Most of this letter was published in the East and Bays Courier just before the 2002 Election. How much has been achieved in 3 years.

Election Issues and Men.

Once again, as at the end of every three year cycle comes the political promise. The promise to throw more money at what each politician perceives is our greatest concern, and of course the promise to keep their promises.

If there is one promise that hasn’t been kept by the present Government it is to review family law, and if there is one black hole we can’t afford to throw more money into it is the state fund of family disestablishment.

In the last three years the number of children registered in the child support system rose from 220,000 to over 300,000, and you can expect that figure to top 400,000 by the next election. We can only guess what the percentage of single families may have risen to from the current 27 %.
70% of cypfs work load came from single parent families, 80% of youth court offenders came from fatherless homes, and 92 % of family court cases ended in sole custody for mothers.

Employers find our youth lack self esteem, basic education, work ethics and a sense of value. Schools in spite of the best efforts of our better teachers still fail our children. Parents who discipline their children are arrested and dragged before the court of our all to common criminal. We have even allowed fathers to be jailed for sending their children Xmas presents.

Our Society has been quick to accuse Men of doing nothing but working, drinking beer, and being obsessed with Rugby, that was before it accused men of being absent without leave.

What has to be acknowledged now is that driven feminist can’t do one thing – they can’t be men.
Until now society has been so unaware of what the male role model actually provided our children. In our ignorance and to our peril society dismissed men and fathers as an unnecessary appendage to the family and to children’s lives.

Male suicide will soon become the leading cause of death for men in New Zealand, already a close second behind car accidents, but then male hunting has become an acceptable way to earn a living.

If the spiralling cost of the DPB isn’t bad enough, add the 33 million dollars of legal aid that was paid to mothers to fight fathers in the family court, and the administrative cost of the family court with all its subcontracted psychologists and counsellors. The cost of all those affected children who commit crimes of attention, or rebel with valueless acts. After 20 years they are the new class of prisoner who fill our jails. Those that just don’t care.
Ask yourself this – who is teaching them not to care, and who is not teaching them to care.

I am one of many Union of Fathers volunteers who help fathers fighting for contact with their children. I had just over 200 calls, in the first 6 months of this year, all from men being hunted by the system, for not walking away, or for caring about their relationship with their children.

I only had one question before the last election. It has been ignored, avoided, and answered with false promises and platitudes, during the last three years. The election speeches don’t impress me because they ignore this issue again. All I ask is when will this country help those men who so desperately want just one thing – to be a father to their children.

Whether you approach this issue on an emotional and social level, or as a dollars and cents issue, there is no good reason for us to continue doing what we are doing. Because we do not take a stand on these issues we are allowing the state to fund social decay., with our own taxes.
It is time for men and women to collectively tackle this issue, then we will drive the country in a more positive direction. It is also time to hold to account those people who willingly allow this suffering and destruction. It is time to tell the untold stories.

If we want to cast one vote that will help law and order, education, justice, health, children’s welfare, and government expenditure, then we should give it to the politicians who will tackle these issues in the next three years.

Bevan Berg,
Union of Fathers
National Executive.