Fatherhood and Politics

With special guest:

• Ray Barry.

Ray Barry is the Religious Affairs Co-Ordinator with Fathers 4 Justice (F4J) and Party Leader for the Equal Parenting Alliance (EPA) in the UK. This is a must-listen interview, succinctly summing up the state of Family Law in the UK and the challenges that lie ahead.

The civil rights group Fathers 4 Justice was founded in December 2002 by Matt O’Connor after he experienced first hand the injustices of the secret family courts as he struggled to see his two boys Daniel and Alexander after a traumatic divorce. Started as a vehicle for social change, F4J quickly became the high-wire act of protest groups, whether powder-bombing the Prime Minister in the House of Commons, scaling the balcony at Buckingham Palace in a Batman Costume, invading the Pulpit at York Minster during a General Synod Service or taking the National Lottery Draw live off air on BBC1 in front of ten million viewers.

The Equal Parenting Alliance is a relatively new UK political party, formed in February 2006 which aims to promote a system of family justice in the UK that puts the needs and interests of children first.

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European Update

With special guests:

• John Forsyth and
  
• Jiri Fiala.

John Forsyth is a journalist based in Scotland who worked for the BBC in London for 10 years before returning to Scotland to become Political Editor of Scotland on Sunday newspaper. He has recently resumed freelancing for newspapers. John has taken some interest in the Scottish Government’s persistence with a gender-based analysis of domestic abuse to provide 10s of millions of pounds in funding for support groups for female victims of domestic abuse and violence and zero for males in the same situation. The latest 2007-8 domestic abuse statistics were published recently with a government press release saying police reports of domestic abuse had gone up 2%. Somehow they managed to gloss over the fact that police reports of women as victims of men had fallen while incidents of males on the receiving end had gone up by 12%, as they have in each of the last 8 years.

Jiri Fiala is the founder and director of the Czech Republics’ fathers group K213. Jiri has been desperately trying to obtain contact with his two children, which the Czech Courts will not support. After taking his case to the European Court of Human Rights, who incidentally ruled in his favour, the Czech Family Court still refuses to act upon the directions of the European Court of Human Rights, and will not enforce his legal contact with his children.

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Renovations Required

Dr James Cumes

With Special Guests:

• Rainer Sonnenberger and
• Dr James Cumes.

First up we are joined by Rainer Sonnenberger from Germany. Rainer is a member of the board of directors of the largest organization for fathers and childrens’ rights in Germany Vateraufbruch Fur Kinder.

Next we speak to James Cumes, renaissance man and author of, amongst other things, America’s Suicidal Statecraft. James was one of the few commentators to predict the current global economic crisis. We speak to him from Vienna where he explains some of the causes of the global predicament and offers some sensible solutions to resuscitate the Australian and global economies.

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Dad Stories

With special guests:

• Doug Doran and
• Ann Bressington MLC.

Doug Doran is the editor of a sterling new book Dad Stories. What happens when you ask twenty of your mates to tell you a story about their dad? You get Dad Stories. Dad Stories covers vast emotional territory. While these stories remember many of the good times, they never shy away from the sad or the tragic. Ultimately, they reveal that our fathers are much like us; sharing the same passions, hopes, fears, strengths, joys and disappointments—qualities that can pass from father to son across generations. Dad Stories is a totally self-funded, non-profit venture. The book costs $20 and all proceeds will be distributed throughout the Central Victorian community to support men’s health.

Ann Bressington, is a South Australian MLC, and one of the few politicians in this country with the courage and decency to speak out on behalf of men, no matter that their cause is presently unfashionable or even politically incorrect. She speaks out against proposed South Australian rape laws, which while purporting to protect women, may well do many of them great harm by falsely demonising their sons, their brothers and their lovers. If a woman goes home with a man and sleeps in his bed, this Bill will assume he has raped her if at the time of intercourse, she was “intoxicated” or “asleep”; she is not satisfied that he was entirely honest about his identity; she withdraws her consent for any reason and at any time but does not state so; there was any miscommunication about his or her intentions. A man may spend a life in jail as as consequence of a one night stand if the woman changes her mind afterwards, even if she doesn’t tell him so.

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The Woman Racket

With special guests:

• Steve Moxon and
• Sue Price.

