Dads in Distress

With special guests:

• Tony Miller
• Barry Wiliams
• Phillip York
• Scott Hayes
• Leon Schmeider
• Chris Stokes and
• Peter Smith.

We are pleased to present a Dads in Distress special, looking at the unique work this organisation does in helping fathers in crisis. DIDs aims to provide a safe forum for men going through the trauma of divorce, separation or relationship breakdown to express their grief. It also aims to nurture, validate and stabilise men and by the nautre of the sharing that takes place  guide men to become the cause of their future and not be the result of their past.

With the Rudd government preparing to defund all fathers groups, and the government not providing us with any response to our questions on the issue, we talk to some of the leading figures in Dads in Distress, including founder Tony Miller. He talks about the history of Dads In Distress, what drove him to found the group and the crises it now faces after having established groups around the country.

Barry Williams has been a committed advocate for lone fathers and their families for over thirty years. Leon Schmeider is the convenor of the Dads in Distress Group in Newcastle, and has worked tirelessly as a volunteer for Dids for many years. He has been an inspiration to many men in Newcastle and surrounding areas, as he seems to always go that little bit further in everything he does. Chris Stokes is a dad who also found Dads in Distress at a very tough time in his life. He talks about how DIDs can help blokes at a very difficult time in their lives. Peter Smith is just another dad in a long long line that have been thankful to find a Dads in Distress group in his area.

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International Men's Day: The Debate

With special guests:

• Clr Phillip Penfold
• Warwick Marsh and
• Dr. Elizabeth Celi.

Clr Philip Penfold says he is baffled by the opposition to the recognition that men have problems as well as women but is gratified by the media storm he has inadvertently created. Earlier this month The Newcastle Herald recorded that a motion for Maitland City Council to give equal support to International Men’s and Women’s Days has provoked a minor battle of the sexes with the city’s two female councillors voting against the proposal.

Warwick Marsh of the Fatherhood Foundation, who has been one of the leading proponents of the day, says everone needs encouragement: “It cuts both ways. Men need a day of their own. Father’s day has risen in the public sphere in recent years, and we hope that International Men’s Day will do the same. Councillor Penfold is ground breaking, he is a pioneer. Around the world the day is gathering momentum. It will become a very important day in the calendar.”

Dr Elizabeth Celi, author of Regular Joe versus Mr Invincible: The Battle For the True Man, said International Men’s Day was more than just about men’s health, it is about celebrating masculinity and the wide variety of roles that men play in the community. In her book, when she asked men to list the strengths they bring to their relationships, many fell silent. Celebrating IMD might help men recognise the many strengths and abilities that they bring not only to their relationships but to their workplaces and to the community at large.

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Stolen Babies

With special guests:

• Geoffrey Greene and
• Christine Cole.

First up we talk with Geoffrey Greene, who as a former head of the Shared Parenting Council of Australia, was a key player in the previous government’s reforms of family law. While DOTA was critical that the reforms did not go far enough to address the extreme bigotry and anti-father bias that saturated family law in Australia, at least there was some movement in the right direction. Unbelievably, it would appear that the present government is trying to wind things back to the dark ages when many fathers entering the court did not see their children again.

We close the show with a deeply moving and fascinating interview with Christine Cole, author of the book Babies Stolen: Mothers’ stories of their stolen babies. Bureaucrats during the past century, employed in removing children from their natural parents, claimed to be acting in the best interests of children, despite the obvious harm they were doing. There are many lessons for fathers from this history.

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Making History

With special guests:

• Pascal Gallez and
• Michael Green.

We have a very special program this week. Our guest is Pascal Gallez from Belgium, and the subject of our discussion today is the revelation that we now appear to have a template of Real Equal Shared Parenting Time laws in Belgium. Dads on the Air understands we are making history by being the first to bring this to the attention of the English-speaking world. While not perfect, it certainly is a big step forward in the right direction.

This is an important milestone, because it will provide all those fighting so hard around the world to bring about change to the Draconian Family Justice System, with an example of how “Equal Shared Parenting Time” laws need to be structured and how they can work.

Also on the program we’ll be speaking with Michael Green. Michael currently is the patron and past President of the Shared Parenting Council of Australia. He is a Lawyer, a QC, an author of two books on parenting issues, and runs a mediation company. We’ll be speaking to him about his thoughts on Belgium’s new Shared Parenting Laws and how they might work in Australia and other countries.

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Organised Crime

With special guests:

• Tom Gilling and
• Maggie Campbell.

This week we interview the author of Smack Express: How organised crime got hooked on drugs, journalist, author and father of two Tom Gilling. And we close the show with lawyer Maggie Campbell, who is an interesting variation on a theme - as a career woman she lost custody of her son in the Family Court to her husband and his new stay-at-home partner, showing just how barbaric and out-of-date the family law jurisdiction remains. Like so many men, she was incensed by what had been done to her and became a lawyer as a result.

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