Australia Follows Other Countries Negligence

Australia is following a worrying trend in the Family Courts where child custody is awarded to abusers.  Recently, it was reported that custody was given to a convicted pedophile.  

Earlier this year, a five year old girl was thrown off the west gate bridge after the father was granted shared parenting.  The family informed the media that they had notified various authorities over the past two years and nothing was done.  This type of negligence is not unusual.  

In May 2009, men and women rallied in all states of Australia requesting that the concerns of children and protective parents be investigated.  To divert the campaign, representatives of the court and government released a series of public announcements stating that such protections will be implemented.  So far, such promises have not progressed and the time for these families ran out long ago.  The family court in Australia joins other countries where they have reached beyond crisis point.  Around that time, a mother was ordered to return to UK by Australia despite her concerns that he would kill her.  The order resulted in her death.  

Family Law is a sensitive area that affects a majority of the population, one third of these are affected by family violence.  Some advocates shy away from the family law aspects because of the violence supportive myth that plagues our global community,

"She claims domestic violence to get child support".

Not one mother I have spoken to could care less about child support and prioritize the safety and well being of the children above money.  Child support cannot keep them alive, nor can it protect them from harm in a failing system that protects abusers above victims.

Sheaffer-VanOrman, Suzanne. (January 4, 2007). Family Court trend doesn't favor mothers. The Ithaca Journal - Ithaca, NY.

EXCERPTS: Current trends are beginning to mimic a time when women and children were considered marital property. Though not as openly sexist as our historical legacy, judges and law guardians hide inside a Trojan horse of sexual equality. Many law guardians arbitrarily recommend that the fathers who want custody get it. Rather than concern for the best interest of the child, these law guardians appear to strive to raise the statistics in favor of fathers.

A court psychologist in Ithaca isn't required to undergo any domestic violence training in order to be hired by the court as an "expert witness."

As a result of such low standards, hundreds of women in Tompkins and many other counties have unjustly lost their rights and privileges to raise their children. These rights have been awarded to abusive and/or substance dependent fathers, many of whom have criminal records and have committed violent crimes against women. Judges have the discretionary power to dismiss evidence which may prove contrary to the law guardian and psychologist advice. This may happen when law guardians object to the submission of evidence that conflicts with their own recommendations.

This is a recent Family Court decision in Australia where the father was given full custody.

In the Judges report, he writes 28 pages of criticism of the mother and her case of concern for her safety despite the following evidence:

"The magistrate was not uncritical of the father. A tape recording of an argument

between the mother and father in late-2005 was tendered in which the father is

heard to make a threat to kill the mother. In another segment of the tape he said

he will "go in like a lamb and out like a lion", this allegedly being an

expression used by both the father and his father.

154. The magistrate found that the following exchange could be heard on the tape :

[the mother]: "…Would you like to repeat about killing me.."

[the father]: "…What killing me? What are you talking about?"

[the mother]: "…Would you like to repeat what you just said, about killing

me"

[the father]: "…if you take [R] out of here, I will kill you"

[the mother]: "OK. That's what I needed, thank you"

In this case, he also attacks the child protection worker who was concerned about the child's safety:

"Perhaps partly due to poor grammar and expression, this paragraph is close to

unintelligible."

In another recent case, the judge completely ignores the evidence given towards domestic violence and states:

"Whether in fact there was on one side allegations of domestic violence and

abuse or whether the applicant was in any way involved in extra marital affairs

does not in any way concern me." Judge Bell

During the process of making a consent order, the judge noted that the mother is petrified and raised a concern that the mother was consenting under duress.  Instead of raising the alarm on the fathers behavior, he makes an order of "Unacceptable risk whilst being in the mothers care".  The children have been in the mothers care up until this time.  Without psychiatric diagnosis, he concludes that the mother is psychiatrically disturbed.  The father is then given full custody of the children.

The mother finally gathers the courage to return to the court and pursue orders for the return of the children. He then uses all of the previous reports to child protection and the police against her that have been unsubstantiated, but no evidence that it is in any way false.  

The judges response to the abuse allegations is:

 

"I am most concerned with regard to the question of the mother's possible emotional abuse of these children which on an interim basis seems to have more than a significant possibility"

"In my view on an interim basis that is the overwhelming concern and on that basis I could not contemplate it being in the children's best interests that the mother should have other than a relatively limited opportunity to have communication with the children both face to face and otherwise."

This is consistent to the recommendations of Dr Richard Gardner:

"If the mother has reacted to the abuse in a hysterical fashion, or used it as an excuse for a campaign of denigration of the father, then the therapist does well to try and 'sober her up'... Her hysterics... will contribute to the child's feeling that a heinous crime has been committed and will thereby lessen the likelihood of any kind of rapproachment with the father. One has to do everything possible to help her put the 'crime' in proper perspective. She has to be helped to appreciate that in most societies in the history of the world, such behavior was ubiquitous, and this is still the case."

Ibid. p.584-585