Alby Schultz (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Lone Fathers Association of Australia and on this government’s failure to recognise the importance of the support that LFAA provides to a significant minority group, namely lone fathers and male victims of domestic violence. The LFAA represents the special needs of separated fathers and their families to the community, government, and other agencies. The organisation has operated for 36 years—for most of that period on an entirely voluntary basis. The LFAA is non-sexist, non-sectarian and non-profit, and does not discriminate against anyone. One-third of its members and half of its executive are women.

The LFAA promotes and assists the development of a better understanding and equity in the Family Court on custody, access, child support, and property settlement matters. It encourages separated fathers to support and sustain their children. It promotes and encourages the best possible practice on access and custody matters—always with the happiness and emotional wellbeing of the child as the primary consideration, accepting that each child needs the love and guidance of both father and mother. During its more than 30 years in operation, the LFAA has worked unceasingly towards encouraging the development of a fairer family law and child-support system—namely, one which understands, accepts and encourages the crucial role of the love and guidance of fathers in bringing up children to be happy, law-abiding citizens and recognises the rights of grandparents to have a loving relationship with their grandchildren.

In 1976, the LFAA, in the person of its president, pitched a tent on the lawn of the Old Parliament House to protest the limited scope at that time of the single mothers pension. This attracted the attention of the then PM, Malcolm Fraser, and quickly resulted in the extension of the single mothers pension to cover single fathers with care of their children.

The LFAA, some years later, at the personal request of former Prime Minister John Howard, provided key advice through their representative on the 2004 ministerial task force, which corrected serious bias still inherent in the CSA scheme at that stage, notably the failure to treat the incomes of both parents on the same basis. The LFAA, in company with other fathers groups, urged the parliament to follow up PM Howard’s expressed concerns about the developing epidemic of fatherlessness and male suicide in Australia resulting from decisions by an out-of-date and anti-father Family Court. This eventually led to some major reforms recognising the importance of shared parenting by both parents. The LFAA also persuaded the government to adopt the far-reaching and highly beneficial concept of FRC’s, which had first been put forward by the LFAA 15 years earlier.

The organisation has been able, with government assistance, to run a small office in Canberra over the last three years. The LFAA has also established regional branches. These branches receive more than 20,000 calls per annum from men, women and children requesting advice, information and other assistance. The government has been very generous in the 2009-10 budget in offering additional tens of millions of dollars to gender groups which explicitly cater only for female victims—for example, of alleged domestic violence—but has ignored the 30 to 60 per cent of such victims who are men. No serious consideration has evidently been given to the rights and needs of male victims. Although the LFAA has helped a great many male parents with their problems with family law and related matters for a long time, financial assistance to it and other father/children focused groups has been about one per cent of the funding going to feminist groups.

Funding for the LFAA was initiated by the previous government and extended for one year by the present government. Funding needs to be continued and extended to allow the very important work of the LFAA to continue. This work benefits not only the tens of thousands of men, women and children who contact the LFAA every year for advice and help but also the millions of citizens and their children who are beneficiaries of improvements in family law which the LFAA has played a leading role in. I urge Ministers Macklin and Ludwig to revisit the funding arrangements of the LFAA and make available the appropriate funds on a less discriminatory basis in order for the LFAA and its associated organisations to continue their invaluable and necessary support work to Australian fathers, who are just as deserving of this kind of support as single mothers.