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<div dir="ltr"><font color="#000000" face="Bodoni MT">Dear All,</font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font color="#000000"><font face="Bodoni MT">During the recent conservative regime in Australia, </font><font size="3"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Bodoni MT'; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">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 <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Bodoni MT'; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">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.<span> </span></span>The changes were made in spite of, not as a result of, all research and statistical evidence documenting the necessity of em</span><font face="Bodoni MT"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Bodoni MT Condensed'; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">otional and physical wellbeing of children, particularly in the early years.<span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Bodoni MT'; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">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. </span></span></span></font></font></font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font color="#000000"><font size="3"><font face="Bodoni MT"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Bodoni MT Condensed'; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Bodoni MT'; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"></span></span></span></font></font></font> </div>
<div dir="ltr"><font color="#000000"><font size="3"><font face="Bodoni MT"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Bodoni MT Condensed'; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Bodoni MT'; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">This law ‘reform’ enforced a 50:50 split of children after relational breakdown and ju<font size="3"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Bodoni MT'; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Bodoni MT'; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">dges 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</span><font face="Bodoni MT"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Bodoni MT Condensed'; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">. Most concerning is the enforcement of the 50:50 split when the male h<u>as had no previous caregiving responsibility for the child and has enacted violence towards their partner.</u></span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Bodoni MT'; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><span><u> </u></span>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. </span></font></span></font><font color="#000000" face="Bodoni MT"></font></span></span></span></font></font></font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font color="#000000"><font size="3"><font face="Bodoni MT"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Bodoni MT Condensed'; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Bodoni MT'; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"></span></span></span></font></font></font> </div>
<div dir="ltr"><font color="#000000"><font size="3"><font face="Bodoni MT"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Bodoni MT Condensed'; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Bodoni MT'; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">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. <span> </span></span></span></span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Bodoni MT'; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">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. </span></font></font></font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font color="#000000"><font size="3"><font face="Bodoni MT"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Bodoni MT'; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">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.</span></font></font></font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font color="#000000"><font size="3"><font face="Bodoni MT"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Bodoni MT'; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Thank you,</span></font></font></font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font color="#000000"><font size="3"><font face="Bodoni MT"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Bodoni MT'; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Katie </span></font></font></font></div>
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<h3 style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #333333; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-WEIGHT: normal">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 </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #333333; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Family Law Amendment (Family Violence) Bill 2010</span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #333333; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-WEIGHT: normal">.</span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-WEIGHT: normal"></span></span></h3>
<h3 style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-WEIGHT: normal"></span></span> </h3>
<h3 style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #333333; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-WEIGHT: normal">Please change that and please pass this on to you all your contacts, family, co-workers, friends. </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #333333; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-WEIGHT: normal"></span></span></h3>
<h3 style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #333333"><a href="https://owa.ichr.uwa.edu.au/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.gopetition.com/petition/40638.html" target="_blank"><font color="#0000ff">http://www.gopetition.com/petition/40638.html</font></a></span></span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; COLOR: #333333; FONT-SIZE: 8.5pt"></span></h3>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; COLOR: #632423; FONT-SIZE: 16pt" lang="EN-US"><font color="#008000" size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We, the undersigned, care deeply about the children of Australia and their rights. </font></span></p>
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<p style="BACKGROUND: white" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; COLOR: #632423; FONT-SIZE: 16pt" lang="EN-US"><font color="#008000" size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.”</font></span></p>
<p style="BACKGROUND: white" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Arial">Dr. Katie Thomas</font></p></div></div></div></div>
<address><strong><font size="2" face="Arial">Telethon Institute for Child Health Research</font></strong></address>
<address><font size="2" face="Verdana"><font size="1">PO Box 855<br>WEST PERTH 6872<br>Western Australia</font><font face="Times New Roman"> </font></font><a href="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" target="_blank"><font color="#000000" size="2">http://www.ichr.uwa.edu.au</font></a></address>
<address><font color="#000000" size="2">Email: </font><a href="mailto:katiet@ichr.uwa.edu.au" target="_blank"><font color="#000000" size="2">katiet@ichr.uwa.edu.au</font></a></address>
<address>Latest Book: <strong><font color="#ff0000">Human Life Matters: </font><font size="1"><font color="#ff0000">The Ecology of Sustainable Human Living vs. The Rule of the Barbarians</font> <font size="2">now available at </font><a href="https://owa.ichr.uwa.edu.au/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.amazon.com/" target="_blank"><font color="#000080" size="2">www.amazon.com</font></a></font><font color="#000080" size="2">.</font></strong></address>
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