to planning meetings with us and
• preparing a personal development and employment plan that covers your goals for the future and the things you will do to reach those goals.

You’ll also need to show us that you are committed to reaching your goals.”

This is not really any limitation at all. If fact it simply means you can get free training while staying on the DPB as long as you like.

A British returned soldier locked family court doors with chains, barring staff from entering their workplace, in protest of his treatment while serving his country. He says,

“I recently returned from duty fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan to find that judges at Darlington county court had granted my wife a non-molestation and an occupation order of the marital home, this was all done ex parte in my absence whilst serving Queen and country overseas.”

“My wife has since moved her new lover in and has been denying contact to our 2 young children.”

“If this is how the courts treat a serving soldier based on a false allegation, imagine how they could treat you.”

“All my wife needed was to say there was a ‘perceived fear’ of what I may do when I found out about her affair, the judge said because I was a soldier I was ’obviously violent’ he then granted her an occupation order and has denied me going within a mile of our home.”
(more…)

MP Peter Dunne from United Future political party opened the Wairarapa Men’s Health meeting very well, ..I thought. I particularly liked the way he addressed lots of areas where work is needed and included men’s issues spoken on men’s sites. I know some of his wording won’t go down well but I also know it’s good to see progress.

Here is part of his speech….

I want to spend a few minutes this morning touching on some of the more difficult realities faced by men in New Zealand – and perhaps it will be a sensitive issue in this room today, as much as it is in wider New Zealand.

We have a lot of angry men in this country.

They tend to be men who are very hurt, often coming out of relationship break-ups in which they feel they have been unfairly treated – particularly in areas such as custody of children and child support.

Chief Family Court Judge Peter Boshier last year – to his very real credit – addressed the tragedy that 18 people involved in Family Court proceedings had killed themselves in a 12-month period to June last year.

Add to that four homicides.
(more…)

Will be of interest to all.

Regards Scrap

Mr Joseph was last week acquitted at the High Court in Rotorua on all charges relating to the alleged rape of the 14-year-old Mangakino girl in March, 2009. The charges he faced included abduction, forcibly taking a minor and rape.

The jury took just seven minutes to come back with a not guilty verdict following a five-day trial.

Rather than do a news omnibus as I have done in the past (they take too long) I will try to convey news in small amounts more frequently. People can add any stories they find to this thread.

I start out with a story today headlined “Dad Stabbed in Struggle with Women Burglars“. The man who confronted and attempted to apprehend these female thieves is lucky he’s not facing assault or sexual assault charges. We await the sympathetic deal these women will probably get in Court. We await their attempt to blame some male for their vicious thievery and violence. We await further anti-violence campaigns that show only men committing violence and only women being victimized. These particular violent females were probably living on some benefit or another, living off the generosity of others in their society whom they then steal from and attack.

Next, “Gay Worker Wins $15k for Sexual Harassment“. Fair enough, but it’s interesting how sexual harassment is usually reserved for females. This case shows female-type males will also qualify, even though there was no harassment in the usual sense of attempts to become sexually involved with an employee. Are we likely to see men compensated for sexual harassment, be it women’s comments about their physique or women’s denigrating comments about claimed male deficits? Watch out the window and when you see a pig flying, expect harassment of men to be punished.

Then there’s the champion of feminist propaganda Bob Harvey in “Sack the Museum Board, Says Mayor“. He praises Dr Vanda Vitali for her work. To me, Dr Vitali seemed like a typical bolshy feminist who acted as though she was always right, who would not listen or negotiate and who cared little about offending others. It’s interesting that men were the victims of her particular form of violence: war veterans, Sir Edmund Hilary, Deputy Director Tim Walker. I wonder how many of the 46 museum staff whose jobs she axed were men.

Finally today we get “Two Officers Face Enquiries“. The reluctance of the force to specify their gender suggests one or both may be females. Just like on the many occasions where news articles don’t mention the gender of officers assaulted or injured on the job, you can bet they will be male officers. When a female of any kind is offended against it’s always considered important enough to highlight her gender. When a female commits offences her gender is often relegated to somewhere deep in the article or omitted completely.

Feel free to add below daily articles and comment on them from a men’s movement perspective. I will.

A Men’s Health meeting has prevented women from taking part in a two-day conference on male suicide rates.

