Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to talk about my impressions of a forum that I actually addressed the Main Committee about this morning. I was so impressed by what I experienced in that forum that I thought I would share with the House my experiences and those of the other members of the opposition who attended. This was the Men’s and Fathers’ Family Friendly Policy Forum. There were 33 delegates from around Australia—academics, authors and people that provide social services—and the function was under the auspices of the Fatherhood Foundation, whose director is Warwick Marsh. As I said in the Main Committee, the spirit behind the fathers’ movement, the men’s movement, is expressed in the foreword to the policy forum document, where it talks about the goal of the Fatherhood Foundation:

… to promote excellence in fathering and increase the number of children growing up with an involved, committed, responsible and loving father. For this reason the Fatherhood Foundation is a strong supporter of marriage and the importance of increased pre-marriage education and marriage counselling. It is easier, and more sensible, to build a rail around the top of the cliff to prevent people falling over, than it is to run an ambulance service for those who fall to the bottom of the cliff.

That is the predominant sentiment that powers this organisation and powered this forum. I was incredibly impressed by some of the insights that I got from some of the people that addressed the forum. It struck me, in terms of some of the feedback that I got, that if I was looking for a general impression of what this forum was about—because the men’s movement sometimes gets characterised in a certain way—I would quote what a prominent politician said when he participated in the launch of this movement in 2003:

We don’t want a men’s movement that blames women, we want a men’s movement that works with men and women to develop better identity, better relationships, a stronger fathering role in our society and to develop win-win outcomes, where as a society across both genders, we can make advance and make successful change.

I tell you one thing: we in this place should all reflect on the cost of fatherlessness to the community. In fact, as the forum document says:

Dr Bruce Robinson estimates the cost of fatherlessness to Australia to be in the vicinity of 13 billion dollars …

But those are numbers. They are not about what people experience—the conflict—or what young males need. They need positive male role models, male mentors, or strong father figures, if you want to use that particular term.

Before I go on to briefly describe what we experienced in the breakout groups, I would like to acknowledge that the members of the federal opposition who attended this incredibly important forum were Lindsay Tanner, the shadow minister for finance; Wayne Swan, the shadow Treasurer; Jenny Macklin, the shadow minister for family and community services; Tanya Plibersek, the shadow minister for human services, housing, youth and women; Joseph Ludwig, the shadow Attorney-General; Roger Price, our whip; John Hogg, Deputy President of the Senate; Jennie George; and me.

We were all incredibly impressed with the insights that we gained, particularly those of us in breakout group 1, including Roger Price, Jennie George, John Hogg and me. The issues that we dealt with in that breakout group were education, health, family and community, birth rates, demographics, and general issues concerning boys, men, fathers and grandfathers, all in the context of families. We had four people address this breakout group: Maggie Hamilton, who spoke on ‘Boys, men, fathers and grandfathers’ and is the author of What Men Don’t Talk About; Judi Geggie, Director of the Family Action Centre at the University of Newcastle; Professor John McDonald, who spoke about men’s health and suicide, and is the Foundation Chair in Primary Health Care and the Co-director of Men’s Health Information and Resource Centre at the University of Western Sydney; and Greg Andresen, who spoke about ‘Demographics, birth rates, fathers and families, the marginalisation of men and the need for change’, and is the Research Officer for the Dads on the Air radio program in Liverpool.

There were incredibly moving insights that I got out of each of those presenters, and the other members of the opposition present did too. They showed that as a consequence of activism and of a profound need for change born out of experiences such as colleagues committing suicide because of a marriage break-up, things are moving forward. We have achieved legislative change. But what I gained was great hope for the future in terms of relationship change—for example, teaching young boys who have come out of a conflicted family how to relate to women. I was incredibly impressed with the forum and I wanted to share that with the House. (Time expired)