NCFM NOTE from this side of the other pond: NCFM members and other activists in Los Angeles, California and elsewhere are experiencing similar problems as reported below in a letter from our allies in Australia. Administrators of such publicly funded domestic violence organizations are often politically insulated, arrogant and hypocritically demonstrate the very same power and control behaviors they openly reject in men which they say The Patriarchy uses to oppress women. Generally speaking, they have no respect for the rule of law unless the rule of law can be used to continue their disenfranchisement of men and the transfer of power, control, and wealth. Hence,they meet behind closed doors to do their business in secret. Otherwise, the business they do would never be approved by those who do business in the best interests of all of us. Let us know if you have been kept out of such meetings.
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The Director
Standing Committee on Social Issues
Parliament House
Macquarie Street
Sydney NSW 2000
9 July 2012
Dear Sir/Madam,
The One in Three Campaign thanks the Committee for the opportunity to comment upon the deliberative process and the transcript of the round table held on on 18th June 2012.
As the content of the Committee’s Discussion Paper has not been made available to us or to the public, we are unable to respond in any meaningful way to the material in the transcript of the round table other than to say that none of the issues we have brought to the attention of the Committee were addressed.
We understand that the recommendations that were discussed at the roundtable may not be made public as they formed part of the deliberative process at the end of the Inquiry. We do however believe that the One in Three Campaign should have been considered a significant stakeholder, as we were invited by the Committee firstly to lodge a submission to the Inquiry and secondly to present to the Committee in person. Hence, as the sole organisation participating in the Inquiry with a focus on the neglected issue of the one third of victims of family violence who are male, we are extremely disappointed that we were not provided with the Discussion Paper nor asked to attend the round table, nor were we informed that the ‘public’ round table was even to occur. We are appalled that male victims of domestic and family violence and abuse had no voice amongst the 20 or so stakeholders who attended the round table.
We once again ask the Committee to acknowledge that significant numbers of male victims of domestic and family violence and abuse exist and that they are entitled to expect support from state funded agencies.
We also ask the Committee to acknowledge that significant numbers of female perpetrators of violence and abuse against men, women, children and the elderly also exist. We draw the Committee’s attention to recently released figures from the Department for Child Protection Western Australia (attached) showing that women made up the greatest proportion of persons believed responsible for substantiated child maltreatment (abuse and neglect) in 2007-08. Unfortunately no other State or Territory authorities have supplied such data – which should be publicly available – since the late 1990s.
We ask the Committee to consider the attached material provided by Mensline Australia (the federally funded 24/7 telephone counselling service for men) regarding the rights of male victims of family violence to expect the support of government-auspiced services.
We ask the Committee to recommend that state-funded domestic violence services be required to remove all barriers currently faced by male victims when attempting to access health, legal and counseling services currently available to female and children victims of domestic and family violence and abuse. To fail to do so is nothing less than sex discrimination.
We would like to point out to the Committee that this degree of government intervention was necessary in the past to require state-funded sexual assault services to see male victims.
We would remind the Committee of the dreadful impact that discrimination in access to state-funded counselling services has had upon the men who were victims of child sexual abuse covered in the recent Four Corners program on ABC television titled “Unholy Silence” (2nd July 2012).
We believe the Committee has the opportunity to be a catalyst for change in an area where contemptible discrimination is occurring and that this discrimination is causing profound suffering and harm.
Yours sincerely,
Greg Andresen (Senior Researcher) and Andrew Humphreys (Member)
PO Box 1292
Bondi Junction NSW 1355
T 02 8006 1IN3 (02 8006 1463)
ONE IN THREE VICTIMS OF FAMILY VIOLENCE IS MALE
You can download a copy of the full submission here.
