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Note that all items marked in blue below can be clicked onto for further details.

A PDF copy of these Policies (non-Family Law and Child Support) can be downloaded by clicking here.

The Australian Government is taking more and more of an intrusive and unnecessary role in the making of decisions that affect our lives.

The Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting) seeks to:

1. Minimise government interference in decisions that affect the lives of parents and children of separated families;

and to

2. Maximise the initiative of individual parents to make and be accountable for the decisions that affect their families.

POLICIES

Our policies are essentially related to how parents and children are affected after divorce or separation.

The main issues are as follows:

1. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Issues.

2. Child Care.

3. Crime and Justice.

4. Defence.

5. Economic Policy.

6. Education and Training.

7. Employment.

8. Environment.

9. Family Law & Child Support Policy.

10. Foreign Policy.

11. Health.

12 Housing.

13. Immigration.

14. Marriage.

15. Social Welfare.

16. State and Local Governments.

17. Superannuation.

18. Transport.

19. Water.

Details of each of the above policies are provided below:-

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1. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Issues

We do not see any philosophical difference between the unwarranted Government control of the Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander communities and the unwarranted Government control of families, in general.

This unwarranted control is quite similar to what occurs under the current family law and child support legislation and judicial practice.

Page 71 of the Price Waterhouse Cooper’s audited review, titled “Living In A Sunburnt Country”, states that the Army Aboriginal Community Assistance Programme (AACAP) was rolled out between 2007 and 2012.

The Department of Social Services and the Australian Army have since continued AACAP passed 2012 as an ongoing programme

We support the ACCOS* critical review of this programme. This is set out in the ACCOS* document titled:

Compulsory Income Management: A flawed answer to a complex issue (June 2010).

It states that there are better solutions that involve self-determination. These solutions are outlined in the above ACCOS* document.

* ACCOS: Australian Council of Social Services.

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2. Child Care

The non-custodial parent should be able to look after their children.

That is, either parent should be able to look after their children should the need arise.

However an artificial barrier has been placed in the way of this occurring in practice.

A DSS Performance Report contained in their 2007-2008 Annual Report highlighted the fact that the Family Tax Benefit (FTB) payment was now no longer split between separated parents. This is unless the care is more than 35 per cent (previously it was a much lower 10 per cent).

This change in 2008 created another hurdle for the non-custodial parent.

For details, please refer a NCPP(EP) interview with Sydney’s Radio 2GB of the subject.

This hurdle is that it now provides an artificial, financial incentive for the custodial parent not to permit the non-custodial parent to look after the children.

We support the removal of these and any other similar contact constraints in our legislation.

Similarly we do not support the recent withdrawal of child care rebates in 2015 for parents of children who are immunised. The approach should be a “one in – all in” approach.

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3. Crime and Justice .

Consider this. Over the 66 years to 1984, Australia’s rate of imprisionment per head of population rose by a paltry 13 per cent. Over just the just the past 30 years, however, its more than doubled.

(quotation came from Ross Gitten’s article on page 14 of the Illawarra Mercury on Thursday 18 February 2016. The article was titled “Prison is ineffective, expensive deterrent”).

This increase has been substantially cause by the Family Law Act 1975 and the actions of the Family Court of Australia.

Many of our social problems are directly caused by both parents not being allowed to be involved in the bringing up of their children.

To overcome these social problems, we support the need for strengthened shared parenting legislation. This is to ensure the full implementation of a rebuttable presumption of equal-time shared parenting

The Australian Bureau of Statistics published a report titled “Parental Divorce or Death During Childhood” in September 2010. This report found that there are significantly reduced future employment, education and income earning prospects for children of divorced or separated parents.

The resulting social problems that we have in our society can be seen from the number of people that are in goal in Australia

As at 30 June 2015, there were 36,134 people in goal in Australian adult prisons. This represents an imprisonment rate of 196 prisoners per 100,000 of the adult population (ABS 4517.0 – Prisoners in Australia, 2015).

This is a significant increase from the 127 prisoners per 100,000 adult-population figure that were in goal in 1994.

For the last 25 years, the number of people being put in goal has been continually increasing. This is at a rate that is three (3) times faster than the overall increase in Australia’s population.

What is worse is that more than fifty per cent of these people are repeat offenders (15,154 as at 30 June 2008 ABS Year Book 2012.)

Unfortunately our Parliament has passed legislation in December 2012 to rollback shared parenting. (Refer Section 60CC of the Family Law Act 1975).

Children from separated families need both parents when they grow up. Otherwise the social problems, which exist in our community, will continue to escalate. The number of people in jail will continue to increase.

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4. Defence .

The Defence budget was $24.2 billion in the 2014-15 Budget.

