Publishing the Book: Children of the State

Stolen for Profit

Let’s face it: this is a tough sell.

In the beginning was the Word.

Well, there was a radio show called Dads On The Air.

We were a small group of that most unfashionable of all people. Separated, sad, angry, overwhelmed fathers.

But unlike most such creatures we had an outlet.

Australia is uniquely gifted with an often underutilised community radio network gifted to the present day from the 1970s.

We were a bunch of separated, extremely pissed off fathers who regard the country’s family law, child support and child protection systems as not just damaging and dysfunctional, but fundamentally corrupt.

You couldn’t shut us up.

Australia’s secretive and despised family law system is now, due to the repeated failure to reform its abysmal and discredited processes, the subject of growing demands for a Royal Commission. As controversial as we were in the day, operating on the very borders of what could be published and broadcast, history, the passing of time, has proven us correct.

Back then we were well out on a limb.

We would do a program talking about malfeasance and the rise of groups such as Fathers4Justice, and wait for the Australian Federal Police to come knocking.

The Family Court, known as a “Superior Court” in the Australian judicial system, is protected by swathes of legislation which make it almost impossible to report on. At the time it was launching repeated attacks on its many critics, including hitting protesters with the arcane charge of “scandalising the court”.

We knew we were being watched.  ……..read more at

https://medium.com/a-sense-of-place/publishing-the-book-children-of-the-state-2cbec40b44e4