NON-CUSTODIAL PARENTS PARTY (EQUAL
PARENTING)
POLICIES
Principles
The Australian Government is taking more and more of an
intrusive and unnecessary role in the making of decisions that affect our
lives.
The Non-Custodial Parents Party seeks to:
a)
Minimise government interference in decisions that
affect our lives; and
b)
Maximise the initiative of individuals to make and be
accountable for the decisions.
Policies
Our policies are related to parents and children after
divorce or separation. These policies are also applicable to parents and
children from intact families.
We seek to prevent family breakdown and we promote
stability in established relationships.
The main issues are as follows:
·
Aboriginal
and
·
Child
Care
·
Crime and Justice
·
Defence
·
Economic
Policy
·
Education
and Training
·
Employment
·
Environment
·
Family
Law and Child Support Issues
·
Foreign Policy
·
Health
·
Housing
·
Immigration
·
Marriage
·
Social
Welfare
·
State
and Local Governments
·
Superannuation
·
Transport
·
Water
Aboriginal and
The Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) programme will be rolled out between 1 July 2010 and
mid-2011. The evaluation of the NTER programme will
then determine any future roll-out across the rest of
The previous Liberal-National Coalition Government
proposed the NTER programme. The current Labor
Government has now continued with the introduction of the programme.
We support the ACOSS* policy analysis. This is set out
in their document titled
Compulsory
Income Management: A flawed answer to a complex issue (June 2010)
Legislation for both the NTER programme
and the child support scheme has been determined by FAHCSIA. Both the NTER programme and the child support scheme take away from
parents, the ability to manage their own affairs.
We do not support the Labor Government’s NTER programme. There are better solutions involving
self-determination that are outlined in the above ACCOS document.
* ACCOS: Australian Council of Social
Services.
Child Care
Either parent should be able to look after their
children should the need arise.
Current legislation provides a financial benefit to
the custodial parent not to permit the non-custodial parent to look
after the children. Should the non-custodial parent look after the children,
the custodial parent would lose Government benefits.
We support the removal of these financial constraints
in our legislation.
Crime and
Justice
Rex McCann*, in his book "Boys Growing up Underfathered", has said that boys from a
fatherless home are:
· 5 times more likely to commit suicide;
· 14 times more likely to commit rape;
· 9 times more likely to drop out of high school;
· 10 times more likely to abuse chemicals;
· 9 times more likely to end up in a state-operated
institution; and
· 20 times more likely to end up in prison.
(Source: Rex McCann, "Boys Growing up Underfathered",
Finch Publishing, Sydney. 2000, page 47).
At 30 June
2008, there were 27,615 people in goal in Australian adult prisons. This
represents an imprisonment rate of 169 prisoners per 100,000 adult population (ABS
Year Book 2010).
This is an increase from the 127 prisoners
per 100,000 adult-population figure that were in goal in 1994.
For the last 25 years, the number of people being put
in goal has been continually increasing. This is at a rate that is three (3)
times faster than the overall increase in
What is worse is that fifty five (55) per cent of
these people, who are in goal, are repeat offenders (15,154 as at 30 June 2008 ABS
Year Book 2010.)
Clearly
Some people say that we need tougher policing to overcome
these social problems. The people do not realize that there is not a cap
on the number of people that could end up in goal. Building more prisons and
putting more and more people in goal is not the solution that is required.
The
If we take the tougher policing path we will simply
end up with the social disaster that currently exists in the
Children from separated families need both parents
when they grow up. Otherwise the social problems, which exist in our community,
will continue to escalate.
A new Section
65DAA was added to the Family Law Act 1975 in 2006. This was to
allow judges and magistrates to consider equal-time, shared parenting.
Very often this change has been bypassed by the courts.
To avert the current social problems, we support the
need for strengthened shared parenting legislation. This is to ensure the full
implementation of a rebuttable presumption of equal-time shared parenting.
* Rex McCann is an Australian author. He has
used figures for boys only from the
Defence
The operation of the Australian Defence
Force should be limited to the protection of
At present, the army is participating in what is
called the Army
Aboriginal Community Assistance Program
The Aboriginal Community Assistance Program
is a co-operative between the Department
of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FAHCSIA)
and the Australian Army within remote Aboriginal communities.
