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Research in Australia and New Zealand on shared parenting and related areas

Filed under: Gender Politics,Law & Courts — JohnPotter @ 9:15 am Sat 30th August 2014

Good Evening Everyone,

I am doing research on fathers, shared parenting, and related areas. I have been working on this area for about 25 years, mainly in Canada. I am now looking at the Global Shared Parenting movement and would like to do interviews with those in Australia and New Zealand. Please let me know if there are those you are in contact with who are interested in being interviewed.

If you are interested in being part of the book and sharing your views on the Family Law system, the Fathers’ Rights/Parenting Movement, and related issue, that would be very helpful. I am interested in interviewing fathers, mothers, grandmothers, grandfathers, and others who have been impacted by the Family Law System. All interviews will be confidential and those being interviewed will remain anonymous in any written material.

More specifically, I am interviewing parents, grandparents, and others, as well as those who are concerned about men’s health. I am particularly concerned about about stress experienced as a result of separation and divorce as well as issues related to suicide ideation and suicide.

I have published the following works in the area:

Kenedy, R. (2004). Fathers For Justice: The Rise of a New Social Movement in Canada as a Case Study of Collective Identity. Ann Arbor: Caravan Books.

Kenedy, R. (2006). Researching the intersection between collective identity and conceptions of post-separation and divorced fatherhood: Fathers for justice, fathers for just us, or fathers are us? Qualitative Sociology Review, 2 (2), 75-97.

Kenedy, R. (2011). Moral panic: Male studies and the spectrum of denial. New Male Studies: An International Journal, 1 (1), 52-60.

Kenedy, R. (2014). ‘Do Fathers Matter? Post-Divorced Transitions Regarding Mental Health and Suicide Ideation Among Fathers in a Canadian Context’. In R. Kenedy, (Ed.) Senator Cools’ Roundtable and Symposium on Family Dynamics Proceedings Senate of Canada. Published by the Senate of Canada.

Currently I am in the process of organizing the trip and plan to be in Australia and New Zealand between September 21-30.

All the best,
Robert Kenedy [email protected]

14 Comments »

  1. always happy to speak about the scam that is the nz family court , just contact me 🙂

    Comment by Dominic da Silva — Sat 30th August 2014 @ 10:54 am

  2. Happy to make myself available. Contact me if you want.

    Comment by Non Custodial Dad — Sat 30th August 2014 @ 10:58 am

  3. I could do with some more father’s stories as single parents in shared parenting or having full day-to-day care. Everyone is anonymous and the stories form a book on single parents. Can fathers contact me if they are interested. [email protected]

    I totally understand how busy dads are so I’ll work with you around your life style. 🙂

    Comment by julie — Sat 30th August 2014 @ 12:06 pm

  4. Flip…I have 25 years experience here Robert. Would be happy to contribute. Have emailed you.
    Nik

    Comment by Nik — Sat 30th August 2014 @ 5:17 pm

  5. Thanks to those who have already contacted me. Could everyone interested in being interviewed please contact me directly at [email protected]

    All the best,

    Rob

    Robert A. Kenedy, PhD
    Associate Professor
    Department of Sociology
    124 Winters College
    York University
    4700 Keele Street
    Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3
    CANADA
    [email protected]
    416 736-2100 ext. 77458
    FAX 416 736-5715

    Comment by Rob Kenedy — Mon 1st September 2014 @ 1:00 pm

  6. Interesting reading on shared parenting:

    https://flr.law.anu.edu.au/sites/flr.anulaw.anu.edu.au/files/flr/Middleton.pdf

    Comment by Kumar — Tue 2nd September 2014 @ 3:49 pm

  7. This book sounds very interesting. I’d be interested in speaking with you, and will email you.

    On another topic, has anyone had any experience with Antony Mahon before.

    He has very much mismanaged my child’s case. Whether he is misguided, or is consciously pursuing some agenda of his own or the court’s I do not know.

    I do know that he has lied, tried to manipulate me, written reports which place my child in further jeopardy, and also undercut the judge when the judge was making good reccomendations.

    Things are much worse for my child now than they were before Antony Mahon came on the case as lawyer for child, he’s a very two faced, slippery, immoral individual to say the least.

    He runs a business in Ponsonby as well. Has anyone had any experience they can share.

    I have been told by various people that he thinks he’s a judge and often usurps the judges position. I’ve seen this twice for myself. I’m amazed they let him get away with it.

    Comment by Seth — Tue 2nd September 2014 @ 11:49 pm

  8. Hi Seth, my son lectured me today because I got a professional to do something for free and something went sour. He said, “If you want good work, pay them!”

    Antony does a lot of work out of kindness and I expect experience helps him get better at the job. If fathers ask me for a referral and they want it free or at low cost, I send them to paul’s news – and online support group for fathers.

    Otherwise I refer them to Rod Hooker who says a case shouldn’t cost more than $30,000 and he will get clients to do easy things themselves to cut cost. I know not everyone here stands by Rod so perhaps they know someone else.

    Comment by julie — Wed 3rd September 2014 @ 1:27 am

  9. Hi Julie

    Thanks for your advice.

