Instep. Your reply to fractelle was spot on. Only last weekend in adelaide, workers at the female section of the magill remand centre refused to take any more females because it was overcrowded,resulting in young girls having to spend the nights in police lock ups.
Suzieonline. One must wonder though why all these mothers are acting this way towards their children.
Are they in turn being abused by their partners? If they are then they SHOULD get out, as my fiancee did.
Are they left to fend for themselves and there children after being deserted by their partners? It beggars belief that anyone could believe this when over 70% of divorces are initiated by women.
Were mental health issues or substance abuse evident in the mothers? They were certainly evident in my ex's case but nothing was done.

Why wern't the fathers around to help protect their children? While there are some fathers who walk away from their parental responsibilities there are many more who are removed from their childrens lives for no other reason than a nasty and vindictive ex. A huge reason to retain 50/50 shared care whenever possible. If you want a good example of this read the story of baby p.
Why wern't the children removed from their violent mothers by the authorities? Can't really answer that one but the authorities wiil almost always leave a child with an abusive or violent mother rather than place the child with a caring father.
JamesH. Yeah it's funny how those reports don't appear much anymore, WONDER WHY, would'nt be to protect their arses would it.
TPP. Amen to that, i wish.

CJ writes

'I know lots of men and engage in all kinds of blokey activities with them, and very few of them express the kinds of bitter and twisted sentiments we see all too often at OLO.'

I actually know lots of woman and none of them display the hateful unbalanced view that some of the OLO contributors display.

Oh yeah, I'm feelin' the love from here.

Outta da way feminazis, the March of the Red Socks has begun.

Viva le Revolution!

Eyesawitfirst, I have no idea what I meant either, glad you picked up on it. I get away with far too much as it is. I can see how every situation must be judged on just how individual everyone’s personal circumstances are.

So the feminists lobbied for decades? Didn’t everyone want single mothers to get support, were the men opposed to it? I still don’t think any of us chicks here did anything, well I certainly didn’t, I wasn’t here.[grin] Your poor daughter though and poor you… I do know what it is like when a department wont listen and you watch a child go through damage because of it.

I really don’t believe SJF wants millions of dollars to go to any mum’s who don’t care if there is a father who does waiting in the wings.

And I don’t understand what the shared parenting laws are. If the mums are murdering and abusing kids then isn’t it just as simple to cite a few of those high profile cases? Don’t men have the same resources available to be heard?

How do you want it to work if you have two perfectly able parents – one male, one female, who gets the kid? Say they live hours apart by aeroplane and both are employed full time (let’s make them both board members). And for fun we should pretend the CSA want nothing to do with either of them ever. How would this be decided – lets also make it a four year old kid who is terrified of travel. Everything is equal but the child needs one home only.

CJ:"I know lots of men and engage in all kinds of blokey activities with them, and very few of them express the kinds of bitter and twisted sentiments we see all too often at OLO."

Runner:”I actually know lots of woman and none of them display the hateful unbalanced view that some of the OLO contributors display.”

I don’t know anyone so everyone here just better shape up.

Eyeinthesky .'...authorities will almost always leave a child with an abusive or violent mother rather than place the child with a caring father.'

Where did you get that little gem from? An 'antimaternity.com' website perhaps?
Are all the 'authorities' rabid ,men-hating feminists who would rather leave at-risk children with abusive or violent mothers than with caring fathers, just to prove a point?
I think not!
I have worked in the health-care industry for years and have been involved with dealing with all sorts of family breakdown situations in their own homes, as well as my own.
How about you?
I know of many single fathers battling to bring up their children alone or with a new partner, because the courts awarded them custody.
Of course, the men's groups never discuss these stories.
I also know of many families that do share their children's care 50/50 both because of court orders and because of private arrangements not needing court intervention.
The most bitter conflicts in my experience have been initiated by the parent who was 'deserted' first.
Yes, it is more often the women who initiate the separations these days. Thank God we no longer have women trapped in violent or loveless relationships because they are considered part of a man's property. Men just have to deal with this fact.
We will never solve these issues on these pages.
That's what we have courts for

Suzeonline:"I know of many single fathers battling to bring up their children alone or with a new partner, because the courts awarded them custody.
Of course, the men's groups never discuss these stories."

In contested custody matters the Courts have a record of awarding majority custody to the mother in over 80% of cases. The reason father's rights activists don't mention them much is because they're the exception, not the rule.

That did change a little under the changes brought in by Howard and now McLelland and Rudd (both brought up by a mother only) are holding a review with a view to changing it back to the way it was.

Of course there are single fathers, we have some here, as well as men like me who have successful 50:50 arrangements. That doesn't change the fact that these are not the most common arrangement ordered by Courts.

suzeonline:"I also know of many families that do share their children's care 50/50 both because of court orders and because of private arrangements not needing court intervention."

Private arrangements are more likely to yield an equitable outcome, especially if they have been arrived at without lawyers being involved at all. They are also more likely to occur if both parents work, because if either party receives a benefit, the CSA is mandatorily involved, and there is a strong incentive for the party on a benefit to seek a greater share of custody. In addition, neither Centrelink nor the Housing commission look as favourably on a "single parent" who only has the kids half the time. Activity tests can be such a bitch...

What is often overlooked, I suspect deliberately, is that the issues we are talking about affect those on lower incomes disproportionately. The various propaganda pieces always mention the "deadbeat dad" on $100k PA, but somehow fail to mention the 40% of "CSA-collect" payers (mostly fathers)who are on a centrelink benefit. They do manage to mention poor mum who "can't work due to discrimination against women", but if Dad's on the dole, he's a deadbeat, better keep the kids away.