Steve Moxon is the English author of a new book called “The Woman Racket - the new science explaining how the sexes relate at work, at play and in society”. Notwithstanding its provocative title, The Woman Racket is a serious scientific investigation into one of the key myths of our age - that women are oppressed by the “patriarchal” traditions of Western societies. Drawing on the latest developments in evolutionary psychology, Moxon finds that the opposite is true - men, or at least the majority of low-status males - have always been the victims of deep-rooted prejudice. As the prejudice is biologically derived, it is unconscious and can only be uncovered with the tools of scientific psychology. The book reveals this prejudice in fields as diverse as healthcare, employment, family policy and politics: compared to the long and bloody struggle for universal male suffrage, women were given the vote “in an historical blink of the eye”

Also Sue Price, from the Men’s Rights Agency joins us to talk about the new Child Support Agency scheme to go through old income tax records in an attempt to bring some additional pennies into its coffers.

Plus the 5th and final instalment of the radio drama Hero Joe, produced especially for Dads on the Air.

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The Best of 2007 - Part 2

With special guests:

• Dr Warren Farrell, famous social commentator and author of best selling books including Father and Child Reunion: How to Bring the Dads We Need to the Children We Love
• Dr. Amy J.L. Baker, US author of Adult Children of Parental Alienation Syndrome: Breaking the Ties that Bind. The world’s first study of child victims of Parental Alienation Syndrome
• Terry Hicks, a special father who loves his child unconditionally, and has dedicated his life to help protect his son, David Hicks from harm and appeals for “a fair go” for his child
• Christina Hoff Sommers, author of Who Stole Feminism and The War Against Boys interviewed at the Boys and the Boy Crisis conference in Washington DC
• Eric Burch, US serviceman and musician

Plus the Dads on the Air speech given at the Lone Fathers National Convention at Parliament House in Canberra in August 2007.

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The Best of 2007 - Part 1

With special guests:

• Sue Price: founder and spokesperson for the Men’s Rights Agency
• Dr Ludwig Lowenstein: world expert on Parental Alienation Syndrome
• Maggie Hamilton: author of What Men Don’t Talk About
• Andrew Denton: TV personality from many shows including Enough Rope
• Erin Pizzey: founder of the world’s first refuge for battered women
• Tony Coe: president of the UK’s Equal Parenting Council
• Ann Bressington: outspoken South Australian MP, who is calling for better Child Protection
• Mark Harris and Jolly Stansby: Fathers4Justice UK activists. Mark is also the author of Family Court Hell
• Jim Bailey: New Zealand father’s activist.

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The New Australian Spinster

Prof Gordon Finley

With special guests:

• Professor Gordon Finley, from Florida International University, talking about the social implications of the current gender imbalance in Higher Education.
• Max, from a new website www.taxfundedprejudice.com
• Warwick Marsh, from the Fatherhood Foundation, reporting from the National Summit on Marriage, Family and Fatherhood at Parliament House, Canberra
• John Pierson, Canberra bureaucrat, recorded at the Lone Fathers National Convention

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Family Court Hell

With special guests:

• Mark Harris, jailed for waving at his daughters as they drove past in the family car, and author of a new book Family Court Hell, a rare insight into the closed British family court system
• Jolly Stansby, activist from the UK’s Fathers 4 Justice, most famous for dressing up as a superhero and scaling public buildings to bring awareness to the injustice in the British family courts. Jolly was most recently arrested in the USA for scaling the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC
• Damon (not his real name), an Aussie dad who has been fortunate enough to receive 50-50 shared care of his children
• Ted Donnelly, from Lane Cove Community Men’s Shed talking about the 2nd National Community Men’s Sheds Conference.

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Dissident Voices

Christina Hoff Sommers

With special guests:

• Christina Hoff Sommers, author of Who Stole Feminism and The War Against Boys interviewed at the Boys and the Boy Crisis conference in Washington DC
• Independent MP Ann Bressington from South Australia who is calling on the Federal Government to take action to protect children from being caught in the middle of divorce and separation disputes
• The Hon Philip Ruddock MP, Australia’s Attorney General, answering questions from dads at the recent Lone Fathers National Conference in Canberra.

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Welfare, Debt, Credit, Bureaucracy and Betrayal: the Howard Years

Julie Owens MP

With special guests:

• Peter Saunders, senior researcher, Centre for Independent Studies
• Scott Garman from New Hampshire Commission on the Status of Men, the only Commission for Men anywhere in the world
• Tony Miller, founder of Dads In Distress
• Tom Mok on Child Support Agency’s misleading data and
• Julie Owens, Labor MP for Parramatta.

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