A happy Father's Day ahead - well, for some men at least

Every year, tens of thousands of Australian children are not able to wish their dad, or their granddad, a happy Father's Day due to their parents being separated or divorced.

What does that tell us, that fathers who don't see their children are "deadbeat dads"?

In a recent case federal magistrate Tom Altobelli made some surprising admissions in awarding a mother sole custody of her two children: "Their mother has indeed alienated them from their father … the mother's perception of the father is based on illusion not reality … She is not being malicious or malevolent, she is quite simply shackled by a distorted frame of reality … She believes the father is a risk to the children when he is not."

It is remarkable, and a relief, that Altobelli wrote the children a letter explaining his decision. But the isolation still felt by their father must be extreme. Many fathers - or mothers in similar situations - experience debilitating mental health issues while they work through various aspects of being a separated non-custodial parent.

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Parental Alienation as an Outcome of Paternal Discrimination, by Joep Zander

Parental alienation syndrome (PAS) in children is studied using a case study of a father, mother and daughter and the restoration of a child-father relationship after PAS. Three in-depth interviews provide insight into the dynamics of parental alienation and the way they can be further investigated. Paternal discrimination is seen as a critical variable.

From New Male Studies: An International Journal - Vol. 1, Issue 2, 2012, pp. 49-62.

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The Family Court, where fathers are the victim

The Federal Labor government appears bent on making it easier for mothers in Family Court proceedings to make false accusations about fathers being violent and abusing their children.

Such accusations are a routine part of custody battles. The Howard government made some effort to limit them; these sanctions are to be lifted in an amending bill to the Family Law Act now before the parliament.

The declared aim of the amendments is to better protect children from abuse and violence. The bill reaffirms that the best interests of the child must be the paramount consideration in the arrangements that follow separation of their parents. That always sounds reassuring. It is the mantra under which the Family Court operates. But when one principle, however worthy, is made pre-eminent, to be pursued whatever the consequences, terrible harm can be done.

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Women's rights push dads aside

IT is hard to fathom that the law would exclude a loving father from the life of his child on social policy grounds. Yet this is what occurred recently in NSW when a non-biological lesbian mother successfully applied to have the name of the father, a sperm donor, struck off the birth certificate of his IVF-conceived 10-year-old daughter and replaced with her own.

This kind of court decision, however, will come as little surprise to many dads, all too familiar with the operation of family law in Australia. Usually women's rights trump the needs of fathers and children, as is again being demonstrated by the Gillard government's changes to the Family Law Act, which will make it easier for separated mothers to exclude fathers from children's lives.

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Family law bill could raise murder rates

Some men's groups say more children will be murdered if Labor and the Greens get their way with the family law bill. 

Men's Health Australia and Dads4Kids say planned changes to the Family Law Act will demonise dads in the courts and deprive more children of their right to a mother and father.

Greg Anderson from Men's Health says the bill will raise already high levels of fatherlessness to record levels with untold impact. 

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