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The masculinity crisis

By Warwick Marsh - posted Thursday, 17 June 2010


  • men still commit suicide at four times the rate of women;
  • suicide for Indigenous men is 70 per cent higher than for non-Indigenous men;
  • rates of homicide for Indigenous men are 7 to 8 times higher compared with non-Indigenous men;
  • rates of expenditure on health care, is 34 per cent higher for women than men, in spite of the poor state of men's health. In 1993-94, $13.4 billion was spent on men's health care as opposed to $18 billion for women's health care (Mathers, Penm, Carter & Stevensen 1998);
  • death rates for men were greater than for women for: colon cancer, influenza and pneumonia, blood vessel, heart and cerebrovascular diseases;
  • after the first year of life, boys nationally have a death rate 35 per cent higher than girls. In all areas of health status (death disability, handicap and illness) boys fare worse than girls (ages 0-12 years);
  • generally more boys than girls have mental health problems, including conduct disorder, disruptive or anti-social behaviours. Young boys are predominantly the reported victims of physical violence, emotional abuse and neglect from adults and carers; and
  • more men die annually from prostate cancer than women die of breast cancer.

Unfortunately we men in Australia face another crisis - the threatened roll back in Shared Parenting which is being promoted by certain media interests, activist judges and parliamentarians.

The theme of the Lone Fathers Conference being held in Parliament House this week is the new Family Law amendments. The question is being asked, "Are the 2006 Shared Care Laws working and are we witnessing another stolen generation?” Before I endeavour to answer those questions, can I suggest we first ask another question?

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This question is, "Why has the Family Law system failed in the first place?"

The reason the Family Law System has failed is it is no longer connected to the truth. As Winston Churchill said, "Men often stumble upon the truth but then dust themselves off and walk away".

In 1975 the current Family Law Act was introduced into parliament by the late Justice Lionel Murphy. The overriding ambition of Justice Murphy was to remove any vestige of the truth of the Judeo Christian ethic from our national life, in order to radically reshape the social, judicial and political landscape by imposing state regulation on the most sacred of relationships that is, between parents and their children.

There is no doubt that Justice Murphy was successful in his goal to eradicate all our links with the Judeo Christian ethic in both law and society. The Family Law Court is a prime example of his success in that he established a “new court” that had absolutely no link to the truths of our Judeo Christian heritage found in common law.

  1. In the no fault provision he eliminated the need to prove right and wrong.
  2. In diminishing the need for evidence-based procedures he eliminated the need to tell the truth because perjury was no longer pursued as a crime within the jurisdiction.
  3. He eliminated the right to trial by jury; thereby reducing the accountability of the court to the common people and in doing so made the judge a partisan actor.
  4. He eliminated the long held biblical concept that a person is innocent until proven guilty.
  5. He eliminated the rights of parents to share in the care and company of their children - but claimed the judiciary's power to determine the "rights" of the child.
  6. He eliminated the right of a child to be heard and have their wishes respected by the court.
  7. He allowed third parties to initiate actions against parents.

In doing all of the above he removed the checks and balances found in common law and due process. In effect the Family Law Court removed the concept of right and wrong and in doing so became its own worst enemy. “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The secrecy provision of S121 denies the public knowledge of what the court does on the pretext of "protecting privacy".

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It is perfectly clear that the Family Law Court has no intention of reforming its style of custody orders: it is impervious to outside criticism and is an unfit organisation to be making decisions about the future of our children. The stolen generation is increasing not decreasing. Recent newspaper reports show the courts continued pernicious activities:

  1. a mother who was guilty of child abuse, given custody of her children;
  2. a father of good character banned from seeing his daughters for seven years;
  3. a father jailed for sending his daughter a birthday card.

What then regarding the question, "Have the new amendments worked?"

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This article is based on a speech delivered by the author at the Lone Fathers Conference, June 17, 2010 in the Main Committee Room, Parliament House Canberra.



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About the Author

Warwick Marsh is the founder of the Dads4Kids Fatherhood Foundation with his wife Alison. They have five children and two grandchildren and have been married for 34 years.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Warwick Marsh

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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