The Supervised Access Industry.
I am a parent who has been “forced” to do supervised access as this is the only way I can see my child at present.
The Interim custody order was granted under section 59 of the COCA.which relates back to section 29, which states “an order depriving a parent of a child must not be made unless the court is satisfied that the parent is for some grave reason unfit to be a Guardian and that the order will serve in the best interests of the child”
Admittedly I was unwell and was admitted to Hospital, I was not caring for my child at the time.
The “fictitious” affodavit by my ex was accepted by the court without any evidence or proof or investigation. Even on defence I was still not listened to, mainly because I got so emotional
( whatever you do don’t show emotion at the Family Court ! )
Supervised Access can also be ordered under sectio 60 and 61, which relate to violence.
I question as someone who has been ordered to do supervised access how often this is really necessary, I agree in some cases that may be necessary to protect a child from violence, but how many of you people reading this have been ordered to do this as a form of punishment imposed by the court because you dared to question or probe into their dysfunction ?
Whatever happened to “innocent until proven guility” which is the basis on which law courts should function.
I beleive supervised access is used by the Family Court as a punishment, if a bigger and better liar gets in there first, or if you question their rules ( especially the one about no family being allowed in the Family Court ) or if one does play the game by their rules you are then sent for punishment ( like a “go to jail card” in monopoly )
How much money has been wasted by the on this farce? yes, I would rather put my money into something that will protect children, but in my observation so far, may be two people who probably needed supervised access were there, but I have seen a Grandad in a wheelchair seeing his grandchild, a disabled man, a young Mum who looked as though she just could not cope with a baby, surely there must be a better system to help people who need help than the current one.
Supervised Access is only free if you are convicted of violence, if not the cost varies, these “charities” vary in their cost from $40.00/hour to $100.00 ! multiply this by several hours a week and then by a few years or months, it is a big earner for the providors of this service in my observation.
How many people can afford these costs, if you can you must be a high earner.
I will never give to these charities again, probably just Canteen who do a great job.
Section 29 of the COCA states that “the order will serve the best interests of the child” is it really in the best interests of these children to be placed in a dirty institutional place, with broken toys and with other strangers around ?
Section 60(5)(a&b) states that supervised access should occur either by an approved providor or in the immediate presence of a person approved by the Court (for example a relative, friend or any other person whom the Court considers suitable)
Why then is it left to the whim of a vicious ex to decide when and where this farce should occur?
Why is the ex allowed to defame your Family in Court out of maliciousness, with lies, so that ones family are denied the right to provide supervision ?
How many other readers to this atticle have been “snared” in the supervision trap ?
Lastly, section 4(1) COCA states “the welfare and best interests of the child must be the first and paramount consideration”
section 4(3) states “A parent’s conduct may be considered only to the extent(if any)that it is relevent to the child’s welfare and best interests”
UMMMmmm………………………………
this makes you question the whole “industry” of supervised access……
Julian
Nicely put Julian,
My son and I were ‘sentenced’ to 5 months supervised access, the cost of which forced me to sell my home (I was a student at the time).
$60 per week to spend 2 hours with my little boy, even though the judge had established that there was no safety concerns!
The mother admitted that she had no concerns about my care of our son, she simply ‘asked’ the judge 3 times to impose supervised access.
Further, I believe that the judge’s decision to impose supervised access was less about pandering to the mother’s bloody-minded request, but a measure of punishment becuase I went to the media about my case; either way, my son’s best interests had nothing to do with the imposition of such an expensive and abusive limitation to our child-parent relationship.
Read Judge Jan Doogue’s statement’s about Domestic Violence and Supervised access…very interesting, and why is nothing done about it!
It is the contact between the parent’s that should be supervised!
Comment by Wayne — Mon 5th June 2006 @ 1:32 pm
If you are in/near Wellington – let me know – we can meet & discuss supervised access if you want / share experiences etc …
Comment by Al D Rado — Tue 6th June 2006 @ 7:43 am
Hold your head high and accept no put downs.
Whatever they ask from you, ask the same back from them.
Ask for full personal details of everyone who will have contact with your child, and permission to have a Police check carried out on THEM,(because of the problems of institutional violence on children).
Note that they are scupulous to avoid any harm TO THE CHILD, but have NO MEASURES to protect you.
e.g. I was accused of abusing my daughter by ‘Care for Kids’ because I showed her a letter from my sister, making fun of the whole thing.
I refused to pay, (I had no money at ther time) and suggested they recover the money from the abuser making the false allegations. When they threatened to stop me seeing my daughter, I pointed out that they were guilty of abuse to my daughter by doing this.
