Our future our children

Of course Miranda’s wise words have been proven by sociologists the world over. Children are far more at risk when the biological father is not in the home.

Dr Greg Tooley from Deakin University in Melbournefound that children with a step-parent were at least 17 times more likely to die from intentional violence or accident. A limited version of the study found that the rate could be as high as 77 times. Former Human Rights Commissioner Mr Brian Burdekin has reported a 500 to 600 per cent increase in sexual abuse of girls in families where the adult male was not in the home.

It would seem that government departments are equally complicit in spreading lies and anti-male propaganda as I said in a recent Online Opinion article.

Journalist Laurie Nowell reported in an article called "Feminists 'Tilt' Figures":

The issues of child protection and domestic violence have been hijacked by politically motivated feminist cliques, according to a coalition of men's groups.

The claim came after an ombudsman's report found bureaucrats guilty of "unreasonable and wrong administrative action" after failing to correct false and misleading information that promoted the idea men were overwhelmingly responsible for domestic violence.

South Australia's Office for Women presented erroneous statistics, such as 95 per cent of domestic violence involves a male perpetrator and a female victim, the ombudsman found. Raw data show that, overall, at least one in three victims is male.

Men's Health Australia spokesman Greg Andresen said the SA Ombudsman's report should make the Gillard Government think twice about rolling back the shared parenting reforms introduced to family law by the Howard government - which effectively guarantee fathers some level of access to their children in the event of marital breakdown.

"The picture seems to be emerging of offices of women around the country - who advise state and federal ministers - having taken deeply feminist lines on domestic abuse and child protection," Mr Andresen said.

"These bureaucrats have a strong feminist perspective - and that's probably appropriate for people concerned with women's issues.

"But the problem is that when governments roll out programs relating to children, what gets rolled out is a program for women, not one that has equal regard for men and women.

"The conventional wisdom among these people is that the only perpetrators of domestic violence are men and the only perpetrators of violence against children are men.

"There is a wealth of research that shows that men are almost as likely to suffer domestic violence or abuse."

Space does not allow me to tell the stories of the father who was put in gaol for sending a birthday card to his daughter, or the father of good character who was banned from seeing his daughter for five years. Tragically most of these recent stories have taken place under the 2006 changes to Family Law which supposedly brought equity for fathers and families. Nothing could be further from the truth!

Even more tragically our present Labor government under Julia Gillard is intent on rolling back the Howard governments shared parenting laws under the guise of increased child safety when the opposite is the truth.

Children are safer with their biological mother and father by between 17 and 77 times according to Dr Tooley. The problem is a lack of appreciation for the importance of helpingpeople get married and stay married. If we could do that better we would prevent the custody disputes in the first place. Books for children in marriage breakdown could then hopefully become a thing of the past. In those sorts of conditions neither child would have been thrown from the Westgate Bridge because a harmful custody dispute would not have existed in the first place.

David Blankenhorn, author of Fatherless America wrote, "Fatherlessness is the most harmful demographic trend of this present generation". There are hundreds of millions of Hailie's and David's in the western world and their collective pain is making our civilisation sick. It is no accident that Richard Koch and Chris Smith in their brilliant book Suicide of the West establish that the greatest challenge facing the western world is the question of identity. "Who am I?" Only a father's unconditional love can provide the answer.

As Danna Vale said, "We get our nurture from our mothers but our identity from our fathers". Statistics show that 63% of teen suicides are from fatherless children, that's five times the national average (Source: US Dept of Justice).When you don't know who you are what have you got to live for?

International Men's Day www.internationalmensday.com theme this year is ‘Our Future Our Children’. This is the opportunity for men to shine as fathers and as husbands. This is the opportunity for men to lead by example. Children need unconditional love and so do their mothers. Unconditional love is the supreme sacrifice exampled by Jesus Christ himself. Only a real man can give it. International Men’s Day exists to champion great men and encourage great fathers.

My advice to you as a father for International Men’s Day is let the fact that your children believe you are a great father matter to you. It will inspire you to keep on trying to become the best you can be for them.Men and fathers who are celebrating International Men’s Day this year would agree with John F Kennedy when he says "Children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future."