Child Support Reality TV
Its not often that I am surprised by the next attack on Dads who are in debt for child support. I guess it never occurred to me that Fox TV would create a Child Support Reality TV show.
‘Bad Dads’ Reality TV Show Stirs Controversy
May 02, 2008 03:54 PM ET | Adam Voiland | Permanent LinkThis week, I received an intriguing E-mail from Glenn Sacks, a men’s advocate and journalist, crying foul about the possibility that a reality show called Bad Dads might air on Fox. The show’s producers and officials from the National Child Support Center plan to hunt down deadbeat dads and humiliate them into paying child support with the cameras running, according to an article first published in the Hollywood Reporter and then by Reuters, which calls the concept “ambush reality TV–but for a noble cause.”
No doubt Judith Collins is negotiating for the New Zealand Rights for the show. Don’t worry, Peter , I’ll get into bed with any political party, Dunne will probably fund IRD to run a reality TV Child Tax show here.
Squads of Child Tax Police (aka IRD Officials) hunting down Parents (mostly Dads) who owe Child Tax. The loonies (officials and Families Commission) are already running the asylum, designing policy with a model is seriously flawed. The lunatics are indoctrinated with an organisational culture that focuses on collecting money not supporting children. Watch the research results and what they suggest and get ready for Reality Child Support TV
Regards
Scrap
Might be a good opportunity for some of the dads to explain their true circumstances and thereby change public opinion. Even more than in NZ, US fathers are hammered hard, expected to pay on the basis of as much as they could possibly earn and at least as much as they earned prior to separation. Most so-called Deadbeat Dads (a totally sexist term given that liable women are more likely to default than are liable men) in the US are low-income earners who live in relative poverty given the impact on their functioning from separation and loss of their children, and other unforseen changes to their earnings. But I guess Fox will leave out any intelligible speakers who might attract sympathy, and only include those who look stressed and guilty because that makes for better tv, and Fox probably receives money from feminazi government agencies to promote the desired propaganda. Nevertheless, I would be keen for the opportunity to be interviewed by such a show in NZ. Sadly, they wouldn’t ask me because I have paid all requisite father-removal tax to date.
Here’s another situation I came across highlighting the immorality of NZ’s child tax regime: A father has full care of one child and the mother has primary care of the other. The child with the father refuses to stay with the mother at all, but the child living with the mother spends many weekends and other times staying with the father. So overall the father is contributing financially and otherwise well over 50% of the care of the children. Yet he still pays towards the mother’s lifestyle at 18% of his gross earnings. This is because the child tax formula does not consider the parents’ relative total contribution to thier children, but conveniently considers each child separately to allow more to be charged. Also, our child tax is based only on the parents’ earnings and not the contribution the liable parent makes to a child who lives with the other parent. In many cases the father is punished because he works to earn a living while the mother is rewarded for living in relative leisure on the DPB. The result? A parent who does most of the parenting of his children and incurs most of the actual child costs gets nothing for his contribution but still pays to support the independent lifestyle and lesser child care contribution of the other parent.
Remember also that the formula is based on gross income prior to income tax, i.e. an amount that the liable parent doesn’t actually own. The liable parent pays child tax from his nett earnings, the money he is left with after income tax has been extracted. When he pays 18% of his gross earnings, he actually pays about 30% of the after-tax money that he actually gets in his hand. Do the calculations; you find that he is effectively taxed at 60 to 70% of what he earns. Calling the proportion 18% is a massive scam that most people don’t realise. That I guess is why so many liable fathers wonder why they can’t make ends meet.
Comment by Hans Laven — Sun 4th May 2008 @ 12:53 pm
This concept would also work well for mothers (actually custodial parents) who denied access to fathers (actually non-custodial parents), by simply making the children unavailable. This problem of course, only occurs because the NZ familycaught “judges” (with the notable exception of Principal Family Court Judge Boshier?) obfuscate and eliminate instead of enforcing their caught orders.
Because the people visiting the mother’s house are not listed on The Protection Order, it seems that this idea would work well and deliver visible benefits for the children.
I have been told by a familycaught judge (m. d, robinson about 11.30am on 13th February 1995), when he refused to address a kidnapping situation, that the familycaught is always available to enforce access orders for fathers.
I wasn’t sure whether he meant that familycaught wouldn’t enforce anything BUT an access order for a father, or whether he was lying completely. My intuition told me that he was lying through his teeth. (I hate being lied to by anyone, that was the whole reason that I and the mother were in familycaught at all!)