The National Council of Women supported the decision, saying it was about participants feeling they could open up.

The Human Rights Commission said there was nothing illegal or discriminatory in the way the conference was being promoted or held.

Barry Young, President of the Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand told me that most enquiries they received for prostate came from women as wives and daughters. The lovely lady who organised the Men’s Health meeting in Waitakere told me (I wish I could remember her name because she does a huge amount of work for health) …. women were to be targeted for men’s health because women can make men go to the doctor.

Wairarapa suicide prevention coordinator Barry Taylor said women were excluded to encourage men to take responsibility for their own mental health. “Men’s mental health has been a hidden subject over many years. Part of the problem is that they don’t talk about their feelings and they don’t ask for help.”

Mr Taylor also said some women had asked to be part of the conference which is of no surprise because many women care about their partners, children and other male family members and male friends. But they were told “No”, they couldn’t attend.

Barry says, “So often men have delegated their emotional issues on to the women in their lives. It is vital that … we take responsibility for dealing with the issues.”

“Statistics show the urgency of the problem of depression, often fuelled by relationship breakups, alcohol and drug abuse, crime and antisocial behaviours. More than 500 people die by suicide every year but it is New Zealand men who are three times more likely to kill themselves than women across all ages and races.”Men were more reluctant to seek help or may dismiss the seriousness of their problem, he said.

I think it is excellent women have been asked to stay away. This is a men’s issue and only men can work out how men are to deal with this. I’m sure in time brochures will be available for women to read and there will be phone numbers for women to ask questions.

Violence law faces challenge
by GILL VOWLES
March 14, 2010 08:50am

A TASMANIAN group has filed a $200 million class action against Premier David Bartlett and the Director of Public Prosecutions.

It is believed to be the first Australian class action against a law.

JAIL (Juries Against Illegal Laws) filed papers with the Federal Court of Australia on February 4 claiming that the Family Violence Act 2004 (Tasmania) was invalid.

The group is claiming $200 million in damages under Section 46 of the Australian Human Rights Commission Act.

JAIL is also seeking an additional $200,000 in damages for unlawful assault, trespass, negligence, conspiracy to cause economic loss, intimidation and defamation.

The writ further seeks an order that the Tasmanian Government and DPP Tim Ellis cease to engage in arresting people without proper evidence or procedures, giving police judicial powers, denying people the right to a fair and proper hearing and usurping the proper role of the courts.

JAIL president Ray Escobar said that if the class action was successful the money would be given to all the Tasmanians who had suffered under the Family Violence Act.

JAIL, formed in early 2008, now has more than 200 members around Tasmania who have been, or are related to, victims of false applications for violence orders.

Mr Escobar said JAIL was being represented by one of the finest legal minds in Australia, Sir John Walsh of Brannagh, who lives on Norfolk Island.

Sir John said he agreed to represent JAIL because the case raised important and fundamental questions of human rights, such as the presumption of innocence, right to a fair trial and the separation of powers.

“The legislation, and the way it is enforced, is contrary to human rights and to international law as accepted by Australia,” Sir John said.

“The legislation conflicts with the Constitution of Australia and with the fundamental rights of all Australians.”
Sir John said he was confident a federal judge would apply the law of the Commonwealth and the fundamental principles of Australia’s legal system.

JAIL’s application has been set down for hearing in the Tasmanian registry of the Federal Court of Australia at 10am on Monday, April 12.

Link Here
For those interested in further info, contact: Ray Escobar, “Lest We Forget”, J.A.I.L
Email: rjescobar1@bigpond.com

Erin Pizzey: An Open Letter to Women in the Domestic Violence Movement
Friday, March 12, 2010
By Abusegate Bob

Link Here

AN OPEN LETTER TO WOMEN IN THE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE MOVEMENT FROM THE FOUNDER OF THE MOVEMENT AND AUTHOR OF THE FIRST MODERN BOOK ABOUT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

When I first tried to open the refuge, the police, the charities, the social service agencies, the newspapers, all said it would stand empty. They said it wasn’t a significant problem, that it happened only rarely, and when it did it was already being handled effectively by the existing agencies.

