Anthony Morahan writes in the NZ Herald that much of the comment on the murder of Bradley and Ellen Livingstone of Dunedin seems to have consisted of calls for punitive action.

Anthony Morahan: Punishing dead men will do nothing for families.

He says that women can do anything, including violence. He refers to NZ research that shows women are just as likely to resort to violence as are men.

Doesn’t he realise that this is heresy?

Lawyers aren’t supposed to publicly acknowledge that the Family Court is used to exert female “power and control”:

Protection orders are often made against fathers who are accused of being “controlling”. But women often seek protection orders to control men or to punish men for not paying what the mother considers to be enough child maintenance.

He notes that facilities which support men, such as the Father and Child Trust, struggle for funding.

He makes what seem to me to be some very sensible suggestions about protection orders:

A protection order should be granted only where there is need, not as a punishment or to give one parent an advantage over the other. Protection orders should not be used to cut off contact between parent and child. There should be arrangements for continued, but safe, contact. Protection orders should not remain in force indefinitely. A protection order should expire unless, on review, there is a demonstrable need for the order to continue.

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