To Victorians: Vote FAMILY FIRST

[Independent]

What is the most important thing in your life?

FAMILY FIRST believes it is our families, and we are passionate about making Australia the best country to raise a family. To build Australia, surely we need to be paying more attention to the wellbeing of our families and making that our top priority. If you believe families should be at the centre of Australia's political agenda, join FAMILY FIRST today.

http://www.familyfirst.org.au/

[dad2wun]

[Phanatical]

I'm meeting with Dr. Ivan Herald, NSW director of Family First on Monday, and I'm going to push for Family First to, in the very least, field candidates in the NSW State Election. It would be terrible mistake for the party not to, the State election is the single best opportunity to campaign for the Federal election.

The rights of boys and men are under threat under both the Liberal and Labor parties and we NEED to have representatives in the NSW Parliament who are willing to make their first priority the rights and welfare of boys and men.

And if things don't work out, I WILL run as an independent for the Legislative Council.
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I support father's rights, because when I become a father, I want my kids to grow up safe.

[J.L.]

Remember that, as we have detailed in our archives here on DOTA, that Victoria is even more advanced than Tasmania in some areas of marginalisation of the male as a result of the push for "equality" of women.

This is effectively seen by Christine Nixon, Commissioner of the Victorian Police, stating that the perpetrator of DV, in all cases perceived as the male, will be removed from the home. This practise has become institutionalised to the point that the police hand the man a voucher for a hotel room for the night.

As well as further ratification of the feminazi cant that " the most dangerous place for a women is in the home with her husband." this becomes the first step in effective disenfranchisement of the man from his property and his children.

Theft and destruction of the family unit sanctioned, aided and abetted by the State.

J.L.

[Guest]

Independent,

I read your appeal for votes for the Family Party. Let me tell you that nothing would give me greater pleasure than to promote a party that had a genuine platform of commitment to promote "family" values.

But therein lies the problem.

ALL political parties in Australia have "family-friendly" policies, which they blab on about, but they are all rhetoric. There is never anything specific in their policies, other than promises about handouts, childcare, work/family lifestyle choices, blah, blah, blah. Their family policies are prescriptions to change families to suit that particular party's social agenda, be it Marxist or capitalist. Hence I've become extremely cynical about so-called family-friendly politicians and political parties.

Coming from this jaded and cynical position, I see you people launch onto the scene a few years back. So I go to your website (link provided above) to see what you're about - and occasionally from time to time - but all I find is more of the same rhetoric. Except for two issues, abortion and child custody, you make no specific statements whatsoever about what you intend to do, no news of proposed legislative changes, no announcement of upcoming Bills, directions of policy, nor any media releases making public comment on family issues in the public eye of any kind. Nothing, zero, diddly-squat.

All I can assume, is that you're just another party, with some agenda, possibly a Christian faith party, who like the rest, hide behind the shield of a family-friendly face espousing family values, without telling us what they are.

I ask, where is your substance?

If I was ever to get any indication that you were genuine, I am in a position to promulgate your cause. Although of minor influence, I do have a somewhat louder voice than some. I regret, until such time as you can convince me of something concrete, I shall remain cynical of your party's intent.

If you want votes, you're going to have to prove yourself to the voters and demonstrate exactly what you're doing and what you are going to do.

[dad2wun]

Don't get me wrong, Family First's Steve Fielding has tried admirably to push the agenda of shared parenting with 50:50 as the centrepiece.

State government affects families in different ways to the federal sphere and I don't see Family First are quite up to speed on the nitty gritty issues that make life so hard for Dads that are under attack.

For Victoria they have no policies that I am aware of on:

1) Childrens court and child welfare agency practises.
2) Draconian AVO/Intervention orders and the frequent abuses against families as a result
3) State Govt funding of Womens court support programs and women's refuges
4) Removal of Equal opportunity and office for women departments

I'm sure there are more to consider. Their South Australian website has more policy up and it gets somewhat better with general principles such as:

"Family First believes that parents have primary responsibility for the care and
eduction of their children and no Government ought to normally usurp this
authority."

+

"Greater legislative support for more balanced parenting outcomes taking into account the unique and vital roles both mother and the father have in parenting their child."

I doubt you'd find such sentiment on Labor's website. Especially NSW labor, which appears to be the new home of kiddy fiddlers.