We appreciate
that there are times where the participation of our army is necessary. However this
should be limited to emergencies only. Then a strict time limit should be set.
There is a fine
line between providing assistance to a community and the taking control of a
community. The later is the case in this situation.
Where required,
we would support the replacement of FAHCSIA and the Army with specialized
officers from the Cth Department of Health, Cth Department of Housing and Construction,
etc.
Economic Policy
We support less “red tape” and less government and
bureaucratic intervention in our community.
We also support the need for some protection of our
local manufacturing industries. Whilst local industries may appear not to
manufacture goods as cheaply as some overseas countries do, the long-term view
should be seen as being more important.
We need to maintain some local manufacturing skills
here in
Education and Training
There were 3,700,000 children in the 15,000
preschools, primary and secondary schools in
Many of these children come from divorced or separated
families.
Some state education departments do have family law
policy procedures in place. These are generally written on an ad hoc basis.
While other states such as
We would support a National
Schools Family Law Policy, which would allow both parents to be involved in
the education of their children, after divorce or separation.
Employment
Currently forty three (43) per cent (326,960 no.) of liable
parents for child support are effectively unemployed (Child Support Agency’s Child
Support Scheme Facts and Figures 2008-09).
We support the repealing of the Child Support
legislation (and the return to parenting orders contained in the Family Law
legislation). We also support the adoption of equal time shared parenting
legislation. This is to allow both parents to get back into the work force to
provide financial stability and independence.
Environment
We wish to secure current economic growth and at the
same time preserve the environment for Australians of the future.
We do not support the placing of an environmental tax
on our coal production
The future source of power in
We are opposed to nuclear power on the basis of the
inherent dangers involved.
There are also other forms of power generation that
have been suggested as alternatives to coal fired powered stations. For
example, either wind or solar powered generators have been recommended as two
of these alternate options.
Both methods do have problems with distribution.
For example, our main winds are the Roaring Forties.
These winds are generally found well south of the Australian mainland. These
winds are not located near the main national electrical distribution grid
lines.
Therefore it is not economical to use wind power generation
on a large scale in this country. We note that
The main source of reliable solar power generation
would have to be located in the less inhabited areas of
We also note that another suggested source is based on
clean coal technology. This requires the consumption of an excessive amount
power in the first instance. Therefore power produced by clean coal technology
is not currently feasible.
There no methods that can provide the same reliability
or are as economically feasible as the currently used coal powered method.
We note that
Therefore we do not support the placing of an
environmental tax on our coal production that would result in significant job
losses for little gain.
Family Law and Child Support Issues
(Refer to our separate policy on Family Law & Child Support
Policy)
Foreign Policy
We support any measures that would avoid having
Health
Both men and
women are affected by our oppressive family law and child support system. This
very often has a severe effect on their mental health and well being.
The Labor Government has
recently developed a new National Male Health Policy.
Funding has been allocated in 2010 Budget for a total of $16.7 million over
four (4) years.
Unfortunately this funding has been specifically
restricted to “curing the problem”. No funding has been for “preventing the
problem”.
Preventative action is now required.
For example, the new National Male Health Policy has omitted tackling the following important
issues that are a source of many of the problems:
·
Family court issues.
·
Child support issues.
·
Family violence order bias.
·
False sex abuse claims.
·
Gender discrimination.
The overall
National Health Budget is approximately $100,000,000,000 annually. A minuscule
$16,700,000 was allocated for the National Male Health Policy
over a four (4) year period.
We would support a National Health Policy – for both
men and women – that would address all of the above issues and provide real
solutions – to prevent health issues from occurring, in the first instance. We
would also support a budget allocation that would have a more meaningful
effect.
Housing
Either owning or renting a house is getting beyond the
reach of the average wage earner.
In 2007-08, owners with a mortgage had the highest
housing costs, averaging $384 per week or 18% of their gross household income.
Tenants renting from a private landlord have to pay $267 per week or again 18%
of their gross household income. ABS
Housing Occupancy and Costs, Australia, (4130.0).
