Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697631283727.pdf (Australia)
Your submission Please provide a brief summary of your experience and any relevant issues.

Your submission should respond to one or more of the terms of reference.

You may also wish to include any solutions, suggestions, or recommendations you have corresponding to the terms of reference.

Please note that content from this page onwards may be published.

a) Immediate and long-term measures to prevent violence against women and their children, and improve gender equality.
I am disgusted at your failure to uphold gender equality by failing to acknowledge that males are a significant proportion of victims of domestic violence, your failure to acknowledge the significant portion of domestic violence perpetrators are women, and the failure to acknowledge the insidious effects of false domestic violence allegations.

Until you address these failures, you will not eradicate domestic violence.
Instead, your inquiry, as many previous inquiries around Australia, will perpetuate domestic violence by reinforcing to children that it is acceptable for women to commit domestic and family violence, and that it is not acceptable for men to admit being victims.

The deficiencies in the family law system that discourage, and often prevent, meaningful relationships between children and their fathers also needs to be fixed.
Appropriate domestic and family objectives should be:  Australians take a zero tolerance approach to domestic and family violence  All Australians live safely in their own homes and children can grow and develop in safe and secure environments  Perpetrators stop using violence and are held to account.

I discuss the following areas: 1.

False allegations - Gender bias - Male victims 2.

False domestic violence allegations 3.

False allegations – Magistrates views 4.

“Ouster” orders 5.
“Ouster” orders 5.

“Consent without admission” 6.

Parental alienation 7.

Rebuttable presumption of joint care arrangements 1.

False allegations - Gender bias - Male victims The current anti-male gender stereotyping must stop.
Males are significantly represented in the victims of domestic and family violence and that what statistics for males do exist, they are affected by underreporting by 3 Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violenceSubmission 255 male sufferers (refer the http://www.oneinthree.com.au/ website).
Men who have experienced partner violence are 2 to 3 times more likely than women to have never told anybody about it.1 Another aspect of identifying male victims is that men may not realise that they are in abusive relationships because the issue of domestic violence has historically been framed as one in which women are the victims.

Statistics from the oneinthree website and Infographic include that more than 1 in 3 victims of domestic homicide were male (35.2%).
Additional statistics from that source are, show that in some categories, males are victims at a higher rate than females, including that during the last 12 months (of the survey):  Almost half the persons who experienced emotional abuse by a partner were male (45.8%)  13.8% of men that experienced emotional abuse by a current partner had their partner deprive them of basic needs such as food, shelter, sleep, or assistive aids, compared to 6.4% of women.
 8.9% of men that experienced emotional abuse by a current partner had their partner threaten to take their child/ren away from them, compared to 4.6% of women  38.5% of men that experienced emotional abuse by a previous partner had their partner lie to their child/ren with the intent of turning them against them, compared to 25.1% of women.

These statistics are not what the ‘family violence industry’ portrays in order to gain further funding.
Despite men being a significant group of the population affected by domestic violence, men are almost totally ignored as victims.

As you have done in this inquiry.

Government programs, for example the commonwealth ‘The National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010 – 2022’2.

Such programs almost totally ignore women as the perpetrators of abuse against men.
These programs will not be effective in eliminating domestic violence until there is acceptance of the reality that females are a significant portion of perpetrators of domestic violence and men are a significant portion of victims.

Gender equality means dealing with female perpetrators and assisting male victims.

2.

False domestic violence allegations Situations of genuine domestic violence need to be dealt with.
However, the current system of DVOs and AVOs is a travesty on our legal system and is corrupted by the many false allegations being made by aggrieved people.

I am a victim of domestic violence through the use of false allegations7.

I did not receive any support whatsoever from police, or the court system.

In fact, I did not find about the false allegations until I was to attend a mediation session.
In relation to court hearings, I suffered with the lack of support, but my ex-partner was provided support with her false allegations.

I recently attended the same court because I was called for jury duty.

