Questions in Parliament for Oral Answer 3rd Nov 2004

8. JUDY TURNER (United Future) to the Minister for Courts: Is he satisfied that the new $1.5 million trial of mediators in the Family Court is sufficient reform to improve outcomes for children?

Hon RICK BARKER (Minister for Courts): The $1.5 million will fund the cost of pilots in four courts, offering families involved in custody, guardianship, and access disputes the opportunity for non – judge led mediation, as recommended by the Law Commission. Evaluation of the pilot will determine whether there have been improved outcomes for children, and this will have a lot of influence on future policy-making decisions.

Judy Turner: Is the Minister aware that research indicates that children are at risk of significant lifelong negative outcomes from ongoing conflict during parental separation, which can be greatly reduced when parents receive training on how to protect children and support them during Family Court cases; if so, does he agree that initiatives to develop mandatory parent education programmes should be given priority if we are to give real effect to promoting the best interests of the child?

Hon RICK BARKER: The Government is well aware of those issues and takes very seriously its responsibilities as a leader in these issues to help parents make good decisions. We will help parents with more counselling, more information, and more advice so that they can better undertake their responsibilities.

Richard Worth: Why is the Minister acclaiming this pilot programme when there have already been three pilots of non – judge led mediation in different parts of the country–this is nothing new?

Hon RICK BARKER: My advice is that it is new. Secondly, this will have a very clear and serious evaluation process and it is following the recommendation of the Law Commission in its report into the Family Court.

Martin Gallagher: Can the Minister outline the Government initiatives that aim to improve the Family Court processes for children?

Hon RICK BARKER: The interests of children are central to the Government’s improvements in relation to the Family Court. For example, the new Family Court website has a special section designed for children that makes the court processes easier for them to understand. The family mediation pilot will enable children to be involved in the discussions about their family’s future, which will make it less scary for the children. This pilot will hopefully lead to quicker processes to resolve a family’s issues, and families making decisions by themselves. If the families make their own decisions, they will be durable.

Dail Jones: Does the Minister intend to make this mediation proposal compulsory in all custody and access cases or only in those cases where a likelihood of successful mediation is possible?

Hon RICK BARKER: No. The mediation can never be compulsory, because mediation is about the parties negotiating and discussing outcomes for themselves. The compulsion part is when the matter is referred to the judge for a decision. That is the compulsion part. We are trying to get better processes in place before that so that families come to their own decisions about their futures themselves.

Judy Turner: Will the Minister extend his commitment to making Family Court processes more child and family-friendly to funding a national roll-out of the Children in the Middle parent education programme that is already piloted on the North Shore by the Family Court Association; if not, why not?

Hon RICK BARKER: I am not familiar with all the details around that pilot, but after the member’s question I will certainly go and investigate the matter.

Press Release: New Zealand Government

Parents who use their children to get back at estranged or divorced partners by preventing their return to the parent with day-to-day care, face the possibility of arrest, says Associate Justice Minister David Benson-Pope.

Mr Benson-Pope says the Government will propose an amendment to the Care of Children Bill, being considered by Parliament this week, to ensure the law has the necessary teeth to guarantee court directions are carried out.

An amendment to the Bill will provide the Police with the power of arrest for the existing offence of resisting execution of a warrant to enforce a parent or guardian’s role of providing day-to-day care of a child. The same power will exist in ensuring contact with a child.

“The cornerstone principle in the Bill is that the welfare and best interests of the child must be the first and paramount,” said Mr Benson-Pope. “The Government was concerned that without a specific arrest power the purpose of warrants — the safe return of a child — could be frustrated.

“When decisions have been made about the day-to-day care of a child it is appropriate that Police will be able to take action in the best interest of that child.”

Mr Benson-Pope says the Government intends to make a number of other minor amendments. These include enabling the continuation of professional legal publications to report care of children cases. These legal reports are considered an important resource amongst Family Court professionals. However, they will be prevented from publishing names of parties or children.