Anyway, I now know that familycaught judges (except sometimes Judge Boshier) personally find it essentially impossible to enforce any type of order against a mother and on top of this – you have to wait until the access hasn’t been honoured and then apply to a CLOSED familycaught!!!!! ha! ha! ha!!!
As said previously, the familycaught only hurts people who take it seriously!
So, this reality TV concept offers fathers a lot, for competent enforcement of access orders.
Where do we start on Saturday morning?
Can we get around all of the houses?
It sounds a bit like Santa Claus, doesn’t it, perhaps he can help?
I can see quite a few rocks thrown and insults traded.
Can we enforce access orders more cost effectively than the familycaught?
I am confident we can achieve better results than waiting for the familycaught tuatara to respond.
This then becomes active competition for work, between the reality TV enforcers and the old style outdated familycaught. We can’t lose.
We need to introduce customer choice and competition for work into all facets of familycaught work,
Cheers, MurrayBacon.
Comment by MurrayBacon — Sun 4th May 2008 @ 7:41 pm
I’m interested to read the comments, however, I’m one of “those” solo mothers for whom the pendulum has started to swing the other way. All I ever hear about these days is how men are so hard done by, and it’s tiring and stressful for them to have to pay child support. God.
My daughter’s father, [name removed by moderator], flatly refuses to have any contact with me and our child. He has not paid a cent towards her upbringing, ignores my phone calls, and further – didn’t even tell his family Hazel existed! I did not demand money from him, nor have I ever asked him for any. I have simply asked that he acknowledge her and be part of her life. He was engaged at the time I became pregnant (a small detail he neglected to tell me), and has since married her and fathered two more children to her. Why should my daughter miss out on her heritage and family while he swans about pretending he’s a candidate for Father Of The Year with his other two kids???
He owns a computer company [details removed by moderator], which obviously makes enough money to advertise on national television, yet he complains that he will be hard-up if he has to pay child support, which is his supposed excuse for not having contact with his daughter. His wife Kristie is also obviously capable of working to support their white picket fence life-style, as she claims to have a masters in computer technology. Meanwhile, I struggle to pay the bills working while studying full-time for a nursing degree. And yet the law does nothing to protect the psychosocial health of my daughter.
I’m the one who answers the hard questions about why [name removed by moderator] plasters photos of himself and his other kids at the zoo all over the internet, while Hazel sits in childcare so I can pay for the roof over her head! She’s no fool, she sees that other kids have dads and she doesn’t, unfortunately, no amount of reassurance by me will ever convince her she hasn’t done anything wrong. After-all, to a four-year-old, all dads are wonderful and would never offer more love to one child than another, unless one child had been naughty. It disgusts me. And these are people who claim to be CHRISTIANS!!!!!!!!!!
Money would be great, but even if he paid child support, [name removed by moderator] would still be a deadbeat dad.
Comment by Alice — Sat 31st May 2008 @ 10:51 pm
Mmmmm maybe you should be a father with a violent wife who then takes out a protection order against me alleging that I was violent (i never touched her), who then stopped me seeing my kids for months. Maybe you should experience what it is like to be a father who complains to the police after being attacked and they give HER leaflets about male violence. Maybe you should experience how the NZ family court just allows the mother to get away with everything, letting her decide if it is one or two days a fortnight that the father can see his kids although he has to pay 25-30% of his gross salary to the government, while cupcake claims legal aid, DPB, then your petty problems won’t seem so bad after all, why dont you try working like men have to do all their lives for these evil women who leave them to “trade up” kicking them out of their kids’ lives forever. YOU HAVE NEVER FELT THE BIAS OF NZ “FAMILY” LAW, YOU DON’T KNOW HOW LUCKY YOU ARE, YOU HAVE NOTHING TO MOAN ABOUT, TRY WORKING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comment by martin swash — Sun 1st June 2008 @ 4:35 am
Yes Hans I have been saying this for a while.It is 60-70%!!
The father in question would be better being on the DPB himself probably(which he is totally able to do).Welcome to modern day New Zealand.
As for Alice good on you for not claiming Child Support.I feel sympathy for your situation.Be strong and positive and this will attract strong and positive people to you.You have obviously chosen to have and to bring up this child on your own so follow through and make the best of it.
Child Support Reality TV would obviously be popoular and get the issues discussed so bring it on!!
