Showing posts with label family-breakdown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family-breakdown. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Costello, Howard's Disciple

'ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS?'

WAR CRIMINALS, JOHN HOWARD AND PETER Costello lost their vision for Australia from the time they were elected and embarked on a vision for the neo-Liberals.

The Un-Australian Newspaper: Lamenting that the symbols of Australia at the moment are fraying, the Liberal Party's heir-apparent Pastor Peter [$Money, $Money, $Money], and the Hills songs argued that the magic and myth has been stripped from vice-regal office -- just weeks after Tasmanian governor Richard Butler was ousted.

The Un-Australian: A committed Christian, [?] lamented the decline of religion and marriage in Australia, claiming family breakdown was a contributing factor to poverty. Offering an alternative vision in areas where John Howard has faced some of his strongest criticism, Mr Costello predicted the public would become more accepting of higher levels of immigration. "As the population of Australia ages, as we have skill shortages, that Australia is going to have to have a larger skilled immigration program," he said.

[In other words we'll use them when it suits us and we'll lock them up when they get in the way. Very Christian? Just like throwing them to the lions......]

Mr Costello vowed to speak out widely outside his portfolio after Mr Howard decided last year to stay on as Liberal leader -- a decision that deeply upset the Treasurer.

[True? Howard is the Devil and Costello claims to be a Christian, is that like 'good cop' - 'bad cop'?]

Commenting on the Howard Government's immigration policy, Mr Costello said he looked forward to a future where there were no children in detention centres. "and I think that has to be the aim of the policy". The ultimate aim, I think, should be for no children in detention, and I think I am right in saying there are very few at the moment."

[Does that mean he is going to start rescuing the children thrown over-board? Or just let out some of the kids that could swim? Very few children in detention, Pastor Peter, that is if you're not one of them I guess?]

There are now 86 children held in detention centres and alternative programs in the community in Australia and offshore.

Labor has vowed to release all children from detention if elected. Predicting that Australia would eventually become a republic, Mr Costello said vice-regal appointees were left at the "mercy of the media".

[But actually if you're not a neo-Liberal then that's where you're also kept 'at the mercy of John Howard's corporate puppets'.]

Costello: "You'd have to think, if you were a prominent Australian and you were approached to do the job, you'd have to think very seriously about it these days, I would think," he said.

[But who'd work for the Devil anyway? Peter Costello!]

Costello: "A lot of the magic and myth has been stripped away from that office, and I think it's much harder for governors and governors-general to maintain any kind of vice-regal status that they need. "You're more or less at the mercy of "political factors"."

[Do you add that to the 'mercy of the media' or do you subtract it? I wasn't good at maths Pastor Pete.]

The Treasurer was one of the few senior Howard Government figures to publicly back the republic during the 1999 referendum. "We will become a republic, and I think that the symbols of Australia at the moment are fraying.

[No Pastor Peter the word is 'frying'. How would you like your election? Medium, rare or well done? Or don't you get cooked? Perhaps you're just an innocent bystander with Christian faith whose caught up in Howard's racist war machine?]

Costello: "But if you want to renew those symbols but have a Westminster system, I don't think you would support a directly elected president."

The Un-Australian Newspaper: Mr Costello's forthright remarks were seized on by Mark Latham last night, and senior Labor figures predicted they would revive Liberal leadership tensions. "Peter Costello is putting his own social agenda because he will never get any of these things from John Howard," the Opposition Leader told The Un- Australian.

"Mr Costello has repudiated the Prime Minister and endorsed a significant part of Labor's platform for the coming election, and I welcome his support."

However, the Prime Minister's office last night played down suggestions of a split in the Government's leadership, pointing out the Coalition was already pursuing alternative detention models for children.

[Well they say better late than never but I suppose if you have left children locked up until a couple of months prior the election then you've shown your true colours. What you see is what you get with Howard regardless of Costello's Christian faith?]

The Un-Australian Newspaper: His remarks on the decline of vice-regal office follows the furore over Mr Butler's $650,000 payout after he was asked by the Premier to resign and the resignation last year of governor-general Peter Hollingworth. "You just have to look at what's happened to a few governors and governors-general recently to know it's a very hard office to fill now," Mr Costello said. "You're expected to be vice-regal without any of the mythology that once surrounded the office. The press, of course, are only too willing to investigate all of your pecadillos and there's no vice-regal shield of protection anymore."