The operation of the Australian Defence Force should be limited to the protection of Australia – not becoming involved in other people’s affairs..

This also extends to internal affairs within Australia.

The Australian Army is participating in what is called the Army Aboriginal Community Assistance Programme (ref ABS 1301.0 – Year Book Australia, 2009–10)

There is a fine line between providing assistance to a community and the taking control of a community. Unfortunately the later is the case in this situation.

The Aboriginal Community Assistance Program is a co-operative between the Department of Social Services (DSS) and the Australian Army within remote Aboriginal communities.

This programme has been forced onto our Aboriginal community.

This unwarranted control is quite similar to what occurs under the current family law and child support legislation and judicial practice.

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5. Economic Policy.

We support less “red tape” and less government and bureaucratic intervention in our community.

We also support the need for some protection of our local manufacturing industries. Whilst local industries may appear not to manufacture goods as cheaply as some overseas countries do, the long-term view should be seen as being more important.

We support the need to maintain some local manufacturing skills here in Australia. Otherwise we will be at the mercy of these overseas countries at some time in the future.

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6. Education and Training .

Our National Education Budget is quite substantial. In 2014-15 the budget amount was $29.6 billion.

There were 3,694,101 children in primary and secondary schools in Australia in 2014. (ABS 4221.0 – Schools, Australia, 2014).

Many of these children in Australia come from divorced or separated families. As a result, many of these children are wrongly being disadvantaged by not being allowed to have contact with both parents, after divorce or separation.

We would support a unified “National Schools Family Law Policy”. This unified policy would emphasise the importance of both parents being involved in the education of their children, after divorce or separation.

All of the various six (6) States and two (2) Territories have either policies and/or family law guidelines in place. Policies have some control over school principals. However these policies often vary considerably between the various states and territories.

Often the information is not available to the general public.

Some of the details, that are publicly available for the various Australian states and territories, are provided below:-

– New South Wales – Dealing with Family Law Related Issues in Schools and Tafe. NSW Guidelines for School and Institute Staff. The implementation date of this document was 2007. Also, there is Legal Issues Bulletin no 20, titled Changing the way a student’s name is used and recorded by Schools and Tafe reviewed November 2012.

– South Australia – Dealing with Family Law Issues in Preschools and Schools: Guidelines for Staff. Note – These guidelines should be used for guidance only. The SA Department of Education and Child Development has advised that this document ceased to be effective as from 2011.

– Queensland – Family Law Matters Affecting Schools and a separate general document of procedures titled Enrolment in State Primary, Secondary and Special Schools. The implementation date of this document was 13 April 2017. There is an additional Procedure titled Access to Records Held in Schools. The implementation date of this additional procedure was 27 February 2017. It is noted that a policy titled Family law matters affecting state schools is only available to Queensland DET employees. This later policy was implemented on 9 July 2012.

– Tasmania – Enrolment, Attendance and Attendance Policy The date of the last review of this policy was December 2014. It is noted that the “Guidelines for Schools in Relation to Non-custodial Parents” can only be assessed by school staff.

– Australian Capital Territory – both the Family Law Policy published in 2014 and the Guidelines titled Dealing with Family Law related issues in Schools – updated July 2013..

– Northern Territory – guidelines titled Family Law updated September 2002.

– Western Australia – policy titled Family Court Orders in Schools as published on 29 April 2019 and Procedures updated on 11 May 2011.

– Victoria – policy titled Decision Making Responsibilities for Students updated on 13 July 2017 and policy titled Decision Making by Mature Minors updated 7 July 2017.

Note: please check for the latest updates of the above policies and procedures.

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7. Employment .

A far greater number of child support payers are out of work than what the national unemployed average is currently set at.

Unfortunately, 43.8 per cent (349,906 no.) of liable parents for child support are effectively unemployed as a result of the current child support school. This is according to the Table 5.2 of the Child Support Programme’s Child Support Scheme Facts and Figures 2006-07*)

Unemployment details for previous years are similar and they can be found by clicking here.

We support both parents being involved in what child support is both fair and equitable. This is to allow both parents to then get back into the work force to provide financial stability and independence for themselves and their children.

*Unfortunately, the Child Support Programme has steadfastly refused to provide reliable information since this 2006-07 publication of CSSFF.

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8. Environment.

We wish to secure current economic growth. At the same time we wish to preserve the environment for Australians of the future.

We maintain that the source of most of the future power generation in Australia will come from either coal or nuclear fired power stations.

We are opposed to nuclear power on the basis of the inherent safety dangers involved. Therefore this leaves coal fired power stations as the main reliable source of future power supply.

It has been often stated that there are other forms of alternative power generation. The main two (2) proposals use either wind or solar powered generators.

We do support both these types of power generation as back-up supplies.