I experienced what can only be called a toxic anti-male environment with all the anti-male domestic violence stands and paraphernalia.

So much for innocent until proved guilty.

And clearly there is no gender equality.

1 * Source: http://www.oneinthree.com.au/infographic/.
This data is taken from the 2012 ABS Personal Safety Survey, as it was not published in the 2016 ABS Personal Safety Survey 2 https://www.dss.gov.au/women/programs-services/reducing-violence/the-national-plan-to- reduce-violence-against-women-and-their-children-2010-2022 4 Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violenceSubmission 255 The definition of family violence already includes the threats by the one parent (particularly the female parent) to withhold contact by the other parent (usually male) with the children.
However, these threats are not usually acknowledged, nor are they addressed.

These threats are usually effective because of the gender bias in the system and lack of a rebuttable equal shared parental contact framework.

In any other situation of ex-parte hearings (i.e.

only one party being heard like in DVO applications), the court takes issuing orders against the absence of the other party extremely seriously.
This care is very much absent from DVOs, with magistrates deferring any challenging of the allegations to a formal hearing.

An apt description is that magistrates issue DVOs like lollies.

In the meantime the respondent (often male) has a DVO against him.

This can and does lead to catastrophic consequences, including loss of income and employment, as a DVO is often treated as a conviction.
Many licences, such as security, weapons, explosive licences appear to be linked to DVOs and false allegations often mean loss of licence and employment.

It seems that DVOs are now a common and almost standard tactical weapon, often used by women in separation and divorce situations.

It seems to be common for a woman to make false allegations, get a DVO, with the increasing common consequence that the man is ousted from the matrimonial home, and is prevented from seeing his children.
This then sets up a “status quo” situation, that courts seem loathe to change, where the children having little contact with their father.

This then feeds into a financial reward for the woman through increased child support payments based on the low care percentages of the father.

The courts do not currently do much about false allegations.

The abuse of the system, in the name of domestic violence, and males assumed to be guilty, must stop!

The system needs to be fixed.


Until the abuse of DVOs and false allegations is fixed, you are going to continue to have children and their fathers harmed.

Children are harmed through not having a meaningful relationship with their father.

Fathers are harmed through many reasons, including financial stress and mental anguish from not having meaningful relationships with their children.

3.
3.

False allegations – Magistrates views In 2003, 74% of Queensland Magistrates who responded to a survey agreed with the statement ““Domestic Violence Protection Orders are often used by applicants in Family Court proceedings as a tactic to aid their case and deprive their partner from contact with the children.”3 Again, the abuse of the system must stop!
Until the abuse of false allegations is fixed, you are going to continue to have children and their fathers harmed 3 Rachael Field and Belinda Carpenter “Issues relating to Queensland Magistrates Understandings of Domestic Violence” Paper presented at The Domestic Violence Court Assistance Network (DVCAN) Conference 17-19 June 2003. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/3726/1/3726.pdf 5 Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violenceSubmission 255 4.
“Ouster” orders “Ouster” orders are being abused with false allegations.

This exacerbates the harm (particularly from family violence from false allegations) against fathers and their children.

It is far easier to use a DVO and ouster order to remove a partner than applying for sole use and occupancy of the home through the Family Court.

Many fathers find they are ousted from their home without even an opportunity of a hearing and contesting false allegations.
With an increasing number of businesses being run from home, these “ouster” orders are evicting men from their homes and access to their businesses.

Such men are not being afforded the opportunity to get their business equipment and records, with the consequent effect of that business being damaged or destroyed.

So not only are they homeless, but they are unemployed.

Until the abuse of “ouster” orders is fixed, you are going to continue to have children and their fathers harmed.

5.
5.

“Consent without admission” The legal system is failing, mainly men, with the use of “consent without admission” arrangements.

Many men are suckered into agreeing to these agreements, including under pressure by the lawyers, without understanding the legal consequences.