Overall the Family First website has very little specific policy up so they need to pull a finger out and start engaging us if they want Dads as a voter base. Broad principles notwithstanding, they need to push for legislative changes that benefits the Family by stopping the attacks on Dads.
_________________
It must never be forgotten that: The essence of The State is coercion, but the essence of Society is freedom. (Uncle Buck 2005)

Please do not make legislation based on the emailing abilities of a small, select group of powerful men. - Ms Permezel; Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs (Sep 2006).

[Phanatical]

What we need is to either join Family First as a voting bloc of men's rights activists, and influence policy that way, or start our own party. Frankly, if we ran on a platform of Men's Rights, we'd receive less votes than the Anarcho-Communist Party - but if we ran on a platform of family values (of which fathers and sons are an important part), we could obtain mainstream support and, more importantly, seats in state and federal parliament where we could use every Question Time to ask the difficult questions the major political parties never would.

I think our next step should be to have representatives from every major (and minor) men's rights group working together on a comprehensive policy on everything from men's rights to men's health, and that policy becoming enshrined in Family First policy. Family First is a party with great intentions, but little actual tangible policy or coherant organisation - and I think that when more dedicated people get involved it will truly become a force for social justice.
_________________
I support father's rights, because when I become a father, I want my kids to grow up safe.

[dad2wun]

I don't want to discourage you Phanatical from your intentions to join FF and run. Having you in their ranks at branch meetings would be a good thing.

Men don't vote for Men's parties. But plenty of them do vote for the Fishing Party, the Shooters Party and the Outdoor and Recreation Party. That sounds funny until you realise that the last 2 have seats in the upper house of NSW and their vote is keenly sought with 11 cross benchers requiring the Govt of the day to negotiate.

FF should attract similar interest in NSW as they have in SA - perhaps they are concerned about running against the CDP.

At the end of the day I don't really care which minor party advocates our position as long as 1 of them does and starts pumping out the right policy and seeking amendments to draconian legislation. An elected member onside with our position would also give us face time with ministers which I've been told is far more effective than petitions and letter writing.

When you read the crap that comes out of these members in the Hansard you realise our opponents have had plenty of face time with the ministers and members.
_________________
It must never be forgotten that: The essence of The State is coercion, but the essence of Society is freedom. (Uncle Buck 2005)

Please do not make legislation based on the emailing abilities of a small, select group of powerful men. - Ms Permezel; Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs (Sep 2006).

[Phanatical]

I met with Dr. Ivan Herald, NSW Director of Family First this morning. He assures me that the difficulties in running for the State Election are founded in NSW Electoral Law, and not an unwillingness of the party to run. For this reason, Family First will probably run candidates, though because of these difficulties they won't be identified by party on the ballot.

Family First policy is, in my opinion, so broad that it effectively doesn't actually say anything of substance. I hope that the party will adopt a policy model similar to that of the other major parties, and actively articulate its stance on the relevant issues - and in time we will do so, given the resources to write the policies. I will personally be involved in writing policies relevant to young people in our society - I would encourage you all to actively make policy suggestions to the Party. In the least, I will be actively raising your issues alongside my own - but my focus as a young person remains youth issues in our society and I cannot speak for fathers because I'm too young to become one.

All this said, I have reiterated the immense importance of writing policy dedicated to the welfare and wellbeing of boys and men in the family, and Dr. Herald has agreed. Of course, there is only so much the Party can do without the active participation of concerned people like yourselves - so I would encourage you all to do what I did this morning, and JOIN the Family First party. If you leave me your contact details by private message, I will be more than happy to get some of these membership forms I have here sent out to you.

EDIT: I should probably point out that as of yesterday, I have been given the authority to speak on the behalf of the Family First party.
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I support father's rights, because when I become a father, I want my kids to grow up safe.

[dad2wun]

Good on you Phanatical, I admit I've been pretty rough on you in past posts but I see a veteran in the making. We need to fight on all fronts, especially the political.

You still seem nervous about policy for Dads, you aren't 1 yet but you are a son of 1. So don't hold back, use this forum to build policy with the FF's - this is the coalface, this is raw and happening now.

Every Dad I know puts his family 1st. Making policy for Dads is therefore putting Family First.
_________________
It must never be forgotten that: The essence of The State is coercion, but the essence of Society is freedom. (Uncle Buck 2005)

Please do not make legislation based on the emailing abilities of a small, select group of powerful men. - Ms Permezel; Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs (Sep 2006).