However both methods do have problems, particularly with both supply and distribution.

Wind Power Generation

The “Roaring Forties” are generally found well south of the Australian mainland. These winds are not located near the main national electrical distribution grid lines on the Australian mainland*.

*It should be noted that the land mass of Europe is located much further north than Australia is located south. Therefore northern Europe can economically rely on strong winds to produce power. Australia does not have this same advantage.

Solar Power Generation

To be in anyway effective, solar power generation would have to be located in the less inhabited areas of Central Australia. Unfortunately, these areas are not near the main national electrical distribution grid-lines.

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9. Family Law and Child Support Policy .

(Refer to our separate policy on Family Law & Child Support Policy)

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10. Foreign Policy.

We support any measures that would avoid having Australia being involved in any unnecessary future confrontation such as the war in Iraq or Afghanistan. Both wars have proven to be mistakes.

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11. Health.

The health of both men and women are often adversely affected by our oppressive family law and child support system. This very often has a severe effect on their mental health and physical well being.

The National Health Budget for 2014-15 was $66,900,000,000.

The Government does have a National Male Health Policy that is funded. Funding had been allocated in 2010 Budget for a total of $16,700,000 million over four (4) years. This has just ceased.

Unfortunately this funding has been specifically restricted to “curing the problem”. No funding had been allocated for “preventing the problem”.

Preventative action is what is required.

The National Male Health Policy fails to the source of many of the problems:

Family Court Issues.

Child support problems.

Family violence order bias.

False sex abuse claims.

Gender discrimination.

It should also be noted that a minuscule $16,700,000 was allocated for the National Male Health Policy. This was over a four (4) year period, which has since lapsed.

We would support a National Health Policy – for both men and women – that would address all of the above prevention issues to provide real solutions. This is to prevent health issues from occurring, in the first instance.

Also, this National Health Policy would be properly funded for both men and women.

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12. Housing.

Either owning or renting a house is getting beyond the reach of the average wage earner.

However it is even harder for a non-custodial parent to consider either buying a house or renting a house. Excessive child support payments become like a first mortgage.

Unfortunately this is not as a result of true cost increases; it is as a result of Government policies.

In 2011-12, owners with a mortgage had repayment costs that averaged $432 per week or 20% of their average gross weekly income. Tenants renting from a private landlord have to pay $347 per week or again 20% of their average gross weekly income (for completeness, households renting from state and territory housing authorities paid $136 per week. This represents 19 per cent of their average gross weekly income). (ABS Housing Occupancy and Costs, Australia cat no 4130.0).

Very often, people have been affected by the effects of the Family Law and Child System cannot afford to own a house or sometimes even to have rental accommodation. This is the result of assets being diluted by people who should not be the main beneficiaries of any family break-up e.g. lawyers, etc.

We would support a complete review of the Family Law and Child Support legislation

There are many reasons for the artificially high cost of housing. One of the other reasons is the general tax legislation. “Negative gearing” is pushing up the cost of houses and the subsequent rental costs.

We would support the removal of the “negative gearing” provisions in the current tax legislation.

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13. Immigration.

Under current family law and child support legislation, having a family can be financial trap. As a result, many Australians are choosing not to go down that path.

Immigration has become an alternative to fixing the real problem caused by our unfair and inequitable family law and child support systems.

In 2013-14, there were 492,436 arrivals to Australia and 279,741 departures, providing a net gain of 212,695 people (ref. ABS Migration, Australia 2013-14. Cat no 3412.0).

This represents more than half the population gain for a year

Australia’s total fertility rate (TFR) was 1.799 babies per female in 2014 (ABS Cat no. 3301.0 Births Australia 2014). It is recognised that without immigration, the TFR should be at least 2.1 for sustainability.

We support the removal of the unwarranted financial traps that currently exist in our Family Law and Child Support system. Otherwise, our TFR will continue to fall further below the sustainable TFR of 2.1.

At the same time, we recognise that Australia has to have some immigration to help remain a vibrant and sustainable country.

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14. Marriage.

Marriage is an important stepping stone to the development of our Society. However there is a dissatisfaction with the current financial pitfalls that can occur through a marriage and relationships.

This has led to a fall in the crude marriage rate. People are also less inclined in being in a relationship.

In 2013, the crude marriage rate reduced to 5.1 marriages per 1,000 estimated resident population,. This is in comparison to the 7.6 marriages per 1,000 of the estimated resident population that had occurred in 1991.

ABS 3310.0. Marriages and Divorces, Australia

Falls in the crude marriage rate indicate that there is a dissatisfaction with marriage. This dissatisfaction is caused by the Family Law Act 1975 and the child support legislation.