Men are often essentially bribed to admit guilt to see their kids or make the issue go away.
But the agreements backfire badly – consent without admission is treated as a guilty plea, and it comes back at the men in the future as they are treated as being violent.

Even if they are innocent and agreed to the “consent without admission” under pressure.

There are significant adverse consequences for men who “consent without admission” for future family law cases and care for their children, licences (weapons.

Security, explosives) etc.

etc.


The abuse of “consent without admission” orders exacerbates the harm (particularly from family violence from false allegations) against fathers and their children.

6.

Parental alienation There needs to be a greater and direct acknowledgement that parents can, and do, alienate their children against the other parent.

Further, that this behaviour represents abuse against the children and meets the definition of domestic and family violence.
Parental alienation needs to be taken into consideration when protecting children and DVOs.

Parental alienation can include:  The residential parent preventing the child from contacting the other parent - this includes preventing the child from phoning and talking to the other parent  The residential parent taking the child from the family home or otherwise preventing them from spending time with the other parent.
This can be as simple as the mother saying to the child “you do not have to 6 Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violenceSubmission 255 go to daddy’s place if you do not want to”.

I experienced such behaviour towards my child.

Yet I received no support from the court system.

Instead, I had to spend thousands of dollars going to court to get orders enforced.

To eliminate domestic violence, you need to eliminate parental alienation.

7.
7.

Rebuttable presumption of joint care arrangements The failure to have gender equality of parents care for their children, for example by having a rebuttable presumption of joint care, creates conflict and harm to children.

The anti-male (anti-father) gender bias encourages false domestic violence allegations and parental alienation as the family parent (mother) is given priority over the children and male parent (father).
The Men’s Rights Agency highlighted in 2003 that the original intention of the Family Law Act was on joint care arrangements, in their submission to the Standing Committee on Family and Community Affairs Child Custody Arrangements and Child Support (August 2003)4 Peter Duncan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Attorney General said in a speech to Parliament in November 1995 that : “The original intention of the late Senator Murphy was that the Family Law Act would create a rebuttable presumption of shared parenting, but over the years the Family Court has chosen to largely ignore that.” 11 11 Hansard 21 November 1995 Pg 3303 This needs to be implemented.
Judges and magistrates somehow manage to interpret the law to maintain the fallacy that restricting a child’s contact with the father to only one weekend a fortnight is in the best interests of the child.

This needs to change to reduce conflict and harm to children and their fathers.

Your submission Please provide a brief summary of your experience and any relevant issues.

Your submission should respond to one or more of the terms of reference.
You may also wish to include any solutions, suggestions, or recommendations you have corresponding to the terms of reference.

Please note that content from this page onwards may be published.
4 https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House_of_Representatives_C ommittees?url=fca/childcustody/subs/sub0909.pdf 7 Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violenceSubmission 255 c) The level and impact of coordination, accountability for, and access to services and policy responses across the Commonwealth, state and territory governments, local governments, non government and community organisations, and business.
There seems to be a complete failure across the Commonwealth, state and territory governments and local governments, as well as almost all non government and community organisations, and business to acknowledge: that males are a significant proportion of victims of domestic violence   a significant portion of domestic violence perpetrators are women  the insidious effects of false domestic violence allegations.
Negative effects of being associated with White Ribbon and similar organisations A number of government agencies and businesses have associated themselves with the White Ribbon organisation.

However, this association negates any improvement in the domestic violence training and awareness.

The White Ribbon organisation promotes a gender biased, male bashing and male apologist approach to domestic violence.
It does not deal with male victims, female perpetrators, or insidious false domestic violence allegations.
The White Ribbon approach, and that of similar organisations, is not aligned with the domestic and family objectives I gave under Terms of Reference (a) above of:  Australians take a zero tolerance approach to domestic and family violence  All Australians live safely in their own homes and children can grow and develop in safe and secure environments  Perpetrators stop using violence and are held to account.

Your submission Please provide a brief summary of your experience and any relevant issues.
Your submission should respond to one or more of the terms of reference.

