3 Years On
Most of this letter was published in the East and Bays Courier just before the 2002 Election. How much has been achieved in 3 years.
Election Issues and Men.
Once again, as at the end of every three year cycle comes the political promise. The promise to throw more money at what each politician perceives is our greatest concern, and of course the promise to keep their promises.
If there is one promise that hasn’t been kept by the present Government it is to review family law, and if there is one black hole we can’t afford to throw more money into it is the state fund of family disestablishment.
In the last three years the number of children registered in the child support system rose from 220,000 to over 300,000, and you can expect that figure to top 400,000 by the next election. We can only guess what the percentage of single families may have risen to from the current 27 %.
70% of cypfs work load came from single parent families, 80% of youth court offenders came from fatherless homes, and 92 % of family court cases ended in sole custody for mothers.
Employers find our youth lack self esteem, basic education, work ethics and a sense of value. Schools in spite of the best efforts of our better teachers still fail our children. Parents who discipline their children are arrested and dragged before the court of our all to common criminal. We have even allowed fathers to be jailed for sending their children Xmas presents.
Our Society has been quick to accuse Men of doing nothing but working, drinking beer, and being obsessed with Rugby, that was before it accused men of being absent without leave.
What has to be acknowledged now is that driven feminist can’t do one thing – they can’t be men.
Until now society has been so unaware of what the male role model actually provided our children. In our ignorance and to our peril society dismissed men and fathers as an unnecessary appendage to the family and to children’s lives.
Male suicide will soon become the leading cause of death for men in New Zealand, already a close second behind car accidents, but then male hunting has become an acceptable way to earn a living.
If the spiralling cost of the DPB isn’t bad enough, add the 33 million dollars of legal aid that was paid to mothers to fight fathers in the family court, and the administrative cost of the family court with all its subcontracted psychologists and counsellors. The cost of all those affected children who commit crimes of attention, or rebel with valueless acts. After 20 years they are the new class of prisoner who fill our jails. Those that just don’t care.
Ask yourself this – who is teaching them not to care, and who is not teaching them to care.
I am one of many Union of Fathers volunteers who help fathers fighting for contact with their children. I had just over 200 calls, in the first 6 months of this year, all from men being hunted by the system, for not walking away, or for caring about their relationship with their children.
I only had one question before the last election. It has been ignored, avoided, and answered with false promises and platitudes, during the last three years. The election speeches don’t impress me because they ignore this issue again. All I ask is when will this country help those men who so desperately want just one thing – to be a father to their children.
Whether you approach this issue on an emotional and social level, or as a dollars and cents issue, there is no good reason for us to continue doing what we are doing. Because we do not take a stand on these issues we are allowing the state to fund social decay., with our own taxes.
It is time for men and women to collectively tackle this issue, then we will drive the country in a more positive direction. It is also time to hold to account those people who willingly allow this suffering and destruction. It is time to tell the untold stories.
If we want to cast one vote that will help law and order, education, justice, health, children’s welfare, and government expenditure, then we should give it to the politicians who will tackle these issues in the next three years.
Bevan Berg,
Union of Fathers
National Executive.
And who are the politicians that will tackle the issues? Only Dr Muriel Newman springs to mind and ACT is flailing about of the edge of oblivion from what I can see.
Peter Dunne is making some good noises about the family being the most important unit within NZ but I am yet to be convinced that his party has a grasp of the issues at hand and the balls to stand up and do something about the real issues.
National? All they want is to collect the outstanding Child Support debt without looking at the root causes that send men running for the hills leaving debt in their wake.
Comment by Mark Lloyd — Fri 3rd June 2005 @ 3:39 pm
Neither Labour or National will be useful in this area: both see the $500 million of child support penalties as a valid source of income for their budgets (?????).
Unfortunately, Mr Dunne has been noteworthy only for his lack of doing anything.
Dr Newman is a consistent voice from the wilderness, but her future appears less than certain.
Libertarianz are a new party and may show some solid policy in this area.
Maybe the Republican Party will be there too.
The parents and children of New Zealand certainly deserve a respite from the constant attacks by the anti-Clark and her worshippers.
Comment by Sparx — Fri 3rd June 2005 @ 5:23 pm
i have recently been through the family court system.i had everything thrown at me from protection orders to abuse allagations.it is a disgrace that we allow this to happen to ourselves and our children.i want to point out that there are some very decent people working in the family court and i thank them very much for there input.however it is the organisations that surround the family court that we need to be concerned with,i refer to womans refuge and victem support and i am sure others as well.in my experience they will think nothing of telling lies and causing as much trouble as they can to satisfy their own agendas.it is our children that suffer in the end.these people are lower than snake shit and need to be exposed for what they are.by the way anyone who votes labor is an idiot,their hidden agendas are not even hidden anymore,if they get another term we are all f****d!