To counteract this dissatisfaction, we would support a fundamental reform process of the Family Law Act 1975, with a view to making divorce laws more equitable for all concerned.

We would also support similar changes to the child support legislation.

We refer to the similar comments made in items 6 and 7 of the 12 Point Plan. This Plan occurred as a result of the National Strategic Conference on Fatherhood. The conference was held at Parliament House, Canberra on 18-19 August 2003 (members from our NCPP(EP) Executive were in attendance).

Point 6 of the 12 Point Plan states that:

Acknowledge that after divorce or parental separation, every child has a fundamental right to equal contact with both the mother and the father, unless there are proven mitigating circumstances.

Point 7 of the 12 Point Plan states that:

Examine all current and future legislation – both federal and state – in terms of how it impacts on fathers, marriages, families and children and make adjustments accordingly. This includes such things as the Family Law Act, Tax reform for families, Child Support legislation and much more.

We also support the National Marriage Coalition (Wollongong) Marriage Manifesto.

Adobe Acrobat PDF copy of the Marriage Manifesto

We also note that we do not oppose same sex marriage. It is not our business. People have a right to choose which type of relationship that they wish to live in. This is without Government interference.

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15 Social Welfare.

The largest component of Australia’s Annual Budget is the income support and benefits that is paid by the Government in the social welfare system. The National Budget for Social Security and Welfare in 2014-15 was $145.8 billion.

This number is increased by the many child support payers who are forced into the social welfare system.

To reduce this expenditure, the Federal Government is attempting to reduce payments to selected groups in the Community e.g. single parents.

This is without solving the issues that cause the need for the income support and benefits in the first place.

Many of these people have been unnecessarily affected by these reductions.

Changes outlined in our Child Support and Family Law Policy would encourage those who can work to do so.

We believe that the implementation of these reforms to increase employment would significantly reduce some of the above outlays made on social security and welfare.

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16. State and Local Governments.

We support many of the functions, now being carried out by state government departments, being transferred to the Commonwealth Government.

Australia is over-governed. These changes would result in less unnecessary, bureaucratic intervention on the part of state governments being removed.

The Federal Government, State Governments and Territories and Local Government all handle, to varying degrees:

Roads – including national, main roads and local roads.

Public Health – including Medicare, hospitals and local council health centres.

Education – including universities, primary and secondary schools and local council pre-schools.

Environment – emissions trading scheme, waste management and local recycling.

Tax Collection – including income tax, GST revenue, various state levies and stamp duties and local council land rates.

It is appreciated that many state government departments (and local government authorities) do view their roles as being important. The reality is that the true power resides with whoever collects the taxes. That power now resides with the Commonwealth Government.

This is simply because the bulk of taxation revenue, i.e. income tax and GST revenue – is raised by the Federal Government.

It would be very simple for the Federal Government or Local Council to take over any role that is now currently being done by the State Government.

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17. Superannuation.

Funds held as superannuation are considered to be property by the Family Law courts.

Our policy on superannuation can be found in item 4 of our NCPP(EP) Family Law & Child Support Policy.

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18. Transport.

We support funding that would go towards overcoming deficiencies in public transport rather than on building more and more new freeways. This is not just for environmental reasons. It is also for reasons of logic. Public transport can simply transport a lot more people.

In March 2006, three-quarters (75%) of adults living in capital cities travelled to their usual place of work or study using private motor vehicles as their main form of transport. In addition, 19% of adults used public transport, and a further 5% either walked or cycled as their main form of transport to work or study. (Source: ABS Year Book 2012).

This current lack of public transport infrastructure indicates that our state and federal governments have been deficient in their planning duties for a number of years.

Rail infrastructure projects that we support include:

– Victoria – Melbourne Airport Rail Link ($11billion)

– NSW – Sydney Metro ($11billion)

– Queensland – Brisbane’s Cross River Rail

– Western Australia – Perth Freight Link ($1.5billion) – a road link project.

– South Australia – Gawler Line Rail Upgrade.

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19. Water.

By far the largest consumer of water in Australia is the agriculture industry. Agriculture accounts for about two-thirds (67%) of total water consumption in Australia (ref Australian Bureau of Statistics Cat no. 4610 – Water Account Australia 2010-11

Therefore water is a scare but necessary resource for our rural communities. Very often decisions are made that affect rural communities. This is without the proper involvement of all the stakeholders (e.g. for the Murray-Darling River, there is the River Murray Water (Commonwealth), Goulburn-Murray Water (Vic), State Water (NSW), Lower Murray Water (Vic) and SA Water (South Australia)).

We would support the amalgamation of the Commonwealth and the State-run water authorities under one National Water Authority.

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Additional links:-

A PDF copy of the above NCPP(EP) Policies (non-Family Law and Child Support) can be downloaded by clicking here.

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