[Actually there is no shield for anyone who is not a neo -Liberal is there Pastor Peter? Perhaps if you're a christian neo-Liberal!]

The Un-Australian Newspaper: Chairman of the Australian Republican Movement John Warhurst said Mr Costello's comments reflected a greater demand for vice-regal accountability. "The republican debate shows that we are stuck between a discredited monarchy and a republic to come and it's a place that Australia should not stay in for long," he said.

[Actually we're stuck between the Devil and living in fear!]

Warhurst: "People these days are more interested in who holds these appointments and what they stand for. There's a general desire to democratise these roles."

[RICHARD'S BUTLER: Actually the people I know these days are more interested in civil and democratic rights, human rights, and a fair go and I don't think Richard Butler got one and neither did those children locked up in detention all 86 at the moment. And if you live in Iraq well.....What the neo-liberals are trying to convince the voters of is that at least one of them is decent but it won't wash with the Australian people because we know they're all in a different boat.]

SO PUT YOUR LEFT FOOT FORWARD 'WITHOUT FEAR' AND VOTE 1 THE GREENS AND 2 THE LIE DETECTORS AND LET THOSE CHILDREN GO! TO LIVE IN DETENTION IS A LIFE LOST.

By The Un-Australian and Just Us 24 August 04

Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel?

Well praise the Lord the light is Hell bent here on Peter Costello, treasurer of the Howard Government who now has his own "flock" of onward Christian Soldiers.

Related:

Detention centre maggots
A Greens' MP has slammed claims that South Australia's Baxter Detention Centre detainees are putting maggots into their own food. Detainees say maggots have been found in at least two meals in the past month.

Gillard stirs Liberal leadership pot
[War criminal], Peter Costello yesterday said that the Federal Government should aim to get all children out of immigration detention and he suggested there should be an increase in immigration levels.

Public wants accountability: Latham
Federal Opposition Leader Mark Latham says the Prime Minister needs to take responsibility for what he has said to the Australian public. Earlier today Howard responded to a list of alleged lies that Labor says he has told during his time in office. The Opposition released a document on the weekend titled Truth Overboard outlining 27 alleged lies.

Don't rock the Boat Howard!
PRIME Minister John Howard today denied the children overboard affair had swayed the 2001 election? Mr Howard has spent the week defending himself against claims he had been informed that nobody in Defence believed children had been thrown overboard by asylum seekers.

Australia an unfair nation, say young and all!
Young people and older people think Australia is undemocratic and unfair. Young people cite their teachers as having the greatest influence on their political thinking, according to a provocative new national survey funded by the Government. Older people cite "injustice" amongst other things as a "bent legal system" favouring hi profiled superstars, corporations and politicians.

Not happy, John
John Valder's alarm whistle effort 'let love be thy weapon' indeed Prime Minister John Howard is also the subject of a stinging attack in a Sunday feature this week, from the man who first engineered his ascent to the Liberal leadership in the mid-1980s former party president John Valder.

HOWARD'S LIE DETECTOR TEST: CHILDREN OVERBOARD AFFAIR
Prime Minister John Howard says voters will decide whether he has told the truth about the children overboard incident.

Children Overboard Affair: Howard 'unfit to lead'
The Federal Opposition says John Howard is not fit to be Prime Minister after new revelations about the children overboard affair. A former federal ministerial adviser says he told Howard in the lead-up to the 2001 election that no children had been thrown overboard from a boat carrying asylum seekers in Australian waters.

'Refugees and Indigenous People in John Howard's Australia' Politician - Senator Aden Ridgeway, the only Indigenous Federal parliamentarian, visits Villawood immigration detention centre and is a vocal critic of current refugee and Indigenous policy. Senator Ridgeway will discuss the proposed abolition of ATSIC as well as current refugee and Indigenous policy changes being fought for by the Australian Democrats. Advocate.

