I heard that the NZ Republicans are carrying out a demonstration next Saturday 26 July where they will publicly burn copies of protection orders to highlight the injustice inherent in our Domestic Violence Legislation.

This legislation causes men to lose normal rights, and children to lose contact with their fathers, on the basis of uncorroborated, unproven allegations of “violence” defined so broadly as to cover almost any behaviour commonly shown in situations of conflict. The current orders automatically prevent fathers from having contact with their children, regardless of any realistic risk those fathers might present to the children. The fathers are treated as guilty until they can convince the Family Court that they are innocent, in many cases impossible because for many judges it only takes a woman to claim she is “frightened” for protection orders to be maintained.

If the children are lucky they get to see their dad once a fortnight for about 90 minutes in a demeaning supervised context such as Barnados, paid for by fathers who often have great difficulty finding the money after “child” (read spousal) support. We have now heard from many men who have spent time in prison for such heinous crimes as waving to their children or otherwise briefly greeting them when they coincidently see them in town. We are now facing the almost certain introduction of on-the-spot police protection orders that will see men thrown out of their homes on to the street, and you can bet those orders will be used as evidence to justify permanent protection orders.

I would encourage all men who can make it to copy a protection order, preferably a larger A3 copy, to come to the demonstration and ceremoniously burn it. Or just write “Protection Order” in large print on a blank piece of paper (with appropriate adjectives suitable for television news) and burn that. Please remember to remove all names and identifying details from any copies of real orders so you won’t get into strife for breaching Family Court secrecy laws.

The demonstration will be at Garden Place in the middle of the Hamilton CBD, at 11:00am next Saturday. The more people who come, the more likely the issues will get some media attention.