Family Violence is still on the menu on Australian Family Court

Despite recent changes implementing family violence laws in the Family Court, Family Violence is still thriving.  Whilst the past year I have barely spent online, I have talked to hundreds of mothers affected by this mostly with recent cases where the judgments favor the perpetrator above the child and all victims involved.  Victims still barely have a voice.

Despite all the well crafted speeches from the court in public space, private-sphere is a different story.  Alike all forms of abuse occurring in private, so does human rights violations against the most vulnerable and least likely to afford the fine things in life that the courts actors enjoy at their expense(and sometimes the cost of a life): children and women.

The court relies all too heavily upon the notion that it makes its decisions based upon the rights of the convention of the child.  This is used to protect child's privacy, "best interests" and right to know the other parent.  I make no error in my judgement when I write that these interests are only upheld when the courts interests are upheld first and if they are compatible, the child's rights are not violated.

When family violence(not limited to domestic violence) is historical to the family, these interests usually clash with the courts.  This is because most victims are robbed of resources that the perpetrator has at his disposal.  The gender divide is just touching the surface when examining the root of the issue. Its why these laws do not work.  We could lobby again and change the laws to ensure that every child's voice is heard, but the reality is that the court navigates around these laws creatively and completely at each judges whim.  The political culture of the courts is ingrained in neoconservative values, over-toned by patriarchy with the old fashioned, "children and women should be seen and not heard".  One only needs to read the views of the judgments to find their own perfect flavor of disgust.  For many years, activists have continuely recommended the court become more open and tested with community values, but the best recommendation I have heard is a royal commission.  The court needs to be investigated, not merely touched superficially by a 2d tabloid view, but a thorough investigation where every aspect is examined.  Where the money trail is followed all the way to the end and every name of every child homicide is checked against the court records with or without the courts approval.  It is something that is no longer a request, idea or merely a discussion point:  Its an expectation.  Without it, the court remains liable to the deaths of all victims affected.

Uniting Against Violence Towards Women And Children

One of our team members travelled across the pacific ocean to unite with other mothers at the Battered Mothers Custody Conference. On the spare of the moment, she stopped by at the UN and picked up a UN badge. She wore this badge at the conference, not to symbolise the UN, but a new uprising of a movement that is worldwide. Because this problem is a global one. Its not a "my country - your country" thing. Women and children are being affected by family violence everywhere. Sometimes incorporated or not, there is also child sexual abuse. All these, not only ignored by the system, but arrogantly disregarded with a menace to all those who dare to raise the need for protection as an issue. Its now been proved as a farce that family court cases consist of parents engaging in petty disputes. Some cases may be mistakenly reduced to that behind the scenes by lawyers constrained by Australian legal aids monopoly over the cases as to not raise violence or child abuse. Both are important. The reason why Americans use the word, "mother" is because its a strain of the violence against women disease that affects our planet and needs to be raised. If we raise just child abuse, then we lose the plot by forgetting that it is beyond preferable for the child to have a living mother to raise them.

The problem in Australia is not just about the courts, but also how we raise the issue and balancing the needs of all involved. There is sometimes a need to raise the issue where the mother is not fit, needing the child to be raised by another caregiver. This is not disputed by anyone. This does not mean that "mother" needs to be taken out of the equation. There is alot of mothers out there right now that are getting abused during handovers and this affects the children profoundly. We cannot ignore that. I keep asking people if they have met a women who has not been raped or beaten at least once in their lives. I am still looking. I believe that in Australia, that it must be more than one in three and that the government has been shirking its responsibility to protect these women because of the ambiguity. We cannot ignore the childrens mothers who are surviving violence. You cannot accuse them of not being child focused if they want to be free from violence. They need to be there intact for their children. There is simply no negotiation there. Whoever thought of taking battered mothers out of the equation was extremely ignorant and it is therefore no wonder the early Greeks considered that ignorance was evil. I do not agree with that, but I do agree that the outcome is evil. Its poor form to ignore anyone enduring any kind of suffering.

Mothers are say, alot better off than they were in the 1900's. but there is a long way to go before they are treated with as much dignity as the average human being. Single women escaping violence have an easier avenue than mothers as they do not have children that they care for and want to protect from the violence they know.