Very often, people who have been affected by the
Family Law and Child System cannot afford to purchase a house or even to have
rental accommodation.
One of the reasons is that tax legislation is pushing
up the cost of houses and the subsequent rental costs.
Tax legislation has allowed selected landowners to
acquire a significant number of dwellings. Individual landowners may own say 40
to 50 dwellings. The mortgages are paid by allowable tax deductions. This is
through “negative gearing” provisions in the tax legislation.
This results in ordinary people having to try and pay
18 per cent of their gross household incomes for accommodation.
This is unfair.
We would support the removal of the “negative gearing”
provisions in the current tax legislation.
Immigration
We support controlled immigration.
In 2007-08, there were 442,100 arrivals to
This net overseas migration (NOM) figure of 213,700
people represents 59% of Australia's population growth for the year ABS Migration,
Australia (3412.0).
Unless this is done,
our fertility rate will continue to remain too low. At the same time,
the proportion of our older inhabitants in our population will continue to be
too high for sustainable growth.
Marriage
Falls in the crude marriage rate since 1970 can be
mainly attributed to changes in attitudes to marriage and living arrangements
that have occurred since that time ABS Marriages and
Divorces, Australia (3310.0).
In response to this problem, the Marriage
Manifesto was produced by the National Marriage Coalition in 2007
We particularly refer to Item 11 of the section titled
“STEPPING FORWARD TOGETHER - A CALL TO ACTION”.
Item 11 states that:
We urge all governments and their agencies
to take urgent steps to:
11.
Implement a fundamental reform process of the Family Law Act 1975, with a view to making divorce laws more
equitable for all concerned; specifically:
i. Examining the
current grounds for divorce, namely the irretrievable breakdown of the
marriage, as evidenced by 12 months separation of the parties.
ii.
Examining whether the best interests of children would be enhanced by
longer separation periods where there are children of the marriage and earlier
reconciliation counseling (as opposed to conciliation counseling).
iii. Including a presumption of shared
parenting after divorce in the Family Law
Act. Children will then be guaranteed equal access to both parents after
divorce. This is their right.
We support the changes recommended in the above item
11 of the Marriage
Manifesto
Adobe Acrobat PDF copy
of the Marriage Manifesto
Social Welfare
The largest component of
Over 4.2 million people, or more than one in five individuals, are
direct beneficiaries of income support payments at any one time. The cost to
the taxpayer in 2008-09 was $92,557,668,000.
Family law and child support legislation has caused a
disproportionate number of divorced and separated parents to be unnecessarily reliant
on these income support benefits and payments – e.g. Newstart
allowance (overall total - $4,885,930,000) and Disability Support Pension
(overall total - $10,918,000,000 )
Child support and family law reforms, which have been
provided in our Family Law Policy, would encourage those who can work to do so.
These reforms include the implementation of a
rebuttable presumption of equal-time shared parenting and the abolition of the
Child Support Agency.
We believe that the implementation of these reforms
would significantly reduce some of the above outlays made on social welfare.
State and Local Governments
We support many of the functions, now being carried
out by state government departments, being transferred to the Commonwealth
Government.
It is appreciated that many state government
departments (and local government authorities) do view their roles as being
important. The reality is that the true power resides with whoever collects the
taxes. That power now resides with the Commonwealth Government.
This is simply because the bulk of taxation revenue,
i.e. income tax and GST revenue - is raised by the Federal Government.
Superannuation
Funds held as superannuation are considered to be
property by the Family Law courts. Our policy on superannuation can be found in
our separate policy on Family
Law & Child Support Policy.
Transport
We support funding that would go towards overcoming
deficiencies in public transport rather than on building more and more new
freeways. This is not just for environmental reasons. It is also for reasons of
logic. Public transport can simply transport a lot more people.
The majority of
This current lack of public transport infrastructure
indicates that our state and federal governments have been deficient in their
planning duties for a number of years.
Water
By far the largest consumer of water in
Therefore water is a scare but necessary resource for
our rural communities.
We would support the amalgamation of the state-run
water authorities under one National water authority
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