Forum on refugee and indigenous human rights
The long-term mandatory detention of asylum seekers not only breaches multiple UN treaties to which Australia is a signatory, it goes against the principals of any decent and humane society.

Baxter detainee continues hunger strike
A detainee at the Baxter detention centre near Port Augusta in South Australia has been on a hunger strike for a week. Sri Lankan Zeldon Daggie, 23, says he has been detained since arriving in Australia four years ago.

Senior cleric damns Baxter as 'disgraceful'
A senior world religious figure has called on the Federal Government to scrap its mandatory detention policy after visiting the Baxter detention centre in South Australia's north.

Australia's "GITMO" System
Australia's "GITMO" System In June 2002 on the PM program on ABC radio, PHILIP RUDDOCK is quoted as saying: "Well, let me just say, detention centres are not prisons. They are administrative detention. They're conducted in quite a different way." Detainees at Baxter report on a new regime instituted by Global Solutions Limited (GSL). Its purpose is to "teach you detainees to be respectful in the Australian way".

Detention centre media ban criticised
The Howard Government has been criticised in a report by media freedom advocate Reporters Without Borders for stopping journalists covering the conditions in refugee detention centres.

Compo claims could follow child detention, group warns
A refugee group has predicted a string of compensation claims, after the Human Rights Commission found numerous and repeated breaches of the UN convention on the rights of the child in immigration detention.

Child detention breaches UN convention: human rights report
A leaked final draft report by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) is calling for urgent changes to Australia's immigration detention laws.

Detention centre media ban criticised
The Howard Government has been criticised in a report by media freedom advocate Reporters Without Borders for stopping journalists covering the conditions in refugee detention centres.

Report recommends freeing child detainees
The Human Rights Commission has found that some children held in Australia's immigration detention centres have been exposed to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.

No more children for Baxter, pleads SA
The South Australian Government is urging the Commonwealth not to shift any more children into the Baxter detention centre in the state's north.

Nauru staff 'fear children are next'
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone says women and children are sitting in on a hunger strike at the Nauru detention centre, but are not participating.

Australian Govt human rights record 'worsening'
Community groups have given the Federal Government five out of ten for its record on human rights this year. Mr Purcell said the Government was also marked down because of the policy of holding children in immigration detention centres.

Here is a new project
1. Do you believe it is right to imprison innocent children?
2. Do you believe it is right to imprison innocent women?
3. Do you believe it is right to imprison innocent people?

Monday, August 2, 2004

NSW Legislative Council's Inquiry on Home Detention


Submissions closed last Friday 30 July for the Legislative Council's Inquiry into Back-end Home Detention.

Justice Action's submissions Justice Action opposes the use of home detention, whether front-end or back-end, as a sentencing option in our criminal justice system, [criminal law system.]

We have two primary concerns.

First, we believe the availability of home detention will increase the use of imprisonment as a sentencing option in our criminal justice system - and this is an outcome to be avoided at all costs.

Second, we believe that co-opting families into the State's role as gaoler is divisive and damaging for families.

Our reasons are as follows:

Net-widening

1. It is widely recognised that the damage caused by and the cost of imprisonment is enormous. For this reason it has become established policy that, (a) imprisonment is an option of last resort; and (b) the damage done by imprisonment should be minimised as far as possible.

2. Home detention is a form of imprisonment. So much is recognised in the legislation that enables home detention.

3. The onerous nature of home detention was described in some detail in the 1999 Review of the NSW Home Detention Scheme where it was also stated: "The demands required to complete home detention are equal to but different from the demands required to complete a prison sentence." (p. ix of Executive Summary)

4. Reforms to the penal system should be directed at decreasing the use of imprisonment and providing genuine alternatives.

5. There is a large gap between imprisonment and community sentencing options like community service orders in terms of the seriousness with which they are regarded.

6. Many players in the criminal justice system view home detention as a less serious punishment than imprisonment and, accordingly (in popular perception at least) home detention exists in the gap between imprisonment and community sentencing. It is also cheaper and gives Corrective Services a vastly increased capacity to imprison people. For all of these reasons home detention has the potential to be very popular and result in a net increase in the prison population.