Comment by whanga — Mon 2nd June 2008 @ 11:27 pm
Hi all,
I’m a new zealand citizen but i live and work in holland and earn euros,
the IRD wants me to send in my earnings for the year,i didnt have a problem with this until,they wanted to exchange my minimum euro wage into new zealand dollars then take the living allowance also in new zealand dollars,and work my rate out on that,in holland the prices are roughly the same for things as they are in new zealand, for example a big mac cost 5 nz dollars here and 5 euros in hollan,at the moment for 1 euro i get 2.60 new zealand dollars,now at (lets say) 10euros per hour that works out to be 26 new zealand dollars per hour if i submit my earnings for the year god only knows how much they will make me pay!!.
when i asked IRD why they dont have a echange system in place for people in my situation the lady replied “we didnt think people would leave new zealand to live and work abroad” that is no lie ring for yourself and pretend you live in holland. so what i have done is continued to to pay the minimum amount to the IRD and have set up bank accounts for my children.
onto another subject now
my ex is hiding my children from me and my parents, we have done nothing to harm them their mother or there seven different fathers since we have brocken up i.
i recieved a letter from my lawyer concerning my rights as a father and my parents rights as grand parents (yes they have rights also)i will post this letter after ive finished venting.now to continue, my lawyer said that i can do a parenting order but i have to know where she is living in order to get it served on her,since i have no clue where she is it was virtually impossible,and im living in holland at this time.i came back to new zealand 2 weeks ago and leave again in january,what i did is i put adds in the papers from her last known area as well as areas she had been rumored to have moved to with her new husbund,(who as it turns out is extremly intimidating and violent,my son who i talked to roughly 2 years ago on the phone told me not to come back beacause mums husband(who was only her boyfriend then) has said many times that he wants to put me in a coffin)as it turns out i got a couple of calls one that put me onto the new dads last name , so i searched the ellectoral roles at the library and got his address.we went over to the house un announced as we were fearful they would run again.anyway my parents and i discussed tactics,what we decided was best if i didnt go around,so i stayed away while my parents went and knocked on the door , well he scared the #$&^@ out of my mum and dad and my father told me dont go near him he wants you dead and im sure he will do it.so we have done some other stuff ringing more lawyers ETC now they say i have 50%say in schooling health religous upbringings and where they live yet there is noone willing to help me enforce it,only if i do the parenting order through the courts even then this could be a endless loop.another lawyer told me that since ive been over seas for more than 3 years i may have no rights at all.THAT is lies, so be carful when choosing lawyers and dont just take the first one you get ring around find the one that you feel comfortable with(find a male with a family )
my first reply from lawyer
I am one of the solicitors in the Family Law Team at Norris Ward McKinnon.
To briefly answer your queries, if you are a legal guardian of the children, you do have the right to be informed and consulted on important matters relating to the children such as where they are living, their schooling, medical treatment, religious upbringing and the like.
If you are named as the children’s father on their birth certificates you will automatically be a legal guardian, if you are not, you may still qualify as or be able to apply be appointed as a guardian.
If you wished to have contact with the children or to be given information regarding the children and their mother refused these requests you can apply to the Family Court for an Order to allow these things to occur if the Judges considers it appropriate. These applications would need to be served on the children’s mother, therefore you would need to find an address for her, alternatively the Court could allow service on her by advertising notice of your applications for example in a newspaper. However any Orders made will not be effective unless she is aware of them.
Unfortunately the Courts would not be able to embark on an investigation to find out where the children are living.
Please contact me if you require any further assistance.
Regards,
Anna Baker
Solicitor
Family Law Team
sorry i seem to have lost the reply regarding my parents rights but they do have them.
Comment by zarr — Mon 29th December 2008 @ 11:39 pm
hello zarr again i forgot to tell you ,when i rang the police to ask them if they can accompany me to ex partners address as i was fearful of being beaten or worse the police officer said that they cant accompany me but to have my cell phone ready for when he attacked me,bit hard to call police and tell them where you are while getting teeth kicked out!!.
they said they cant do prevention work,yet i see on the news they stake out carparks where it is rumoured boy racers hang out to do burn outs and talk to these petrol heads that are parked up telling them of consequences, sounds like prevention to me but im only the class clown.anyway i wish you all the best of luck in your endevours,and hope maybe that some of my venting may help some of you out ther,dont give up your children are worth the hassle.
Comment by zarr — Tue 30th December 2008 @ 12:06 am