Domestic violence against women was only a minor problem, and very few women were getting seriously hurt anyway. Of course, when we finally did open, and got a little support at last to make women aware of our existence, we were filled to overflowing and the phone was ringing off the hook.
(more…)

Well I haven’t been able to post this petition so it’s full size, but it’s big enough to collect signatures on. If anyone finds a way to restore it to fit almost an entire A4 page, they could inform the group.

Kerry asked me to post this release.

SKELETON SUICIDE PETITION HITS NERVE

The skeleton suicide petitioners say they have hit a nerve on the streets in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
Since launching the skeleton suicide petition at parliament they have gathered thousands of signatures for an inquiry into suicide. The working party on suicide claim New Zealand has a serious social problem indicated by the latest OECD suicide statistics. Wearing their skeleton suits the “skeletoneers” are taking their deadly concerns to Hamilton, Tauranga, Napier and Hastings before presenting the petition at parliament at 11.00am on Friday the 19th March.

Skeleton spokesman Kerry Bevin said “we must confront this tragic secret. It is ok to talk about suicide. Decent kiwis can no longer accept so many feel worthless and powerless, too many attempt and finally complete. The suicide toll is too high; the human right to a better life is being undermined”.

Mr Bevin noted “alarming rates for males and Maori were sidestepped by Peter Dunn’s suicide plan committee who totally ignored the social devastation of suicided fathers following separation.
Autocide is not mentioned either. No clear intervention or funding for the “at risk” is proffered nor any legislative scoping or mental health supports set. Who is going to get real about suicide before this self-destructive cycle becomes a morbid population?” He asked.

“We took our plea to John Key in Parnell. No response from the prime minister. The media seem oblivious too. However we are encouraged by thousands of concerned citizens. Unfortunately many have direct experience with suicide. The Fathers Coalition and the Republican Party have been supportive” said the skeleton spokesman.

Phone working party on suicide

Kerry Bevin (09) 473 3747
Jack Gielen (07) 859 2939
Craig Jackson (04) 389 2291

At the salon, I overheard the receptionist admit to another woman, “I haven’t taken my vitamins today. I’m walking around unprotected.”

The woman commiserated with her. “I haven’t taken my Prozac today–everyone’s walking around unprotected.”

The DVA and and the essence of its implementation and the industry around it are the main reason for the deaths statistics cited in the article below. Most of the deaths are a consequence of the brutish and violent Family Court intervention. I call the review panel to poke its nose inside the Family Court dodgy practices and money hungry lawyers.

Numerous analysis and comments here in this website point the finger at the Family Court and the domestic violence industry.

Note that suicides among kiwi dads did not make it into the reports stats.

Article read from here

By KATIE CHAPMAN – The Dominion Post

Figures that show at least 41 New Zealanders died at the hands of family members in 2009 have been labelled “staggering” by some working to stop family violence.

The Family Violence Death Review Committee issued the figures in its annual report to Parliament. But it says the number could still get higher, as some deaths at the end of the year have not yet been included.

The figure is made up of 16 children, 13 women and 12 men — 10 deaths above the national average of 14 women, six men and 10 children killed each year.

A family violence death is defined as “the unnatural death of a person (adult or child) where the suspected perpetrator is a family or extended family member, caregiver, intimate partner, previous partner of the victim, or previous partner of the victim’s current partner”.

Committee chairwoman Wendy Davis said this was the first year the committee, which was established by the Health Ministry in 2008, had formally provided an official toll.

It was a shocking, yet unsurprising, result, she said.

“Nobody in New Zealand who works in the family violence area is surprised by these.”

The committee planned to analyse each death to highlight “crisis points” where intervention may have been possible, she said. The more information, the better equipped they would be to address the problem, she said.

“As a group we are very aware of the complexity of the problem we are helping to try and solve.”

Family violence researcher and campaigner Ruth Herbert, who is a member of the Round Table for Violence Against Women, labelled the figure “staggering”. “To actually hear it as an official number kind of makes me a bit weak at the knees.”

Now the information was public it had to be used to make a difference, she said.

“This country has to stand up, open its eyes, and realise what’s going on behind closed doors.

“We need to take a concerted approach to this. We need to base what we’re doing on evidence. It really needs a family violence programme. It’s all been rather ad hoc to date.”

The Family Violence Death Review Committee’s report says it aims to review each death and make recommendations by the end of 2010.