7. Conversely, as Justice Action pointed out in our 1996 submission to the NSW Law Reform Commission "historically a key restraint on expansion of the prison population has been cell capacity [and]....an important stimulus to sentencing reform has been prison overcrowding."

Damage to families

8. The structure of home detention law is such that much of the burden of the sentence will be borne by the people the offender lives with, most often their family. Family members are subjected to the stigma, sleep deprivation, stress, tension and inconvenience of frequent visits and phone calls at any time of the day or night. Children are exposed to Corrective Services officers and the to the difficulties a confined offender suffers.

9. Additionally, home detention is conditional status that may be revoked at any time if it is considered not to be working. Accordingly there is a lot of pressure on households to present well to visiting Corrective Services officers and fear of the repercussions that may follow if they report the problems ensuing from the offender's confinement. Again it is worth noting the onerous nature of home detention for offenders. This is exacerbated because often they will be dealing withdrawals from drugs and alcohol while those around them may or may not continue to use drugs or alcohol themselves. (Offenders are subjected to regular urinalysis tests and negative results can mean revocation of home detention orders).

10. The resulting fear and stress pervades the household and is bad for all involved.

Conclusion:

Justice Action believes the use of home detention will increase the number of people damaged by the dehumanising experience of being imprisoned. Both by increasing the number of people sentenced to imprisonment and by the indirect effects which are borne by families and cohabitants of offenders.

EDITORIAL:

The obvious response having the choice between going to gaol and being given home detention, some people may pick Home Detention every time. Yep, that's the obvious response and the one that promoters of home detention want to see.

But what if the question was really "Would you like an additional period of home detention added to your regular sentence?" or "Would you like someone who would otherwise have been given a non-custodial to get full time prison thanks to the bed you freed up by accepting home detention?" would your answer be the same? The history of imprisonment in NSW offers a pretty strong argument that all prison slots (plus or minus a few percent) will always be full, regardless of prison capacity or crime rates. Provide more prison slots and you will get more prisoners.

I doubt that the NSW government can go much further with their prison enthusiasm while allowing transport, health and education infrastructure in the state to rot. Even my conservative relatives in Kempsey are bemused as to why a brand new prison can be built just out of town but the local hospital can't provide basic medical services (my Dad who lived less than 2km from Kempsey hospital but had to go all the way to Port Macquarie for straight forward oncological treatment). In my opinion, the recent push to increase home detention is a simple reflection of the fact that the Carr government can't increase full time prison capacity as quickly as they would like.

Home detention is a way of providing almost open ended prison capacity by turning homes into pods without breaking the state infrastructure budget. The use of the bracelets in the UK is also a bad sign as to where we might be headed with them here too. They are particularly widely used for juveniles and in cases where they would previously have been given a bond or a warning they are now using the bracelets in conjunction with orders banning people from going to certain parts of town (e.g. the shopping centre or cinema precinct) or from associating with their colleagues.

JA is pushing for greater provisions of non - custodial options - such as Community Service Orders (CSO's) positions, which are still in short supply especially in rural areas . We are not supporting Department of Corrective Services in its appropriation of peoples' homes for their prison system.

By Justice Action 2 August 04

Related:

WHY WE SHOULD OPPOSE HOME DETENTION
The ACT Government has drafted a new Bill to implement Home Detention This very discriminatory type of sentence also punishes the family. It is questionable that it has been successful anywhere it has been tried.

Putting Your Finger on the Line: Biometric Identification Technology The NSW Department of Corrective Services has progressively been implementing biometric identification technology (BIT) for use on all entrants into maximum security prisons since August 1996. It currently operates in seven prisons in NSW and is scheduled for introduction at Parklea prison later this year. BIT has raised the ire of many community agencies, the legal fraternity and government authorities. Framed examines what the controversy is all about and what the implications of this technology are.

The ALP's fascist police states
Welcome back Sid-in-knee. Old Falangist Samaranch would surely feel right at home in any number of fascist police states around this wide brown land today. Who needs Franco when you have Beattie, Rann, Carr, Bracks and co. Flamin' fascist fucks the lot of them.

You have choses Bob The Barbarian!
New laws to make it difficult for people charged with terrorism offences to get bail have been whisked through the New South Wales Parliament after only being introduced earlier today.

