Features:

The right choice.
It's election time again. So where do political parties stand on families, and the fathers role in it this time around? Harald Breiding-Buss asked the questions.

Child abuse in New Zealand.
Just how much of a problem is it? Brendon Smith attempts to find out.

Potty time.

New Changes to Aussie Family Law

A new overhaul of Australia’s Family Law aims to crack down on false allegations of violence or abuse and on obstruction of access to a child. The proposed amendments to the Family Law Act will also require compulsory mediation for the parents and strengthen the concept of joint decision-making.

The law change comes less than 10 years after the Act had last been reformed, then abolishing the concept of custody and encouraging shared parenting after separation – changes that have only last year been adopted in New Zealand with the Care of Children Act. However both Australian fathers’ rights groups and law experts say virtually nothing had changed, and parents still have a variety of tools to prevent the other parent from having any influence over the child’s life.

The Australian government plans to back up the law with a nationwide network of Family Relationship Centres which will help parents draw up an agreement about a child’s parenting after separation. Together with compulsory mediation this is hoped to discourage parents to go to Court over their children.

It is estimated that about 40% of relationships with a dependent child in Australia break up, and in about 12% of cases the children end up living mainly with the father (New Zealand: around 15%).

However, fathers’ groups warn that the new measures could still fail if the issue of radical feminist views is not addressed in those organisations picked to run the Family

M.Y.D. to Focus on Teen Dads

The Ministry of Youth Development (MYD) will roll out some initiative for teenage fathers in the upcoming financial year, although it has not yet been further specified what it will look like.

Teenage fathers made it on to the political agenda after a study conducted by the Father & Child Trust showed that teenage fathers are highly motivated but poorly supported. Many papers and magazines, including the NZ Herald, The Press and The Listener have run large features on teenage fathers in the last 8-12 months, often quoting the Trust study in detail.

The Trust hopes to be able to start a mentoring programme for teenage fathers in Christchurch next year, and also providing social back-up support to facilitate long-term involvement of the young father with his child.