    I think you might misunderstand. Antony Mahon is the Lawyer for Child, not my lawyer. So, he is being paid quite well to do a job professionally, which he isn’t doing, in my view.

    I do a lot of work for free, and my standards with that work done pro bono don’t change from my paid work, because professionalism, for me, doesn’t have anything to do with money, just standards, my own, or the standards of the organization I work for, code of conduct, ethics, etc.

    Antony Mahon has the experience, but, experience is no guarantee of quality of service.

    He is charged with serving the interests of his client, but, I would put forth the notion that with the Family Court agenda, which has been written about at length here and which you have also written about, there is a conflict of interests in some cases between the Lawyer for Child’s obligations to his client and those he has to the court.

    The court would say they are synonymous, but, thats not only not a very widely held view, but a view that is not tested with any sort of rigor, because of the privacy/secrecy regulations, and the lack of any real objective oversight for the Family Court system, apart from the ombudsman, who may or may not be objective.

    It looks to me that Antony has tried to manufacture some evidence, in order to reverse engineer a particular result. That is he has introduced some highly questionable notions into the case, which when I questioned him on, not even he seemed to actually believe, in order to support the other parent. It also looks that way to the people who I have spoken with this who work as advocates as a fulltime job.

    In the end, its a matter of competency, integrity, and conscience, from what I have observed, Mahon is lacking in at least two of those qualities, maybe all three.

    You son has a point though, in a way, because if quality correlates to financial reward, then perhaps Antony should not be getting paid to do this job, or anyone else who does a poor job.

    Thanks for the referrals though!

    Comment by Seth — Wed 3rd September 2014 @ 1:30 pm

  10. Family Court lawyers aren’t well paid by professional standards – that’s why it is called the home of the lazy and incompetent by other practitioners.

    The way it becomes an income stream for them is to adhere to the club rules – we’re talking unofficial rules here – it has very little to do with professional standards v financial reward.

    It’s a physical shock to come face to face with this situation – especially for a male with any degree of values or principles.

    The game play is dictated by the mother’s lawyer, and your lawyer and the counsell for the child will play along.

    If you’re representing yourself, you have several fronts playing against you which can include the judge as well. If you are using a lawyer, then you get what you pay for. (understand what you are paying for)

    Trying to rationalise this doesn’t work, they don’t have to and don’t play by your standards. They don’t even play by the Family Court Rules, let alone the law.

    Don’t expect this to happen, because it simply won’t – you have to make it happen.

    You don’t have to descend to their standards, but if you expect to beat them, you have to make them look as stupid as they are.

    Comment by Downunder — Wed 3rd September 2014 @ 3:22 pm

  11. #10
    Family Court lawyers aren’t well paid by professional standards – that’s why it is called the home of the lazy and incompetent by other practitioners.

    Compared to teachers
    Compared to builders
    Compared to tradesmen engineers
    Compared to civil engineers
    Compared to pilots
    Compared to nurses
    ETC ETC

    Like your sense of humour Downunder

    Comment by The man in Absentia — Wed 3rd September 2014 @ 8:26 pm

  12. Hi Seth, I apologise for I thought you were talking about another Antony.

    From my experience and by watching other’s experience, the lawyer for child can swap between parents, like you, hate you, love your ex, hate your ex, and on and then wake up the next day and change it all around.

    I don’t know this particular lawyer but I may know someone who does. I also notice lawyers are friends and they can like you lawyer less or more than the other party’s lawyer. Gosh, they share offices and then greet each other and chat while in the court house.

    I’ll never forget a case where the mother questioned her lawyer, “This doesn’t sound right” and her lawyer turned around and told her, “You are not going to ruin my friendship” (ex’s lawyer).

    I’d say they have their hierarchy also – “Oh, I don’t want to take on him/her. I am backing down”.

    I am thinking you need to build a relationship with the lawyer for child and be aware you ex will be doing the same. If you have concerns, approach them like walking on egg shells, make a fuss about the children – better yet, grovel and make a fuss about the lawyer, grrrr

    ……………

    I spoke with the lawyer for children in my case the other day like he was a good friend I haven’t seen for years and yet when we first encountered each other, it was all on. Half way in the case he started standing up for me.

    Would you like me to ask around?

    I do a lot of work for free, and my standards with that work done pro bono don’t change from my paid work, because professionalism, for me, doesn’t have anything to do with money, just standards, my own, or the standards of the organization I work for, code of conduct, ethics, etc.

    We need to keep you around. 🙂

    Comment by julie — Wed 3rd September 2014 @ 8:38 pm

  13. #11 obviously I was talking relative to work environments

    But consider your sad comparison:

    A nurse, a teacher gets a set hourly rate, but the more work they put into preparation the better the quality of their product – (generally speaking).

    A Family Court lawyer generally gets a set hourly rate too, but the more work they are required to do in preparation is to defend a weakened position and an inferior product.

    Comment by Downunder — Wed 3rd September 2014 @ 9:12 pm

  14. ha ha…spot on downunder…

    Comment by joseph — Fri 19th June 2015 @ 11:21 am

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