Bowled over to have just heard on @RNBreakfast that my book Witness is shortlisted for @TheStellaPrize. Congratulations to the 5 other nominees. Thank you to all who have read Witness & are passionate about issues it raises about difficulties complainants of sexual crimes face.
@AliSaoirse @LindaDHoward @igfbss Male violence can be very helpful and useful in protecting the country, the people and the family. It’s not helpful and useful when turned inward on the country, the people and the family.
@LindaDHoward If you think a proportion of women lie in court, what proportion of men do you think lie in court? Do you expect one gender lies more or less than the other? Which gender has greater access to finances, to legally support & cement a dishonest position, and get away with it?
@LindaDHoward DV rates don’t change because DV robs victims of power, voice, autonomy, liberty & influence. Rather than disrupting & preventing DV bullying, others turn a blind eye. We don’t understand it, and don’t want to deal with the discomfort and distaste of collateral victimisation.
@LindaDHoward Yes I have heard of forensic accountants, yet once again, if your partner has taken all your money and is refusing fair financial support for your children, you won’t afford a forensic accountant, and you won’t have the financial means to stand in court with the evidence from one
@LindaDHoward Don’t rely on the partner someone left to play financially fair, post-separation. Follow-up on it. Cross-check it. Digitise it, and automate it. The big banks and the ATO have a role they can play here. Make financial violence criminal - kids are severely damaged by it.
@OccupyMyGov Thank you Police, Centrelink, Child Support and Court-based women’s support teams 4 providing front-line support 4 primary carer mums; 50% of whom suffer severe emotional, financial, legal, economic and logistic domestic violence post-separation; and 25% while raising children.
@LindaDHoward Women in Australia cannot afford access to legal justice post-separation. The court system upon divorce needs to be replaced by a system administered by an administration similar to child support. Financial partner violence needs to be assessed and deterred.
@LindaDHoward You don’t hear women talking about it because family law law gags them, “for the sake of the children”. Women with children generally can’t legally afford to talk about their suffering at the hands of their partner, because it legally risks their relationship with their children
@LindaDHoward Problem is about holding perpetrators to account, including partners who don’t fairly contribute their proportion of finances and logistics in support of their children, pre-separation and post-separation, including outside the statutory minimum child support.
We've just finished counting the Puffins and doing the maths. And we have some AMAZING news. There were more than we've ever seen: 11,245! This is the most since the 1940s crash and another indication that the very slow recovery is picking up pace (there were once 40,000).