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PM urges male role models for boys
The West Australian
June 20, 2003 PM urges male role models for boys CANBERRA Too many boys grew up without male role models after their parents divorced, Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday - as sole parents warned against automatic shared custody. Mr Howard has flagged a review of child custody laws in response to concerns raised by coalition MPs and senators about unfair child support payments and access arrangements. He said the review would consider a proposal to make shared custody the default arrangement in child custody battles, as long as both parents were considered fit. The Family Court currently considers each case in the best interests of the child. "I'm not saying we are going to adopt this. It may on further examination turn out to be prejudicial to the child, unworkable, but we should be willing to have another look at it," Mr Howard said. He indicated the review could involve both State and Federal governments, parents' groups and community input. Mr Howard said increasing numbers of marriage breakdowns meant more and more children would be caught between warring parents, and he was particularly worried about boys growing up without male influence. "If a boy lives with his mother, sees little of his father, has no older brothers or close uncles or close family male adult friends and typically might go to a primary school where there are very few male teachers, it's often not until the boy is 15 or 16 that he comes across a male role model with which he can identify," he said. "Now I think that's bad and it happens too often." Sole Parents Union president Kathleen Swinbourne said the proposal undermined the Family Court's power to decide each custody case in the interests of the child. "We would all like fathers to take more responsibility in raising their children - but this is not the way to do it," she said. Ms Swinbourne said distance, the financial burden of running two households, and hostility between parents forced into shared custody were arguments against making it the default solution. Labor legal affairs spokesman Robert McClelland said judges should have the discretion to decide, not politicians. The Shared Parenting Council said the interests of the child would remain paramount and the Family Court would step in only if couples failed to reach agreement during a mandatory mediation process. "If both parents are fit, they should share the kids," council Federal director Geoffrey Greene said. Statistics showed the Family Court ordered joint custody in only 3 per cent of cases, with 76 per cent to the mother and 21 per cent to the father. But informally, 30 to 40 per cent of divorcing parents opted for some sort of shared parenting arrangement, he said. http://www.thewest.com.au/20030620/n...sto102206.html -- Replace the obvious with paradise to email me. See Found Images at: http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~mlvburke |
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