[Commpsych] Please support Petition for the Protection of Children

[Katie Thomas]

 Dear All,
During the recent conservative regime in Australia,  John Howard, in a
behind-the-door, handshake move between himself and politically powerful
interests, overthrew the rights of children and imposed Californian Family
Law onto the Australian Family Law system. This set Australian society back
two centuries in terms of children's rights and effectively removed the
capacity of the Family Court to act in the best interests of the child,
regardless of adult demands. The changes were made in spite of, not as a
result of, all research and statistical evidence documenting the necessity
of emotional and physical wellbeing of children, particularly in the early
years.   The result is that contact has been placed before safety for
children in a departure from community standards that would horrify most of
the public if they knew.

This law ‘reform’ enforced a 50:50 split of children after relational
breakdown and judges are forced to separate mother and child even when there
are extreme, documented cases of abuse. Judges must demonstrate willingness
to privilege the demands of adults for 'contact' - even if that adult has
been demonstrated to be violent, if they wish to avoid being in
contravention of the legislation. Most concerning is the enforcement of the
50:50 split when the male h*as had no previous caregiving responsibility for
the child and has enacted violence towards their partner.**  *The vast
amount of empirical research on the trauma and damage inflicted on small
children when they are abused without the protection of their primary
caregiver is ignored.

An amendment to this law has now been proposed in order to protect children
from violence and to enable the Family Court to act to protect children but
conservatives have already garnered over 4000 signatures to block the
amendment.   In Australia young families are the most likely to break up,
with half having a child under 3 and only 7% having children older than 12.
Thus, this amendment is for the protection of very young children.
Please consider signing the petition to support the amendment. Your voice
will be on behalf of the voteless, and the voiceless - our most vulnerable
citizens with the primary benefit to small children and therefore to the
communities of the future. The call for signatures is below - please
circulate it as widely as you can.
Thank you,
Katie

  New petition - please sign for the children of Australia - that their
right to be protected and safe be the focus of family court matters. F4J
have over 4,000 signatures opposing the new Family Law Amendment (Family
Violence) Bill 2010.   Please change that and please pass this on to you all
your contacts, family, co-workers, friends.
http://www.gopetition.com/petition/40638.html<https://owa.ichr.uwa.edu.au/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.gopetition.com/petition/40638.html>

"We, the undersigned, care deeply about the children of Australia and their
rights.

We care about children's rights above parent's rights. We support the Family
Law Amendment (Family Violence) Bill 2010 and call on the government to
implement it as soon as possible.”

Dr. Katie Thomas
*Telethon Institute for Child Health Research* PO Box 855
WEST PERTH 6872
Western Australia
http://www.ichr.uwa.edu.au<https://owa.ichr.uwa.edu.au/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=https://owa.ichr.uwa.edu.au/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.ichr.uwa.edu.au>
Email:
katiet at ichr.uwa.edu.au Latest Book: *Human Life Matters: The Ecology of
Sustainable Human Living vs. The Rule of the Barbarians now available at
www.amazon.com<https://owa.ichr.uwa.edu.au/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.amazon.com/>
.*   Mailing Address: Suite 4, 147 Canning Hwy, East Fremantle WA 6158
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