The Government is concerned a clause within the Bill requiring consent from an intended testamentary guardian is unnecessary and will impose additional costs on persons making wills or deeds. The Government proposes omitting this clause. Other amendments will be of a minor or technical drafting nature.

“The Care of Children Bill represents the most significant improvements to guardianship laws in almost four decades,” said Mr Benson-Pope. “It includes a range of changes to the law, all with the purpose of improving the situation of children and families who have experienced divorce and separation.”

The Union of Fathers says a new family court model is a small step in the right direction, but warns there is still a long way to go.

The Government is trialling a non judge-led mediation service aimed at resolving custody and access issues.

The Union of Fathers says public debate is needed so the country can get it right on behalf of New Zealand children.

Spokesman Jim Bagnall says any changes to the system need to ensure fathers have a fair say in proceedings.

He says there needs to be a fundamental law change to create a rebuttable presumption of shared parenting, with real evidence needed for another outcome.

The Government intends passing its Care of Children Bill next week, and will put Parliament into urgency this Thursday so the legislation can complete its committee stage.

Associate Justice Minister David Benson-Pope, who is in charge of the bill, said today it was the most significant improvement to guardianship laws in almost 40 years.

“The public have also asked for a more open Family Court. It is important that people have confidence in the court while recognising that issues being discussed may be intensely private and personal.

“Access to the court by accredited media, with clear guidelines to retain the anonymity of the parties and children involved, will remove misconceptions that the Family Court’s previously private hearings might have allowed for unfair processes and bias.”

Child, Youth and Family (CYF) has launched its largest ever campaign to recruit 300 temporary and permanent foster parents.

CYF needs the new caregivers for emergency, respite, short-term and longer-term work.

They also want people willing to take on permanent custody of children.

UK and Dutch members of Fathers 4 Justice overpowered police and stormed a conference on family law last Friday, forcing the evacuation of the building.

The fathers’ rights group was hoping to get the chance to remonstrate with the UK children and families minister, Lord Filkin, outside the conference venue, which is next to the Regent’s canal in north London.

The group’s spokesman, Matt O’Connor, told SocietyGuardian.co.uk that the minister could have found himself “in at the deep end”.

Acting on a tip-off, the police stationed three divers and a dinghy in the canal as a precaution, and more than 30 policemen were brought in to guard the conference centre.

The Union of Fathers believes a new Family Court pilot scheme will be a huge success, if it is well resourced.

A non judge-led mediation service is being trialled to resolve custody and access issues on Auckland’s North Shore.

Union of Fathers spokesman Jim Bagnall says it is critical highly skilled mediators are used, so parents understand what is best for their children.

Mr Bagnall says interest in the pilot is huge because New Zealanders want change in the Family Court.

There are hopes a pilot scheme for resolving child custody issues will be more successful than the current system.

Early next year families on Auckland’s North Shore will be given the option of accepting mediation not led by a judge.

Courts Minister Rick Barker says currently families referred to mediation can wait weeks or even months to be appointed a Family Court judge.

He says this way, properly trained mediators can speed up the process and help families find their own solutions.

Concerns for the safety of a woman and her children were raised last night after a Christchurch judge allowed a convicted wife-beater to apply for home detention.

Brian Gardner, the national manager of the National Network of Stopping Violence Services, said the man should never have been allowed to apply for home detention.

“If he gets home detention his partner will effectively be his jailer,” he said.

“Courts are abdicating their responsibility for care and protection by sending an abusive man back to the house with his victims.”

Home detention orders are only served with the consent of the woman involved, but Sheryl Hann, the policy research adviser of the National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuges, said victims might agree because they were fearful of retaliation.

“Judges need to realise that domestic violence is a life and death situation and that home detention should never be allowed under any circumstances.”

A Rotorua woman lied to police about being raped and kidnapped by her partner to get revenge on him for seriously assaulting her, the Rotorua District Court was told.

The 55-year-old, who has interim name suppression, pleaded guilty to a charge of fabricating evidence and will be sentenced in December.

The woman alleged her partner held her captive at a Rotorua house this year before taking her to a beach where she was assaulted, raped and violated.

