Deborah Coddington: Hard to sympathise with angry, vengeful dads
Sunday August 6, 2006
Talk about the oppressed becoming the oppressors.
I used to voice support for groups such as the Union of Fathers, representing miserable dads barred from seeing their children by heartless ex-wives and partners. But lately they’ve taken to making life miserable for other families just because the mum or dad happens to be a Family Court lawyer.
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Fathers’ groups say the Family Court destroys what we are expected to believe were happy families – but who separated in the first place? I don’t recall officials from the Family Court rampaging through suburbia, randomly selecting innocent families and forcing them to split up.
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When mum and dad take their personal vendettas to the Family Court, it’s the children who suffer. When groups like Jim Bagnall’s Union of Fathers take their rage to the houses of family lawyers, it’s the justice system that suffers.


