Stuff Link: Parents protest over access to children

By ESTHER HARWARD

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The heading on this item suggests, that you are reporting about a group of parents who do not see their children and who are protesting against a courts decision. I think you have been unfair to these people as most have issues with the court process, or lack of due process, or issues with the ethics and behaviour of staff, and the application of the law. There has been over the last decade ample evidence of misconduct which has not been investigated, because the family court is expected to provide a political outcome rather, than a sensible decision for the children involved.

Surely readers must be asking after 8 years of protests outside the court how were the protest targets selected. Perhaps they are the names that appear with monotonous regularity, in cases where children are permanently separated from one parent? Perhaps the protest is more about incompetence than it is about outcome? Perhaps that is why other lawyers refer to the Family Law Section as the home of the lazy and the incompetent?

Let us not be seen as entirely ungrateful though; There was a time when the editor of the NZ Herald banned reporters from walking across Albert street to report on a protest they could see from their window. Thankyou for at least printing the story.