The man was committed to trial after a depositions hearing but the woman later signed an affidavit saying the rape and kidnapping allegations were false.

A Westport man who threatened to shoot people unless his tax debt was wiped was jailed for two years when he appeared in the Westport District Court.

Wayne William Anderson, 45, was sentenced to two years in jail for drink-driving, possessing a rifle and ammunition and holding a firearm without a licence.

On July 22, Anderson was phoning Inland Revenue when he threatened to go out and start shooting people within 30 minutes if his debts were not cleared.

Police found Anderson 50 minutes later with a loaded rifle, 72 rounds of ammunition and bottles of spirits in his car.

His lawyer, Doug Taffs, said Anderson’s offending followed the tragic death of his son. His stress was exacerbated by the tax department trying to recover child support debt.

A 20-year-old man who allegedly snatched his two-year-old son from his former partner in the Far North yesterday will appear in the Kaikohe District Court today.

Up to 50 police, including the armed offenders squad, were involved in the operation from about 7.30am.

The boy and his mother were the subject of a protection order.

A hunting rifle was in the vehicle but Mr Swann said his understanding was that the firearm was not carried during the alleged abduction.

After the kidnap, the man eventually made his way to Teal Bay where he parked his dark green 1997 Ford Falcon station wagon under a pohutukawa tree at a reserve at the end of the beach, near an estuary.

First it was Wayne Pruden who kidnapped his son, now another father has taken the law into his own hands abducting his son, so is the Family Court giving fathers a fair go, or are some Dads out of control?

Streaming video of Holmes interviewing Jim Bagnal from Union of Fathers

Mothers who kill their children may not be able to argue post-natal depression to avoid a murder conviction after a Government-ordered review of infanticide laws.

Justice Minister Phil Goff has asked the Law Commission to consider whether infanticide should be repealed, because sentencing laws now allow judges to consider mitigating factors for murder and vary sentences.

Any change to the law will spark an emotional debate about whether a mentally ill woman who kills her child should carry the stigma of being called a murderer.

There are also concerns the penalty for murder can be far greater than for infanticide, which carries a maximum penalty of three years’ jail.

Wiping away tears, Hamilton man Wayne Pruden talks about how he went to pick up his 15-month old son yesterday and came home without him.

He should have had his 15-month-old son returned to him after a four-week holiday in Vietnam.

But Mr Pruden, 42, has no idea where his son is, though it is believed he is back in Hamilton.

The toddler left a month ago with his Vietnamese mother and was to have returned to New Zealand last week.

The boy’s passport has since been surrendered to Hamilton District Court in accordance with a Family Court ruling and Mr Pruden expected to see his son yesterday as part of a shared custody agreement.

But Mr Pruden — who hid his son in a Hamilton motel in a bid to prevent him from leaving New Zealand last month — waited in vain at the usual meeting place in the city and wonders whether his son is in New Zealand at all.

Well away from pig hunting and jugs of beer, in the halls of Waikato University, psychology lecturer Dr Darrin Hodgetts says for the last couple of decades men have been told that there’s something wrong with expressing the sort of manly traits idealised by brewery and ute adverts…

A couple of decades of feminism has negatively influenced the thinking of universities and the public sector towards the traditional Kiwi male, Hodgetts says.

He has published research on women’s health, but has also studied post-feminist theory and says the academic view of masculinity has been skewed too far to the negative.

Women’s studies academics at Auckland University have sensed anti-feminist attitudes in his research topic, and challenged him to a debate. The glint in his eye indicates he’s looking forward to it.

It shouldn’t be sacrilegious to question why there isn’t more male gender research being done, he says, particularly in the field of men’s health.

Nelson police are unapologetic for arresting a man shortly after his partner gave birth to a baby girl they say is drug-dependent due to the mother’s drug addiction.

The five-day-old baby has been placed into the interim care of Child, Youth and Family after police concerns about the mother’s drug habit and the arrest of the baby’s father Warwick James for breach of bail.