Hold head high, you are the proud parent- they are complicit with the the abusers.
You can only be put down if you allow it!
Comment by John Brett — Wed 7th June 2006 @ 9:13 am
answer to al.D rado….no, I am in auckland
To John, yes, I was warned in advance not to pass comment and to “play the game” and that they write a report about you, the whole system is a disgrace to this country.
Comment by Julian — Wed 7th June 2006 @ 12:33 pm
So did you ‘not pass comment, play the game’, kiss their asses so they would write a nice report?
I think that is giving them encouragement to abuse you further.
Take my advice- stand tall.
Your family look to you for a lead.
After they have finished ‘interviewing’ you, how about saying how appropriate it would be for them to answer some questions for you.
Calmly ask then,
“I need to ask, please- are you a child abuser?
Is anyone else who will have contact with my child a child abuser?”
Then, when they start getting upset-
“Do you or anyone else who will contact my child have an ANGER PROBLEM?”
Explain in the nicest way how important your children are to you, and how it is essential that you ask these kinds of questions.
Cowards don’t attack people who they think can fight back.
Comment by John Brett — Wed 7th June 2006 @ 5:44 pm
Hi John,
I will fight back in a grown up way, not by causing a scene in frount of children, but ( when this farce is over with ) I will complain to the providor of this “facility”, to the staff, and then I will fight to change “the system” alongside the other fathers that are campaining for change.
I am no coward, but I have shown my kids that there is more than one way “to skin a rabbit ! “
Comment by Julian — Thu 8th June 2006 @ 8:39 am
I didn’t upset my supervisor or any of the staff around him for many reasons. They were nice people, and the facilies were great. During one pre-access discussion with the senior supervisor he told me that he had seen some sad cases where there should not have been supervised access, and then said that in my case “the courts got it wrong”.
One problem is, he writes reports about me that will impact on me and my child further down the track, and onther is that his organisation relys on the money paid by parents seeking to be with thier children. It was not the the supervisor or his organisation that was the problem but rather the “sentencing” judge and the Family Court system that forces parents to pay to see thier children.
In the future I will be looking further into this, becuase I beleive the system has abused the human rights of parents and children.
Where there has been no physical violence or threats of violence directed at the children (police reports would be needed otherwise), there should be no obstruction to a child continuing its relationship with either parent.
Comment by Wayne — Thu 8th June 2006 @ 10:59 am
Hi Wayne,
I absolutely agree with you, it is money grabbing side of it, the injustice and the humiliation.
Let alone the fact tha I have never been violent to anyone and I can prove it ! ( I have a copy of my police record, you can write to the Police and ask for one under the privacy act and official imformations act)
Whatever happened to having to be guilty of something before you get a punishment or sentence ?
Comment by Julian — Thu 8th June 2006 @ 2:49 pm
Hi julian
thats exactly the question i asked when a false affidavit was filed removing my child from me.
I beleive a protest should occur during a case proceedings in the family court to make an impact on siciety which will then be forced to change their approach. it has to be done at every proceeding thereafter.
nothing short of this type of tactic will achieve any fair results
Comment by starr — Thu 8th June 2006 @ 4:01 pm
Hi Starr,
I protested at the Court, they called the security guards and were going to lock me up !
You cannot complain at the Court !
You can only go to the high Court once a final order is made ?
There are no complaint procedures within the Family Court if you think you have not been fairly listened to.) which they don’t do in case you go to the High Court, CATCH 22 !
Comment by Julian — Thu 8th June 2006 @ 5:25 pm
? anybody got any idea’s
As for getting a hearing, well, I am still waiting after 2 years of hell !( they just delay and use their own system to make more money out of you, from paying the Lawyers to getting their wages !
Comment by Julian — Thu 8th June 2006 @ 5:28 pm
personally being locked after doing all that will be worth it as it will bre the beginnings of a headline -“disgruntled father protesting against unfair proceedings in court” which will then lead to media interviews etc.
can’t wait to get back and do that.
Comment by starr — Thu 8th June 2006 @ 5:47 pm
the more we disrupt rthem the more chances of people hearing us… afterall as i have said before what more do we have to lose… we who have lost our children to the system.
Comment by starr — Thu 8th June 2006 @ 5:48 pm
Battling a corrupt Judiciary and psychophantic legal workers in their stronghold of power (the secret court) has little effect.
Take it to the pavement outside their home, this is neutral ground.
Point out their lack of logic reasoning and outline the bias they have delivered,then the Coalition, general public, and media can justifiably condemn them.
Kind Regards
Paul
Comment by Paul Catton — Thu 8th June 2006 @ 9:40 pm