Well that's about as relevant to the discussion as Peter's contributions normally are. Mind you, it's probably quite appropriate, since sensible, constructive comments ceased a couple of posts back.

TZ52HX

Agreed.

Time to bail, lest we be "tainted by association".

Antiseptic

You'll just have to make do on your own. I guess you are used to that.

Johnny Rotten:"[choose snide remark]"

Oh dear. So much for all that high-flown advice to me, eh? Just so much bum-fluff.

You sound to me like someone who's not used to having their authority questioned...

To get back to the topic after the derailing by the faux-polite JohnnyRotten et al, there was another media release in the paper today.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/alarm-bells-over-publics-blind-eye-on-child-abuse-20100904-14vdc.html

The following quote neatly sums up why I and I'm sure many others, are cynical: "Mr Geary said up to two-thirds of notifications to child protection services were found to be unsubstantiated."

Having had just one experience with DOCS here in Qld, when the ex's new b/f's ex made a complaint about her (for threatening to throw a potful of water on a group of unruly kids, including mine), my impression is that this is not an underfunded organisation struggling to protect kids, but comprises a bunch of people with a lot of time on their hands.

That complaint took a week to process and the processing required interviews with me and the children (all 5 of them) at school, with noone's knowledge except the school.Each interview had two DOCS staff in attendance and took an hour or more, plus travelling.

This simple, stupid incident cost at leat 1 person-week of expended effort and that was with cooperative subjects.

When you multiply that by the number of stupid maliciously-motivated reports (up to 2/3 of the total according to Mr Geary of Vic Health) you have to wonder why we bother.

Oerhaps the best thing for the various Child Protection authorities to do is sack all the social workers in management positions and start prosecuting people for false reporting. That may restore some credibility.

This subject sadly is mostly about Aboriginal kids, who are victimised at many times the rate in the general population. It is NOT a problem for middle class children, on the whole. Yes, some are affected, no doubt, but it is wrong to create a false impression of the problem's dimensions, the way NAPCAN is doing.

On the other hand, I must acknowledge that there has been no overt arrempt to link fatherhood with abuse as yet. I'll be watching with some interest.

'On the other hand, I must acknowledge that there has been no overt arrempt to link fatherhood with abuse as yet. I'll be watching with some interest.'

Why would there be. No-one has said fatherhood and child sexual abuse are synonomous. May I suggest this is more in your mind than the reality based on your own experiences.

There is a difference between saying some fathers sexually abuse their children and fatherhood itself is responsible for sexual abuse of children. That is clearly not an association that anyone would or could make and it would detract from the very important issue of child sexual abuse.

More men than women commit sexual abuse against children. It is just a fact just as more men commit break and enter or commit murder - it does not mean that men as a rule will have any part in those acts.

You bought up the statistics for child abuse by mothers at one point on OLO but this does not mean that motherhood is to blame for abusing children.

We are all accountable for what we do. Our gender just denotes if we are boys or girls it does not diminish our responsibilities to children.

To be fair to men, if it were not for the fortnight of advertising advertising before - which is always so uninspired (or is that the subject of it) that it is being overtaken by the green and gold for Xmas - one could easily believe that Father's Day in Australia is a non-event, something honoured through lack of observance.

Where interviewed over the years, fathers seem to believe in the quiet day with their family around them and are quite prepared themselves to do the barbecue and mind the children, even on 'their' day.

Notwithstanding that, it would have been rather nice for the PM, Julia Gillard and State Premiers to have given newspaper editors something kind to say about fathers, today. Perhaps some cities could have thrown a few dollars into it too. Brisbane had its fire festival for the Brisbane River (?!) the night before, but why the festival isn't combined with Father's Day is anyone's guess.

Yes, there is a hung parliament and there is that awful news from New Zealand to occupy journos, but a puff story with some joyful photos would have been the very minimum that should be expected to lead fathers into their day. Nope, nothing proactive and perhaps that has become no surprise to fathers, hence some of the cynicism in this thread.

Alas, the trend from previous years continues - the vacuum of silence and I could have written the same comments in OLO last year. All is not lost, the quest for easy short news grabs for the Box should lift the lid for a few seconds tonight.

Maybe our new tradition is to pretend that fathers don't exist, but where is the good in that?