James O'Neill: "It is hard to decide which is worse: Bernardi's book or this equally ignorant apologia.
OLO claims to publish a variety of viewpoints, but it is remarkable how much space is given to ill-informed bigotry."

It is remarkable that Bernardi and Bill Muehlenberg are being attacked for holding traditional values and views. For instance, it is illogical and irrational of O'Neill to argue against social science fact that family structure really does matter, and children will do best when raised by their own biological parents.

Unlike OLO, it is obvious that O'Neill does not respect freedom of speech.

Runner "what a laugh. it is the anti family brigade who is obsessed with perverting the marriage act. No one would be saying anything if the ABC/fairfax and others who have failed in marriage were not so obsessed with pushing their views."

What a nasty comment.
I hope you aren't blaming the spouse who was the punching bag for her former husband before daring to leave that marriage?
What about the spouse whose husband or wife had multiple affairs, or gave them STD's (some cause death) before they finally left the marriage?

Should these people have stayed in that marriage 'for the children'?
What if one of the parents was physically or sexually abusive to those children?
Should they still stay in the marriage?

If my misgivings about people staying married in any of these situations makes me 'anti-family' in anyone's eyes, then so be it.

Leave religious views out of politics... please.

This has all gone silly, the rot started with the media "backlash" and people like Carrie Bickmore sticking their oar in.
The two examples of single parent success stories we're presented with, Malcolm Turnbull and Carrie Bickmore are not what Cory Bernardi is talking about, I'm sure Mrs Bickmore and Turnbull senior would have given anything to have their spouses survive to raise their children.
It seems to me that Cory Bernardi is advancing the "kill the poor" position via typically gutless Christian sermon.
He's not talking about nice middle class people like the Turnbulls and Bickomres who have the intelligence,resources and time to put into child rearing, Bernardi is talking about the poor, the idle and Indigenous but he doesn't have the guts to go into specifics, if he did he'd be booted out of the Liberal party.

Suse,
There's a lot of misinformation coming from both sides on the issue of marriage and the family,that's a problem of the internet age,getting good information should be straight forward but because of the way Google tailors search results to individual users it tends to reinforce one's point of view at the beginning of the search for information and limit the reader's access to other points of view.
The obvious point here is that patterns in marriage, divorce and family stability are best seen as trends which are tied to other factors at play in people's lives and that these trends can change very dramatically in a relatively short time.

Unfortunately, a lot of people taking the statistical data personally, even when these are just numbers. They just feel guilty and hopeless. Unable to change their circumstances they attack the messenger rather than attempt to understand and apply the message to enrich their existence and buildup a better, more civilized community.
Sad, really.

'I hope you aren't blaming the spouse who was the punching bag for her former husband before daring to leave that marriage?
What about the spouse whose husband or wife had multiple affairs, or gave them STD's (some cause death) before they finally left the marriage? '

I don't know if you deliberately misrepresent me Sudsie or are just blinded to the simple fact that a defacto is far more likely to use their partner as a punching bag and pass on std's just like a stepfather is far more likley to molest a son or daughter than the natural father. No one has ever said that a wife should stay in such a situation. The fact is she is far more likely to be in that situation if she is not a wife. Homosexual relationships in particular are prone to excessive violence.

One thing Cory likes is the war mongering parasites, not a word against them , not having read his book I dare say he is against Voluntary Euthanasia, killing is ok on the war front, but daresay he opposes a peaceful death by VE.