Carr Govt dramatic increases in the NSW prisoner pop...
Following the opening of the 500 bed Kempsey prison, and a new 200-bed prison for women at Windsor the Council of Social Service of NSW (NCOSS) and community organisations specialising in the rehabilitation of prisoners, have expressed concern....

Up there Khasali: Innocent man new bail laws
The New South Wales Supreme Court has asked innocent man Bilal Khazal to increase to amount of surety offered, before the bail is formally continued.

He was an undercover agent for the blues
He was my journalist, he was working undercover. The fellow knew all of the moves.... He really had me romping, bare footing stomping. He just kept igniting my fuse....

Govt tests airport security eye scanner
Technology that identifies people by scanning their eyes could be introduced into Australian airports as early as next year.

law and order days over, says Blair
Their 3D-iD system is ideal for both stationary assets, such as large physical inventories or for mobile assets like people and portable equipment.

Fingerprints now required for US visas
United States consulates in Australia have begun taking fingerprints from Australians applying for visas.

I won't be a criminal for you!
The only looming rules are for fools giving up personal details to the Devil in the first place when visiting the US.

Welcome to the MatrixB
US - In what civil liberties advocates call the most massive database surveillance program in US history, the Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange, or Matrix, continues to compile billions of records on law-abiding citizens and receive federal funding, despite public outcry and suspicion.

Thursday, July 29, 2004

Money will save relationship services, welfare group says?


Catholic, [? religious bondage], Welfare Australia says the immediate injection of $15 million into family relationships programs will prevent planned cuts to services.

[Welfare? How about Relationship Service? Social Services? After all it is taxpayers who support it, not the ruling class or religion.]


Father Joe Caddy, chairman of the service, says the program has been under review for almost eight years, and funding has not kept up with increasing demand.

"The family relationship support programs were beginning to fall over, they were so lacking in funding," he said.

"We've had to reduce some of our services around the country from between 30 to 80 per cent so it's tremendous that that family relationship support services can be put back into place and be put on a reasonable footing."

Father Caddy has also welcomed the Prime Minister's announcement of the establishment of a new national community-based network of family relationship centres, providing mediation for separation and child custody disputes.

By The Family 29 July 04

Joe Blowback: Put your hand out and people like John Howard [war criminals from the ruling class], will give you money for votes. But not religion. I say keep religion out of families and give the money to an independent and qualified relationship service provider and not to a church.

Related:

Labor says divorce plan not good enough
The Federal Opposition says the Government is doing too little, and taking too long, to overhaul arrangements for divorcing parents.

Custody overhaul to improve men's access to children
The Federal Government has announced an overhaul of family law arrangements, with plans to give men involved in marriage break-ups greater access to their children.

Zero Tolerance for Families
A three-strikes plan, which uses the threat of fines and jail to (force) parents to meet their parental obligations after divorce, could be introduced under a draft proposal from the parliamentary committee charged with reviewing the Family Law Act.

80-20 Family Court rule irrational: Martian
A Martian came down from Mars and he noticed that children were the products of a father and a mother. When the family split up the children were still the products of a father and a mother.

Fatherless Society "80-20 rule Vs 50-50 rule" family law
A Federal Parliamentary inquiry has heard that more children will grow up without fathers unless changes are made to family law. The committee is considering whether separated parents should share equal custody of their children.

Men told to change role but what for?
Fathers must take an equal role in parenting before their marriages end in divorce if changes to child custody laws are going to work, Pru Goward said yesterday.

Family Law: Shared parenting arrangements
My children were four and two years of age and it's been fourteen years since I seen my children who are now adults. I don't know where they are because the government fragmented us by order of the Family Court of Australia, which should be called, the Anti-Family Court of Australia. Big yawn!!!

History of trauma dogs sole parents and the government
Australia's sole parents including those who were squarely divided by the Family Court of Australia which include tens of thousands of lone mothers on welfare benefits have experienced rape, physical assault, torture and mental health disorders at some time during their life, a new study shows.

Australian fathers under terrorist attack-by its Politicians
Ruthless terrorists tactics are used by the state deny devoted fathers their children, and place vulnerable children at risk when they are denied their fathers protection. Five hundred thousand Australian children are denied contact with their father usually resulting from orders of the state by the Family and other Courts.