Comment by brettfilmer — Fri 3rd June 2005 @ 10:57 pm
I am at present battling a situation where i was paying the correct amount of child support.As I was made redundant earlier this year I had to find another job, I was successful in obtaining another position however had to take a cut in salary which affected my child support.The dept was notified and adjustments were made accordingly,however my ex partner decided to apply for an admin review even though she was on a benefit and wasn;t receiving any of the money.I am living with my fiance and one of her children,The outcome was that they cut $10,000 off our living allowance claiming even though my partner was working part time earning approx $200 per week she was financially independant from me.There is flexability in the act as was proven in this case,however the review officer Mr Alan Little chose not to excersise this opting to line the crown coffers a little more.People complain about child poverty in New Zealand and this guy is one of the causes of it when he can overturn the law and take more than the legal amount off parents with one child in there care to line the crown coffers.This guy has no conscience.
Comment by Richard Fendall — Sat 4th June 2005 @ 7:39 pm
Richard. THAT SUX!! I’ve been thru two admin reviews now without any luck even though I support a wife two kids and my mum. Sounds like I am lucky they have not opted to take more than the already ridiculous amounts. It would send my family into bankruptcy. So in NZ you lose ya job and you get penalised for it. What a naughty bad man you are for losing your job and not providing for your child! Never mind your other dependents. They dont count for nothing sadly. I would be representing myself and objecting that decision all the way. Its not like your child is even going to benefit from the increased amount you pay. WTF!!
Comment by Mark Lloyd — Mon 6th June 2005 @ 7:40 pm
Richard,
How are you doing with your situation?
Parents for Children are a national organisation committed to achieving political change in the Child “support” (really a tax) and family law areas.
We also provide child support advocacy for members of the organisation. Visit the web site and see if there is a commonality there.
Regards,
Mark Shipman
President
Parents for Children
Comment by Mark Shipman — Tue 7th June 2005 @ 2:35 pm
Hello Richard,
Your experience is not unique, and though it may be that Mr Alan Little has no conscience, you can put your house on it that the directive of reducing a liable parent’s living allowance to that of a single person in your circumstances is a IRD/Child Support policy directive made and implemented from upon high. (If not, then heaven help us if the review decisions I’ve read reflect the legal skills of the lawyers who’ve authored them. On this note good on you for identifying Mr Alan Little and holding him accountable for his opinion and recommendation to the IRD – if you or your friends (or anyone who reads this site) ever require legal services (assuming the man is actually a lawyer!)you will know who to avoid. I can safely say that, based on my experience and knowledge, Andrea Jones, a lawyer practising in Hamilton who contracts with IRD as a review officer, might also be avoided for the same reasons. Boycotts can be an effective means of response and making one’s point.
I do know something about this area and it may be that there are some legal avenues available for you to redress. I would be happy to talk with you about it if you would like. Contact could be made through the administrator of this website or through a reply message by you.
Fundamentally though, I agree with Mark Shipman that there neeeds to be a drastic, revolutionary change to the so-called “Child Support” system in NZ. Its history shows that Labour supports it for ideological reasons (essentially feminism), and National goes along with it for fiscal reasons – to recoup DPB payments where the custodial parent is on a beneift, and to swell Government coffers thorugh the collecting and keeping of the extortionist interest charges that accrue should you ever miss or not be able to make a payment. Indeed it was National that brought in the administraive review procedure, taking responsibility from the Courts and conferring it upon beauracrats answerable to the Minister of Revenue, and statutorily bound to bring in the highest net revenue for the Crown over time!
I can say that it is the single-most important issue for me this election year. As Mark Shipman suggests, we must act(vote) in concert – democracy is a numbers game, and we need to identify the party to throw our collective weight behind on the promise of a more just child support system (Muriel Newman seems to say the right stuff, but with Act now identifying itself as “the liberal party” I wouldn’t hold my breath).
Comment by John Self — Sat 11th June 2005 @ 12:22 am
Hi. Very nice Post. Not really what i have searched over Google, but thanks for the information. Can you email me back, please. Thanks so much.
Comment by Mufinella — Wed 3rd February 2010 @ 9:53 am