Forget Fathers rights arguments - they do not even make sense. Its not about fathers. Its not even about men. Its just about gratifying their fetish for abuse and control. Because of their threats, bullying behaviour - they got their way. The bad behaviour was sadly rewarded. Another poor form example of the Australian government. The problem for both is that apart of this movement are some of the most smartest people in the world are working everyday on this issue. They are from every pocket of expertise whom are also mothers too who know what is really happening. It is inevitable that by uniting as a global movement, laws will have to change everywhere, including treaties and the hague convention as this is a human rights issue and it must be addressed. Conservatives can simply brush this off as a cost that will inevitably bite back later as a long term debt of society as this effects every other part because this was not addressed now. A majority of mothers work and they work hard. Those who don't provide billions of dollars worth of unpaid work within their local schools that governments use as a long term tool to strengthen the economy. Without mothers, this economic wheel stops turning. It was foolish to believe that only men mattered above all, including children. Mental illness as a result of witnessing or being a victim of family violence is continually on the rise. If it were a stock, there would be some very rich people jumping up and down in wall street right now. This is because governments only distribute bandaid proposals without stitching up the gaping wound. Playing upon the factor of local popularity, but forgetting those silent but powerful voices who decide every election who can stop violence against women and children forever. Who is has the brightest ideas on how it can be done?

Relocation: The Path of Peace

In the wake of Human Rights day, many sentiments were shared about Family court ordered violence being a major issue. An issue that is rarely discussed is the more complex issue. For those who have lobbied for the recent changes wont be able to benefit from the protections available. "Family Law Act: Too Little, Too late" the title for Patricia Merkins article, is an understatement.

This is where victims of violence need the right to leave. The right to leave the state or sometimes the country they are in and convert contact in supervised visits over skype as what would have been offered for them if they had escaped post 2010 Family Law Amendments. The Hague convention, originally designed to stop perpetrators from abusing has now become a major tool to keep the victims within a range where they can continue the abuse.

There has been much controversy over addressing the issue on the freedom to roam and little room promoting the other basic human rights on "freedom to roam". International nomadic families is not only a phenomenon, but becoming a proven, healthy way of life. I have met children who are now adults who have spent their childhoods as nomads within the international realm and they are far more educated, cultured and wiser than those who are constrained to a suburb, just because a father demands it be that way. Why should nuclear families be the only ones privy to this existence?

Mothers, are the ones after all the ones that gave those children life. Mens groups, feminism and the rest have forgotten that fact alone. They use and particularly abuse the fact that there are a few mothers out there that are not mothers at all. Chemicals, disability or other factors have robbed the ability for some women to be able to connect with the very essence of what makes them a good mother. There is a natural instinct, no different from the results that were derived from twin studies that mothers do have a natural connection with their children. I state this important fact not to exclude others that are not mothers within this community, but to raise awareness that mothers are often placed at the last of the que when consideration is concerned. Even in psychiatric textbooks, mothers are the scapegoat of societies ills, they are the problem, the burden - but not realised that if treated properly, they are the cure. The problem is that mothers are the least listened to and considered amongst many subcultures as doormats for the abominations that people have chosen to become.

Thus, when the word, "Mother" arises, the ugly head of how every mother did not meet the pristine 15th century characterture on what mothers must be, what place within society they must be and how they must conform. There are too many ridiculous expectations on what a mother should be that have absolutely nothing to do with the raising of children. How a mother dresses has absolutely no impact on a child who is exposed to Kate Perry in her latest music video featuring all of the things young children are attracted to with the contrast of her naked body on a cloud and a gummy bear using the middle finger.

How could a mother or any parent for that matter compete with the foreboding irresponsibility of our leaders ignoring climate change or killing millions of civilians in war? The eight hours a day, five days a week of schooling indoctrination that our children to follow a state dying within a digitally globalist world? Mothers, have little influence on our children. They are already positioned within the media as an invisible member of the international community. When mothers needed help, it was the plight of fathers that were pedestaled before them and the only thing they ever wanted, was for them and their children to be safe. It is a request that should have never been difficult to ask of, yet one that has taken an enormous amount of time and effort.

Now, there still remains the problem where the families that have already exhausted family court avenues to stop violence against them and the children will continue to struggle. They are the ones that have been re-victimized by the court system, by the governments and by the general community - just for needing to be away from violence. Many argued that such acts were"maternal gatekeeping" or somehow an act of malevolence with little fact or explanation. Yet, when one of the most renown peaceful figures in the world were faced with the choice of fighting or flighting, they chose the most peaceful path and so the Dalai Lama left Tibet.

There is little refuge away from this within the current and future laws for these families. What can be done without little effort is to consider these cases properly as a necessity to grant relocation when they request for it. After all they have been through, both the children and mother can heal from their ordeal with a fresh start, new faces and a diverse learning experience that will equip them for life.

Australian Mother Speaks Out

In unity with the American Mothers Political Party, an Australian mother and advocate speaks out about Australia's situation.

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