Conflicted

This is a picture of the scene just before the cutting of the ribbon for the 75th anniversary of the bridge; depicting Morris Iemma and his four children with the Governor Bashir. I guess in some unsubtle way you could call it the triumph of multi-culturalism. There isn't an anglo to be seen in any of the major positions of power; with an Italian heritage premier and a Lebanese heritage governor. It's all been engineered, and they spruke left wing ideology as if they and they alone own the high moral ground. Money and power have been shifted, deliberately; it irks, in some residual way; which is weird. As if the whities could give a toss for the likes of me. It's easy to be left wing if you're on a handsome tax payer funded salary, living in large comfortable houses, surrounded by your own kind.

I have to write a Forward for Ian's book The Daddy Split Guide so here goes:

Most separated men, faced with the collapse of their known universe,retreat like wounded animals into caves of their own making.Most of these men lose virtually everything in their life: not justtheir marriage, but often their house, their income, their socialstanding, their friendships, and worst of all any meaningfulrelationship with their children. They also lose complete faith intheir country and their fellow citizens, in their national identityand everything they have ever held dear. For as loyal, uprightcitizens of Australia, most men have got up and gone to work each day,day after day, putting one foot in front of the other, paying theirbills and grumbling, perhaps, about useless politicians. But they haveat least derived some comfort from the belief that while they paid theexorbitant taxes characteristic of this country, at least it was acountry which believed in social justice and the fair go, a countrythey could be proud of.No one who has been through the travesty of justice, decency andhonesty that is the Family Court of Australia and experienced thebureaucratic insanities of the Child Support Agency or the anti-maleanti-father bias of Legal Aid or Centrelink could possibly have anyrespect for our legal system or the politicians who have allowed thesesocial disasters to continue on their destructive paths with suchimpunity.Sooner or later, with most separated men, the light goes on. Theyrealise they have spent their entire lives paying taxes to support asystem totally hostile to their interests, and to supportingbureaucrats and politicians who essentially couldn't care less whetherthey were alive or dead.Although every father's group in the country claims a directconnection between the Child Support Agency and the high death rate ofseparated men the CSA has consistently refused to count its own dead -estimated now to be running at 12 a day - three times what you wouldexpect in the broader population. No other organisation in the countrycould get away with 12 of its clients dying each day, yet not a singlepolitician who has been responsible for the CSA since Dads On The Airbegan broadcasting in 2000 has been able to answer the simple question- how many of your clients die each day?Not a single politician Labor or Liberal, Green or Democrat, has hadthe gumption to stand up and speak out against the massive bias ingovernment funding which sees more than 99% of government fundingspent on women's groups while father's groups go begging.None of them have pointed out that more men die of prostate cancerthan women die of breast cancer it's women who get all the funding andattention. None of them have dared to say what academics around theworld have confirmed - that domestic violence is an equal opportunityemployer. And not a single politician has had the common decency topoint out that a Marxist feminist institution like the Family Courtand its supporting bureaucracies, including Legal Aid and Centrelink,operate on an entirely dishonest and ideologically driven principle -that whatever the woman says is to be given credence as the voice ofthe oppressed, and whatever the man says is to be dismissed as thevoice of the patriarchal oppressor.There is no more brutal, more inhumane or more barbaric act the statecan commit against their own citizenry than to remove children fromtheir parents. Yet that is exactly what happens to separated men intheir hundreds every single day of the week. And none of the peopleelected to represent their interests says a word.One woman's pain is every woman's pain, one man's pain is a socialembarrassment. Faced with the devastating loss of their children,their homes, most of their assets, their income, faith in theircountry and the lives they have lived, separated men crawl silentlyinto their own coccoons. If they cry, which they often do, they cryalone.It is one reason why they are largely invisible in the public debate.Ian Purdie wasn't about to go crawling into any old cocoon. He hadspent much of his working life in rock bands and he just wasn't thesilent type. A big, vibrant man with energy to burn, he turned hishand first to writing books at a furious pace, and then tobroadcasting. Since first coming to Dads On The Air in 2006 he hasbecome a vital part of the program, and a significant factor in itscontinued survival and success.Ian first came to the attention of Dads On The Air when we decided tointerview him for the program, which had been running since 2000 andis now the world's longest running radio show dedicated to issuesaround fatherhood. In its sporadic fury and undisciplined candor, thebook is very much like Ian himself, generous in spirit,all-over-the-shop, insightful and insane, in the nicest possible way. Hopefully the very fact thatIan has had the gumption to stand up and shout about the manyinjustices perpetrated not just against him, but against so many otherfathers in this country, will inspire others to help turn the destructive tide thathas destroyed so many lives and so many families; and hurt so manychildren.At Dads On The Air we estimate that only one in something like tenthousand separated men ever give back to the fatherhood movement whichthey have turned to in their moments of need. Only very few men everhave the courage, conviction, talent or opportunity to speak out against the injusticesperpetrated against them, their fellows and their children. As ourcourts and bureaucracies continue to destroy fathers and break downtheir once loving relationships with their children, and as ourgutless politicians continue to hide in their offices and ignore asocial disaster which has left more than a million Australian children livingaway from their fathers, at least lan Purdie was one of those whostood up to be counted. The country would be a damn sight better placeif there were more men like him.