PRESS RELEASE: Aboriginal Elder says Family Law Amendment Set to Create Another Stolen Generation of Children – Labor’s Treachery to Australia’s Children & Fathers is Unconscionable

The Labor Party Family Law Amendment Bill 2023, that passed in the Parliament yesterday, 19 October 2023 created a day of mourning for Australian children. The team at Dads4Kids believes this bill will in fact harm our children and is against their best interests.

Warwick Marsh, cofounder of Dads4Kids said, “There are 870,000 children who will go to sleep tonight in Australia without their biological father in the home. Many of these children cry themselves to sleep, whilst others bury the pain through damaging addictions and/or behaviours. For many the pain comes out in unexplained and damaging behaviours as they grow to adulthood.”

Marsh continued, “Children have a biological birthright of equal access to their mother and their father in the event of separation. This bill will deprive them further of that biological birthright.”

Stephen Baskerville, former professor of political science at Howard University, wrote the following on the devastating effects of fatherlessness:

“Virtually every major social pathology has been linked to fatherless children: violent crime, drug and alcohol abuse, truancy, unwed pregnancy, suicide, and psychological disorders—all correlating more strongly with fatherlessness than with any other single factor.”

Indigenous elder, James Dargin, and a Dads4Kids witness at the Senate Family Law Amendment inquiry (see his speech here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBgzwWTor4w ) said this:

“I believe that the current Family Law system is biased against fathers and routinely deprives children of their biological birthright to equal access with their mother and fathers.

This new legislation will create a new stolen generation of children who, in most cases, are stolen away from their fathers.

The proposed Family Law Amendment Bill 2023 by the Albanese Labor Government would make the already horrific family law system ten times worse.

Both the team at Dads4Kids and I as an Indigenous Elder believe this bill to be unjust and immoral, we utterly reject this bill.”

Alison Marsh, cofounder of Dads4Kids said, “It should be noted that divorce is never a good option for children. At best, it is only a better option than others.

Speaking as a mother it is a disappointing, but a tragic reality, that divorce will always produce a certain amount of fatherlessness and/or motherlessness. The key is to find a way to ensure equality for divorcing couples and justice for children, ideally reducing the number of divorces that take place. After separation we must create legislation and services which foster co-parenting and healthy relationships between children and their parents.

We still desperately need a presumption of equal shared parenting after divorce which is rebuttable based on mitigating circumstances. Nothing else will do. We laid this objective out in our 2003 ‘12-Point Plan’ in the document “Fathers in Families: Strengthening & Supporting Fathers & Turning the Tide of Fatherlessness in Australia”. Point Six in our plan reads:

Acknowledge that after divorce or parental separation, every child has a fundamental right to equal contact with both the mother and the father, unless there are proven mitigating circumstances.
https://dads4kids.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/FathersinFamiliesLR.pdf

Warwick Marsh said, “Huge congratulations to Senator Ralph Babet, Senate Leader United Australia Party. Also, huge congratulations for Senator Pauline Hanson and Senator Malcolm Roberts from One Nation, who stood firm against this evil legislation designed to create more fatherlesssness.

Warwick Marsh continued, “Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s treachery to Australia’s children and fathers is unconscionable. They have betrayed the bipartisan wisdom of wonderful women from the Labor left, like Jenny George MP, who fought for a fair go for men and their children in the leadup to the historic presumption of Shared Parental Responsibility landmark legislation in 2006. The Labor Party and the PM have betrayed the long-standing tradition of conducting a thorough consultation with the public and declaring a conscience vote on contentious family law legislation to ensure the best outcome as the then Opposition Leader Hon Kim Beazley and Prime Minister John Howard did in 2003- 2006. More children will cry themselves to sleep than ever before, and more broken-hearted men will take their own lives in suicide because of this anti-male partisan Labor legislation. This is a day of mourning for Australia’s children.”

To interview Warwick or Alison Marsh or organise a time to speak with Indigenous Elder James Dargin please call: 0418 225 212

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See picture attached of Indigenous father, John Kennedy, reading to his children.

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Name: Warwick MarshCompany: Dads4KidsEmail: Phone: 0418225212

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About Dads4Kids

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Dads4Kids is a harm prevention tax-deductible charity founded 1 May 2002, with a mission to turn the tide of fatherlessness. The Dads4Kids Weekly Email Newsletter was launched on Father’s Day the same year, and it continues to this day. Research shows that the Dads4Kids weekly newsletter is the largest, longest-running weekly fatherhood email newsletter in the world. We have reached tens of thousands of men with the message of excellence in fathering. In August 2002, Dads4Kids inaugurated a National TV Community Service Ad Campaign to encourage and inspire Aussie dads. These Excellence in Fathering Campaigns run by Dads4Kids have continued on TV every year, garnering tens of millions of dollars in free advertisements, and have been seen by 21 million Australians, in some cases hundreds of times. Dads4Kids released the historic 12 Point Plan in Parliament House in June 2003 with Mark Latham MP, then-Shadow Treasurer & Larry Anthony MP, Minister for Youth & Children. The 12 Point Plan became the foundational document in the restoration of fatherhood in Australia. Dads4Kids coordinated the National Strategic Conference on Fatherhood in August 2003 at Parliament House in Canberra and has continued right up till this day organising Forums, Consultations, Conferences and National Summits to support Children, Men’s Health, Families and advocate for good fathering. The above policy forums helped inaugurate the positive changes to the Family Law Act in 2006, which saw fathers gain greater access to their children after divorce. The other major advance was the introduction of the National Men’s Health Policy in 2010, Australia being the third country in the world to do so. Australia became a pace-setter for men’s health, and has seen an improvement in male life spans as a result. Dads4Kids is also the global driving force behind the International Men’s Day website, which was built in 2008. Since this time, International Men’s Day has exploded around the world and has saved hundreds of thousands of men from an early death through proactive men’s health campaigns. In 2004 Dads4Kids pioneered the first Good to Great Fathering Course. The ten-week fathering course is inspired by the SAS, so it incorporates practical training for Dads at the highest level possible. The Course is structured around small groups of men with video input from expert trainers. Dads4Kids has seen 404 men graduate from this course over the last 16 years. The Courageous Online Fathering Course was released by Dads4Kids in September 2018 and now has students in 77 countries, with Australia having the largest group of graduates. The Courageous Fathering Course is considered by some as the most advanced online fathering course in the world. The goal of Dads4Kids is to equip, encourage and train fathers; to strengthen and support families; and to engage with individuals, community, church, business and government in order to give our children the best start in life.