You may also wish to include any solutions, suggestions, or recommendations you have corresponding to the terms of reference.

Please note that content from this page onwards may be published.

d) The way that health, housing, access to services, including legal services, and women’s economic independence impact on the ability of women to escape domestic violence.
This question again highlights the gender biased Terms of Reference for this inquiry.

There is an almost complete lack of health, housing, access to services, including legal services for male victims of domestic and family violence.

In particular male victims of false domestic violence allegations, and male victims of “ouster” orders.

8 Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violenceSubmission 255 Your submission Please provide a brief summary of your experience and any relevant issues.
Your submission should respond to one or more of the terms of reference.

You may also wish to include any solutions, suggestions, or recommendations you have corresponding to the terms of reference.

Please note that content from this page onwards may be published.

e) All forms of violence against women, including, but not limited to, coercive control and technology-facilitated abuse.

This question again highlights the gender biased Terms of Reference for this inquiry.
Males are a significant proportion of domestic and family violence victims and all forms of violence against men, including, but not limited to, coercive control and technology-facilitated abuse needs to be addressed.

This includes harm from false allegations of domestic violence.

As I noted in terms of Reference (a) 1.

False allegations - Gender bias - Male victims The current anti-male gender stereotyping must stop.
Males are significantly represented in the victims of domestic and family violence and that what statistics for males do exist, they are affected by underreporting by male sufferers (refer the http://www.oneinthree.com.au/ website).

Men who have experienced partner violence are 2 to 3 times more likely than women to have never told anybody about it.5 Statistics from that website and Infographic include that more than 1 in 3 victims of domestic homicide were male (35.2%).
Additional statistics from that source are, show that in some categories, males are victims at a higher rate than females, including that during the last 12 months (of the survey):  Almost half the persons who experienced emotional abuse by a partner were male (45.8%)  13.8% of men that experienced emotional abuse by a current partner had their partner deprive them of basic needs such as food, shelter, sleep, or assistive aids, compared to 6.4% of women.
 8.9% of men that experienced emotional abuse by a current partner had their partner threaten to take their child/ren away from them, compared to 4.6% of women  38.5% of men that experienced emotional abuse by a previous partner had their partner lie to their child/ren with the intent of turning them against them, compared to 25.1% of women.

These statistics are not what the ‘family violence industry’ portrays in order to gain further funding.
Despite men being a significant group of the population affected by domestic violence, men are almost totally ignored as victims.

As you have done in this inquiry.

Government programs, for example the commonwealth ‘The National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010 – 2022’6.

Such programs almost totally ignore women as the perpetrators of abuse 5 * Source: http://www.oneinthree.com.au/infographic/.
This data is taken from the 2012 ABS Personal Safety Survey, as it was not published in the 2016 ABS Personal Safety Survey 6 https://www.dss.gov.au/women/programs-services/reducing-violence/the-national-plan-to- reduce-violence-against-women-and-their-children-2010-2022 9 Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violenceSubmission 255 against men.
These programs will not be effective in eliminating domestic violence until there is acceptance of the reality that females are a significant portion of perpetrators of domestic violence and men are a significant portion of victims.

Gender equality means dealing with female perpetrators and assisting male victims.

2.

False domestic violence allegations Situations of genuine domestic violence need to be dealt with.
However, the current system of DVOs and AVOs is a travesty on our legal system and is corrupted by the many false allegations being made by aggrieved people.

I am a victim of domestic violence through the use of false allegations7.

I did not receive any support whatsoever from police, or the court system.

In fact, I did not find about the false allegations until I was to attend a mediation session.
In relation to court hearings, I suffered with the lack of support, but my ex-partner was provided support with her false allegations.

I recently attended the same court because I was called for jury duty.

I experienced what can only be called a toxic anti-male environment with all the anti-male domestic violence stands and paraphernalia.

So much for innocent until proved guilty.

And clearly there is no gender equality.