When is Michael Richardson going to remove the offending Family Court affidavit from the NSW Parliament website? Criminal: Hills district MP Michael Richardson. When is he going to remove these uncorroborated lies and family court pleadings on the confidential Family Court affidavit from the NSW Parliament website?

Wednesday, November 26, 2003

Development problems hit 1 in 4 kids: study

Australian of the Year Fiona Stanley has described the results of a groundbreaking study into child development as frightening.

The study of five-year-olds in Perth has found more than one-quarter could have social, intellectual or behavioural problems in later life.

For what is believed to be the first time in Australia, about 4,500 children were surveyed on social skills, literacy, physical health, maths, bahaviour and communication ability.

Professor Stanley says the figures are frightening because the children surveyed are typical of those in any Australian city.

The Early Development Index is an assessment of social, emotional, intellectual and physical capacities at age five. The study found 26 per cent of the children were vulnerable in at least one area and 13 per cent were considered to be at risk.

Professor Stanley said the community and governments need to act now to prevent a great deal of problems in the future.

"I don't think there is anything more important in Australia at the moment, as I have kept on saying this year," she said.

"These environments that impact on early child development are the things that are driving all these negative outcomes five, 10 and 15 years down the track."

Professor Stanley says it is alarming so many children have been identified as being at serious risk later in life.

"I don't think it is just a parental issue, although there are quite a few things that parents can do," she said.

"It does fall on local governments, on state governments and even on the Federal Government, to look at the kinds of family-enabling policies, family-enabling environments and to give parents support."

She says the findings would be similar anywhere in Australia.

"If you translated this across the country it would probably marry very closely with the kinds of children and the kinds of risk profiles that they had," Professor Stanley said.

"So I don't think this is going to be any different than many of the inner-city populations that you'd see across Australia."

She says many factors are making life difficult for new parents and in turn, their children.

"You can't tell people not to divorce but ... broken families are a very negative thing," she said. "Increasing and stressful hours of work are actually very negative for family functioning, an increased violence in the community, an increased violence within the home."

By At Risk Children 26 November 03

WHEN THE PUNISHMENT IS THE CRIME AND PLANTING THE SEED In New South Wales today if you get into trouble with the law you have little or no defence. Unless you're wealthy enough to get yourself a lawyer and even then the odds you will escape justice are minimal because of the infrastructure and resource of the government opposed to your Legal Aid Status. I am not saying Legal Aid cannot help you but I am saying they have become overworked and under resourced.

Zero Tolerance for Families
A three-strikes plan, which uses the threat of fines and jail to (force) parents to meet their parental obligations after divorce, could be introduced under a draft proposal from the parliamentary committee charged with reviewing the Family Law Act.

Fatherless Society "80-20 rule Vs 50-50 rule" family law
A Federal Parliamentary inquiry has heard that more children will grow up without fathers unless changes are made to family law. The committee is considering whether separated parents should share equal custody of their children.

80-20 Family Court rule irrational: Martian
A Martian came down from Mars and he noticed that children were the products of a father and a mother. When the family split up the children were still the products of a father and a mother.

Australia to tackle child abuse and rescue impoverished children?
A national report on child protection in the Northern Territory has blasted the system, saying it has abandoned the most impoverished children and families in Australia.

ATSIC call to smack kids?
The ATSIC commissioner said the high levels of regulation was not unlike the attention focused on Aboriginal families that led to the creation of a Stolen Generation of Aboriginal people. Mr Hill said he did not condone violence and admitted he did not smack his own children, but he stressed he wanted the issue of child discipline debated among Aboriginal people and community leaders.

No-Smacking Day for Children in NSW
Patmalar Ambikapathy the Children's Commissioner, HOBART Tasmania spoke to Gregory Kable a caseworker at Justice Action at the Controlling Crime Conference at Redfern in Sydney yesterday and we both realised how parallel our ideas about crime prevention were.

Judge renews child detainee release call
A Family Court judge, for a second time, has appealed to Immigration Minister, war criminal, Philip Ruddock to address the issue of children in detention.

