With the CSA automatically awarding MORE money to mums the less dads get to see their kids there is a clear incentive for mums to reduce visitation if they are financially in a pinch. This is an unfortunate consequence of human nature, this and the mere fact that knowing you can increase your income at any time may lead to unsound financial decisions that ultimately place a stranglehold on kids' relationships with their dads. Mums have to justify what they are doing, to themselves and to others, and often this also leads to escalating, unfair and unduly harsh criticism of dads (and men in general), thereby adding insult to financial and emotional injury. This financially backed negative publicity is very much at the core of the over-inflated negative attitudes against men in society today. We can't stick our heads in the sand and pretend that this does not happen or be swayed to inaction due to a belief that there are no better alternatives to the current CSA formula.

The fact is that dads and kids are getting a raw deal in Australia and often AT THE HEART OF THIS is the automatic financial reward that mum gets by withholding visits from dad. Dad's should not be forced to obtain parenting orders or forced to go to court as there should be checks and balances in place to prevent this from happening in the first place. Mums are being motivated to withhold visitation which leads to legal costs for dad and emotional hardship for the kids.

Many dads today are being allowed by mum to see their kids, sometimes over weekends and sometimes for a few days over the holidays but often the frequency of those visits are kept AT the number of days that will have the CSA award maximum child care payments to mum. Mum says she's doing what's best for all but dad and even the children do not really appear to be primary in that equation.

It is of utmost importance to reverse this aspect of automatic financial reward in order to provide a fair and noticeable improvement in the fate of Australian men and children. This is certainly one of the MOST important and positive things the government can do.

Dads are forced to go to court, often repeatedly, to get issues related to visitation FREQUENCY remedied. The possibility of ongoing legal costs is a major deterrent for many dads.

Current policy needs to change so that mums are slightly better off overall by letting dads and kids see each other more often. I suggest doing so through a new "Fair and equal parenting incentive" and/or by adding conditions to existing incentives. This will ONLY work if visitation frequency is removed or neutralized in the current CSA formulas.

This is not a petition about which types of dads should get to see their kids and how often. Instead this is a petition about NOT granting an incentive to mums to withhold visits, and everything else that goes hand-in-hand with that. Let's be clear about this instead of muddying the waters with all the discussions of the past. Giving a small incentive to let dads see their kids more often will allow mums to make better decisions in this regard.

Maybe once the incentive to bias is removed society may come to realise that dads are actually pretty cool.