Fathers Day present from hell

The detrimental overall effect of this bill will be to introduce even greater levels of violence in the community and in families. The one thing we know about the London riots in the UK is the high level of fatherlessness in the communities most deeply affected.

All the social science data shows that as fatherlessness increases so does violent crime. In a study of neighbourhoods in USA's Prince George's County MD every one percent increase in female headed households increased the odds of being murdered by 1.07%. Statistics from the US Texas Department of Corrections show that 85% of youths in prison come from fatherless homes. This is 20 times the national average.

A British study by Sampson & Groves found a direct statistical link between single parenthood and virtually every major type of crime including mugging, violence against strangers, car theft and burglary. A US Criminal Justice & Behavior report shows that 80% of rapists motivated with displaced anger come from fatherless homes.

So what is motivating Ms Gillard to allow the Family Law Court to cut even more fathers out of their children's lives? Ms Gillard, by her own confession, is a feminist and helped found Emily's list which is a radical feminist organisation within the Labor party. Radical feminism blames all of society's problems on oppression by the male patriarchy. Like all popular lies there is always an element of truth contained within it.

Men are the cause of most of the problems, but where radical feminists come unstuck, is that they refuse to admit that men are also a big part of the answer. The father wound runs deep and is overwhelmingly responsible for the increasing levels of pathology reported in modern society. The UK riots being a prime example.

As former prison doctor and psychiatrist Theodore Dalrymple said, "British youth leads the Western world in almost all aspects of social pathology...British children are much likelier to have a television in their bedroom than a father living at home... family is not the word for the social arrangements of the people in the areas from which the rioters mainly come."

As former Opposition Leader Mark Latham said in June 2003 at the release of the 12pt Plan. " We don't want a men's movement that blames women; we want a men's movement that works with men and women to develop better identity, better relationships, a stronger fathering role in society and to develop win-win outcomes, where as a society across both genders we can make advances and make successful changes."

So we ask that this Fathers Day, Ms Gillard will return her Fathers Day present of the new Family Law Amendment Bill to the waste bin where it belongs. Our children can do without it. What is needed for woman and men to work together and call an end to the gender war.