James said he was approached by Detective Sergeant Tony Bernards minutes after the birth of his daughter on Sunday morning and hospital staff were in tears as he was taken to a nearby foyer and told he was to go to the Nelson police station.

“I said I did not think this was a very appropriate time and could he come back later,” he said.

“They could have waited until the next day. I wasn’t going anywhere.”

The New Zealand Law Society’s October 2004 Advanced Counsel for Child Workshop at Waipuna Lodge in Auckland was the target of a Union of Fathers protest last Monday.

Men have long complained that counsels for child often act as a second lawyer for the mother, and typically fail to protect the father/child relationship. Union of Fathers members say that the generous fees paid to lawyers who help remove fathers from families would be better utilised in mediation, conflict resolution and communication courses, and other interventions which aim to allow children continuing contact with both their parents following a relationship break-up.

One reporter from a local paper turned up to cover the protest, but as none of the superheros present were prepared to undertake dramatic or disruptive actions, television reporters were not interested. Fortunately, menz.org.nz has obtained video footage of the event for your entertainment:

Download Counsel for Child protest video here [486KB .wmv]

A small but dedicated bunch of men women and children (plus a “parrot” – centre of photo behind cake) turned up to celebrate the 10th Aniversary of Men’s Centre North Shore. Several super-heroes were in attendance. Jack Lioneagle’s protest songs were played loudly, Speights was sunk and cake was eaten.

The evening’s most enthusiastically received toast was “that in another 10 years the Men’s Centre would be redundant”.

The Ministry of Youth Development (formerly Youth Affairs) have recently produced a literature review on Young Males that I thought I would post on this site.

Launched by the Hon John Tamihere, Minister of Youth Affairs, the publication Young Males: Strengths-based and male-focused approaches is anticipated to be of great interest to all people who work with the young men of New Zealand. Young Males: Strengths-based and male-focused approaches can be downloaded here.

There are a number of male youth behaviours within New Zealand that have been identified as a cause for concern. Often these behaviours place people, property, or the young men themselves at risk. Young men are disproportionately represented in areas such as leaving school without qualifications, unemployment, justice sector interactions and a number of high health risk behaviours including motor vehicle accidents and youth suicide.

The Ministry of Youth Development recognises that a number of agencies and organisations currently deliver programmes, initiatives and interventions to assist young males in areas of their lives where they could be doing better. The literature review explores two proposed strategies for improving programme outcomes for young men, these are: strengths-based approaches and male-focused delivery styles.

There has not been a lot of work conducted into how gender-related factors contribute to programme recruitment, retention or outcomes. The findings do, however, identify a number of areas where the experiences, feelings, behaviours and needs of young males differ from those of young females.

It should be noted that this is one of the first government publications to record young men not as “at risk” of poor outcomes, but as inherently “at promise” of healthy lives. This strengths-based approach is seen as a significant tool when working with young men. Young men are not a problem to be fixed, but rather an enthusiastic and vibrant source of energy which can be directed positively.

I trust that you will find this publication of interest and that we can work together to promote the potential benefits that the acknowledgement of gender may bring.

Experts say domestic violence is just as severe and as prevalent in same-sex relationships as in heterosexual ones, with a third of homosexual partnerships estimated to be abusive.

But a taboo exists around what the gay community calls the “second closet”, resulting in under-reporting of violence and a scarcity of support services.

Auckland’s Jo Butler, who runs one of the few programmes for lesbian victims of domestic violence, says there is an ideological reluctance from many lesbians to acknowledge women can be as abusive as men.

“I think lesbians have to get real about this,” she said.

“Nobody’s talking about it, but until we as a community face up to this, then nothing’s going to happen. It’s really hard for women coming out with this if no-one wants to hear about it.”

Her Auckland-based Breaking the Cycle programme had counselled lesbians who sustained abuse as bad as in any heterosexual relationship, including sexual violence.

Government plans to give Family Court judges the power to vet media stories is a form of censorship that journalists strongly oppose, Commonwealth Press Union (CPU) New Zealand chairman Gavin Ellis said today.

