2009 The End

With special guests: 

• Barry Williams.
    

A lot of people, including most of the Dads On The Air team, are glad to see the end of 2009. The year which saw the death of Michael Jackson, the triumph of Barack Obama and the failure of the Copenhagen climate change conference, was also the year in which the Australian government, headed by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, inexplicable moved against the nation’s fathers, holding multiple fundamentally biased inquiries into the previous government’s popular shared parenting legislation, which encouraged the courts to give fathers and their children a fair-go after separation.

The founder of the Lone Fathers Association Barry Williams, the grandfather of the fatherhood movement in Australia and way back in 1972 the first Australian male to receive the parenting allowance, here adds his voice to the chorus of concern over the Rudd governments apparent aims to roll back the legislation which encouraged cooperation between parents post-divorce

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

Merry Christmas

With special guests: 

• Sue Price
  
• Warwick Marsh
• Phillip York and
• Ed Dabrowski.  

Peace on earth and good will to all men. Here a number of the leading lights in Australia’s fatherhood movement wish everybody a Happy Christmas and give some sensible advice about how to deal with things at this time of year. Of course XMAS can be the worst time of year for some separated blokes who, thanksto the bastardy of Australia’s appalling family law system, are unable to see their children. All we can say is: buck up! With a bit of luck things will get better. And ironically, many blokes who have fought heroic battles to see their children through the anti-father bias of our family law system find that once they stop fighting, things begin to improve dramatically.

But it’s the festive season, the time to be at peace and to love your fellow man. Dads On The Air wishes you all best; with words of courage and encouragement from Phil York of Dads In Distress, Sue Price from the Men’s Rights Agency, Ed Dabrowski from the Shared Parenting Council of Australia and Warwick Marsh from the Fatherhood Foundation. Unfortunately Barry Williams from Lone Fathers was unable to make the show as he was catching a plane; but also wishes everybody the best of the season and also expresses his concern for the gathering anti-father backlash in family law.

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

Re-Empowering Dads

With special guests: 

• Ken Thompson
  
• Damien Diecke and
• Greg Stocks.  

First up we speak with NSW Fire Brigade Deputy Commissioner, Ken Thompson (COPAC), whose 5-year- old-son, Andrew, was abducted in 2008. He points out that, “Australia now has the highest per capita rate of IPCA in the world”, highlighting the need for new laws. “It’s far too easy for a parent to abduct a child” he said. 

The Family Law Reform Association (FLRA) has called for the introduction of new laws to protect children from being abducted from Australia. As part of the support for this campaign, Ken Thompson has recently formed a group called the Coalition of Parents of Abducted Children (COPAC).
 
Our second interview is with Damien Diecke, a motivational speaker and Master attraction coach, who asks men to join him at the “Be That Confident Guy” seminar in Sydney 19th December.  
 
Damien points out that if you are a man who finds the following familiar, than you will definitely benefit from his re empowering seminars.
 
“I see a woman somewhere at a club, across a room, or perhaps just in the queue in front of me, who makes my heart race and I want so badly to go over and talk to her - but I don’t, I can’t - for no matter how much I have struggled in the past to overcome it, again, I find myself in the grip of an overwhelming self-consciousness and fear of rejection - once more I feel paralysed”
 
We end the program with an interesting recording of the ‘HEY DAD’ workshop for facilitators presented by Greg Stocks at the recent National Mens Health Conference, which was attended by the Dads on The Air team.
 
It provides an insight into how men are working together to re-engage and re-empower themselves, following years of relentless persecution, stereotyping and isolation from our communities. They are encouraged by the many women who are supportive and who are starting to speak out against the perpetrators, under the banner of ‘We Want Our Men Back’

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

Managony

With special guests: 

• David ‘Smiley’ Byrnes  and

• Ian Purdie.  

Dads on the air has witnessed the slow emergence over the last two years of the album Managony by Horizon Shine. It is a collection of songs written specifically for DOTA, dealing with issues that have featured on the program relating to fathers’ experiences during and around the subject of divorce. The songs were written, recorded and produced by David “Smiley” Byrnes and DOTA’s Ian Purdie who has been a presenter on the show for the last 4 years. Today’s program features Ian Purdie and Smiley and most of the other musicians they co-opted to help create Managony, as well as the songs and some insights into their composition and the recording process. The album is available through this website for $20. 

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...