The definition of family violence already includes the threats by the one parent (particularly the female parent) to withhold contact by the other parent (usually male) with the children.

However, these threats are not usually acknowledged, nor are they addressed.

These threats are usually effective because of the gender bias in the system and lack of a rebuttable equal shared parental contact framework.

In any other situation of ex-parte hearings (i.e.


only one party being heard like in DVO applications), the court takes issuing orders against the absence of the other party extremely seriously.

This care is very much absent from DVOs, with magistrates deferring any challenging of the allegations to a formal hearing.

An apt description is that magistrates issue DVOs like lollies.

In the meantime the respondent (often male) has a DVO against him.
This can and does lead to catastrophic consequences, including loss of income and employment, as a DVO is often treated as a conviction.

Many licences, such as security, weapons, explosive licences appear to be linked to DVOs and false allegations often mean loss of licence and employment.

It seems that DVOs are now a common and almost standard tactical weapon, often used by women in separation and divorce situations.
It seems to be common for a woman to make false allegations, get a DVO, with the increasing common consequence that the man is ousted from the matrimonial home, and is prevented from seeing his children.

This then sets up a “status quo” situation, that courts seem loathe to change, where the children having little contact with their father.

This then feeds into a financial reward for the woman through increased child support payments based on the low care percentages of the father.
The courts do not currently do much about false allegations.

The abuse of the system, in the name of domestic violence, and males assumed to be guilty, must stop!

The system needs to be fixed.

Until the abuse of DVOs and false allegations is fixed, you are going to continue to have children and their 10 Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violenceSubmission 255 fathers harmed.

Children are harmed through not having a meaningful relationship with their father.
Fathers are harmed through many reasons, including financial stress and mental anguish from not having meaningful relationships with their children.

Your submission Please provide a brief summary of your experience and any relevant issues.

Your submission should respond to one or more of the terms of reference.

You may also wish to include any solutions, suggestions, or recommendations you have corresponding to the terms of reference.

Please note that content from this page onwards may be published.
f) The adequacy of the qualitative and quantitative evidence base around the prevalence of domestic and family violence and how to overcome limitations in the collection of nationally consistent and timely qualitative and quantitative data including, but not limited to, court, police, hospitalisation and housing.
The qualitative and quantitative evidence is very often corrupted by the gender biased focus failing to acknowledge that males are a significant proportion of domestic violence victims and failure to acknowledge female perpetrators.

OneInThree Campaign The OneInThree Campaign (a reference to the underreported proportion of domestic violence victims being male) contains a various statistics on domestic violence.

It also includes information rebutting various biased surveys and misinformation.
Its website states: Regrettably, while well-intentioned, many past efforts to reduce family violence against women have inadvertently used incorrect or misleading statistics‚ which unfairly stigmatise men and boys as violent and abusive, while simultaneously denying or downplaying the existence of male victims of violence.
http://www.oneinthree.com.au/misinformation/ Child-abuse statistics It is common for domestic violence statistics in relation to child harm to aggregate non-fathers (mother’s boyfriends, step-fathers, or other male household members) and father perpetrators into a “male category”.
The real (lower) levels of father perpetrators is obscured, and the public is misled by associating the higher male level as father crimes, when that is not the case and is taking away from the fact that more biological mothers kill their children.

The real risk to the child is from abuse of not just the mother, but the non-father, that is a much higher rate than the provided statistics.

Children are safer with their biological father, than with their mother (and her boyfriend).
More importantly we do not have the correct statistics that provides that combined amount of the risk to children as those statistics are not provided.

So the court (and the domestic violence industry) are making decisions on false information.

In the meantime fathers are vilified, and their children are denied contact with their fathers, 11 Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violenceSubmission 255 leading to harm to the children.
Your submission Please provide a brief summary of your experience and any relevant issues.

Your submission should respond to one or more of the terms of reference.

You may also wish to include any solutions, suggestions, or recommendations you have corresponding to the terms of reference.