Family Court proceedings would be opened to the public and media with tight restrictions in place, the Government announced yesterday.

Changes were designed to improve transparency without compromising proceedings, ministers said.

Media and others could attend hearings with the judge’s permission, while involved parties could ask for outsiders to be excluded.

Judges could direct that draft news reports be submitted to the court to check they complied with court directions.

Any breach of those directions would mean individuals were liable of three months’ imprisonment or a $2000 fine and organisations up to $10,000 in fines.

Dr Muriel Newman – Press Releases – Social Welfare

ACT New Zealand Deputy Leader and Social Welfare Spokesman Dr Muriel Newman today predicted that New Zealand would never be able to reduce its levels of domestic violence so long as the Family Court protects perpetrators behind closed doors.

“On Radio New Zealand today, Chief Family Court Judge Peter Boshier explained that an open Family Court could impact badly on children in violent families,” Dr Newman said.

“But, by dealing with domestic violence in private, the Family Court is effectively protecting perpetrators of a particularly reprehensible act from the scrutiny of a public that has little tolerance for such a crime, and allowing false allegations to remain untested.

“The question must also be asked as to why these cases are not then referred to the District Court, so that the offenders can be brought to justice – rather than allowing domestic violence to be swept under the carpet as part of a custody and access dispute.

“The Family Court should be an open court. Those who seek to protect the court’s privacy are hindering citizens’ right to open justice,” Dr Newman said.

ENDS

Fathers in New Zealand are waiting for their own Batman to raise awareness for their cause.

A man dressed as the caped crusader has drawn world wide attention for the plight of dads estranged from their children after staging a five hour protest perched on a ledge at Buckingham Palace.

The Union of Fathers here says they are watching the activities of their British counterparts with interest and admiration.

Spokesman Darrell Carlin says his group has moved from protesting to lobbying, but he is not ruling out similar stunts being staged in New Zealand.

BBC News report and photos of Batman protest.

Audio Report: Newstalk ZB UK correspondent Gavin Grey talks to Paul Holmes about the high profile protest by a Fathers’ Rights campaigner who scaled Buckingham Palace dressed as Batman.

John Tamihere has again defended boys’ rights to be boys.

The Youth Affairs minister has attacked the media’s portrayal of boys as “problems” and society’s failure to recognise their differences.

He told the New Zealand Family Daycare Association conference in Rotorua last night: “We are told their behaviour needs to be controlled, managed or handled. It’s as if boys are ticking time bombs – it won’t be long before their latent criminal behaviour is unleashed on the unsuspecting public, or the testosterone surging through their bodies renders them incapable of any rational thought.”

Tamihere – whose “red-blooded Kiwi men” speech was seen as a ploy to win back the bloke vote – said that not recognising boys’ differences from girls’ came at a cost when boys were under-performing in educational areas.

“I want to make one thing clear – boys are not the problem. It’s time to stop blaming them.” He said most boys and young men could “deal with their hormones”.

“As a society, it’s time to show our boys we are proud of them and who they are. Let’s drop the blame mentality of the past. Let’s focus on their potential.

“For so long we have been blaming our young men – yet it is our behaviour they are reproducing.”

Following on from his red-blooded bloke speech when he attacked political correctness, saying heterosexual men needed to re-assert themselves, Tamihere reiterated the need for positive male role models.

“In a boy’s life, their father is often the most significant figure. Yet for many boys today, finding a male to look up to and seek guidance from is not an easy task.”

Tamihere said one in three boys lived apart from their fathers. A mere 18 per cent of primary teachers were men. The minister has long been a defender of men’s rights to be men. Last September he told the Sunday Star-Times that blokes shouldn’t be afraid to leave the toilet seat up or have a beer with mates at the pub.

He said too much suspicion was cast over men in matters such as marriage break-ups, child custody rights and allegations of impropriety.

“Basically, I’m sick of men having to apologise for having a penis,” he said last year. “Look at what goes on in the family court, that is a system that always presumes the man is guilty.”