Partnership to tackle Aboriginal children's health issues
Australian of the Year Professor Fiona Stanley has called for a sense of urgency in tackling the serious health problems facing Aboriginal children.

Graffiti: What they see is what you get
Father David Equal, a community leader has described the graffiti as the response to neglect by Australia's leaders, and the mainstream media, who have discriminated against people, recently.

Ruddock to challenge Family Court ruling
Ruddock said it is unfortunate the Full Court of the Family Court made the decision. He said a successful High Court challenge could see the children returned to detention.

Men told to change role but what for?
Fathers must take an equal role in parenting before their marriages end in divorce if changes to child custody laws are going to work, Pru Goward said yesterday.

Parents on the inside leave children on the edge
They have been dubbed the forgotten generation - the innocent casualties of their parents' crimes. New research shows that in 2001 14,500 NSW children had a parent in jail. And 60,000 NSW children under 16 have experienced the incarceration of a parent, more than half enduring the trauma of separation before they turn five.

States to cooperate on school curriculums but social skills don't rate? State and territory education ministers say Federal Education Minister Brendan Nelson's heavy-handed threats to school funding will not assist their ambitious initiative to develop consistent school curriculum’s in key subjects.[?]

Family Law: Shared parenting arrangements
My children were four and two years of age and it's been fourteen years since I seen my children who are now adults. I don't know where they are because the government fragmented us by order of the Family Court of Australia, which should be called, the Anti-Family Court of Australia. Big yawn!!!

School Curriculum needs balance? Life Skills and Academic Skills go hand in hand man Colin you need to be the students friends not their judge. Only when you can invite the students into the decision making process will you get an obligation by them to change their behaviour, because you Colin could lead by example and not by power.

Australian fathers under terrorist attack-by its Politicians
Ruthless terrorists tactics are used by the state deny devoted fathers their children, and place vulnerable children at risk when they are denied their fathers protection. Five hundred thousand Australian children are denied contact with their father usually resulting from orders of the state by the Family and other Courts.

When is Michael Richardson going to remove the offending Family Court affidavit from the NSW Parliament website? Criminal: Hills district MP Michael Richardson. When is he going to remove these uncorroborated lies and family court pleadings on the confidential Family Court affidavit from the NSW Parliament website?

NSW education professor warns further commitment needed
The author of a report on the New South Wales education system has urged the major political parties to do more for education in the election campaign.

Fiona Stanley, the children's crusader
It is all about prevention. As Fiona Stanley sees it, with one in five Australian teenagers experiencing significant mental health problems, there are just not enough treatment services to cope with the demand.

Parents call for feedback on social skills
Parents are calling for the same level of feedback on their children's social development as on their academic progress, according to a national survey.

Call to update suicide prevention strategy: study
A four-year study of suicides by people under the age of 18 in New South Wales, has found little difference between rates of suicide in rural and regional areas and cities.

Alcohol is just the beginning
People who start using alcohol by their mid teens are more than twice as likely as others to experiment with different drugs and to become dependent on drugs a major Australian study has found.

The punishment: Is the 'crime'
The punishment is the crime according to retired chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia Justice Alistair Nicholson. "Smacking a child ought to be seen as assault".

RESTORING TRUE JUSTICE:
Australian prisons are fast becoming the new asylums of the third millennium. The prison industry is booming, while Australia spends far less on mental health services than similar countries.

The Seed
Respect, you only get out what you have put in. What about Life Skills, Communication and Conflict Resolution. Evolution, perhaps some children and adults miss the whole or part of the course. I did, and so how surprised do you think I was when I realised my parents missed the course as well. Things like Compromise, Win Win, Empathy, and Love. Invisible energy and other skills like public speaking, how to Relate, Assuming, Blaming, Forgiveness, Freedom and Discrimination. This is how I learned respect. If you don't know what it is then how do you relate?

The Law According to Gregory Wayne Kable
I was sharply separated from both my children aged just 4 years and two years and sent to prison for the manslaughter of my wife. I cared for my children when my wife worked and I believe that I still had a responsibility to them even after the crisis situation and tragedy. I wanted to reassure them now and find out how they were doing.