Please note that content from this page onwards may be published.

g) The efficacy of perpetrator intervention programs and support services for men to help them change their behaviour.
This question again highlights the gender biased Terms of Reference for this inquiry.

Males are a significant proportion of domestic and family violence victims and correspondingly, a significant proportion of perpetrators are women.

There is an almost complete lack of perpetrator intervention programs and support services for women to help them change their behaviour.

Until this issue is addressed, males and their children will continue to be victims of domestic and family violence.
Your submission Please provide a brief summary of your experience and any relevant issues.

Your submission should respond to one or more of the terms of reference.

You may also wish to include any solutions, suggestions, or recommendations you have corresponding to the terms of reference.

Please note that content from this page onwards may be published.
h) The experiences of all women, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, rural women, culturally and linguistically diverse women, LGBTQI women, women with a disability, and women on temporary visas.

This question again highlights the gender biased Terms of Reference for this inquiry by failing to consider males as victims.
The current Australian immigration system is being abused by immigrant women coming to Australia on temporary or spousal visas, and then claiming (falsely) domestic violence, and being allowed to stay in Australia.

This of course is causing considerable harm to male victims of those false domestic violence allegations.

12 Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violenceSubmission 255 Your submission Please provide a brief summary of your experience and any relevant issues.
Your submission should respond to one or more of the terms of reference.

You may also wish to include any solutions, suggestions, or recommendations you have corresponding to the terms of reference.

Please note that content from this page onwards may be published.

i) The impact of natural disasters and other significant events such as COVID-19, including health requirements such as staying at home, on the prevalence of domestic violence and provision of support services.
Anecdotally, there appears to be an increase of domestic violence committed by women under COVID-19 by women denying their children contact with their fathers by arguing restrictions related to the various lockdowns.

There have also been attempts by women to change child support arrangements to disadvantage fathers because of changed contact under COVID-19.
For more information, contact Men’s Rights Agency at https://mensrights.com.au/ Your submission Please provide a brief summary of your experience and any relevant issues.

Your submission should respond to one or more of the terms of reference.

You may also wish to include any solutions, suggestions, or recommendations you have corresponding to the terms of reference.

Please note that content from this page onwards may be published.
j) The views and experiences of frontline services, advocacy groups and others throughout this unprecedented time.

For the effect on men, you should contact Men’s Rights Agency at https://mensrights.com.au/ Your submission Please provide a brief summary of your experience and any relevant issues.

Your submission should respond to one or more of the terms of reference.

You may also wish to include any solutions, suggestions, or recommendations you have corresponding to the terms of reference.
Please note that content from this page onwards may be published.

k) An audit of previous parliamentary reviews focussed on domestic and family violence.
An audit of previous parliamentary reviews focussed on domestic and family violence will find that they were similarly gender biased and failing to acknowledge that males are a significant proportion of victims of domestic 13 Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violenceSubmission 255 violence, failing to acknowledge the significant portion of domestic violence perpetrators are women, and failing to acknowledge the insidious effects of false domestic violence allegations.
Your submission Please provide a brief summary of your experience and any relevant issues.

Your submission should respond to one or more of the terms of reference.

You may also wish to include any solutions, suggestions, or recommendations you have corresponding to the terms of reference.

Please note that content from this page onwards may be published.

l) Any other related matters.

Suffering of men The suicide rate of males is significantly higher than that of females.
Yet, not a lot of focus is made on this issue beyond lip service.

Another example of the anti-male gender bias in society.
A significant contributor to the male suicide rate is relationship breakdown.7 Having to go through false domestic violence allegations, possibly losing your employment from those allegations (and “consent without admission”), possibly ousted from our home, and then having contact with your children 20% of nights is devastating and clearly a significant contributor to the suicide rate.
If there is insufficient room above to summarise your experience and relevant issues, please attach additional pages to this submission as required.

7 https://mensrights.com.au/uncategorized/relationship-breakdown-factors-in-male-suicide/ 14 Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violenceSubmission 255