In an online comment I read, “Jason” said, “Men have no rights in Australia. False accusations against men are by default true, men are default abusers, men are default third class. Mothers lying in court is 100% ok with the courts and nothing will be done.”
What does the data say about this?
Research done by the Australian Institute of Family Studies reveals that 97% of parents do not go to court to work things out about parenting arrangements. The remaining 3% use the family court system. This 3% are the families experiencing issues like violence, abuse, neglect, drug use, alcohol misuse and mental illness.
So keep in mind that, if you want to apply to the court, you will probably not go to trial with a judge, but your matter will more than likely be decided between you with the help of lawyers ‘on the court steps’, as they say.
In the small proportion of cases determined by a judge, the court orders are made with the assistance of one or more family reports which are usually written by a specialist psychologist. The judge will also look at records from police, hospital, drug and alcohol treatment providers and anything else that will assist the judge to make sure the children have a meaningful relationship with both parents where it is safe to do so.
Orders made by the court provide for sole parental responsibility by the mother in 45% of cases, and 11% of cases end up with orders for sole parental responsibility by the father. The rest of the orders were for shared care. Orders for the children to have no contact with one parent make up 3% of all court orders.
If you’re complaining about ‘mothers lying in court’, I can tell you that accusations must be backed up with evidence. From my daily reading of court reports, I see judges calling out less than truthful mothers and fathers. Having seen the evidence and heard the parents, the judge will say something like “where there is a difference between the evidence of the parents, I prefer the evidence of the other parent.” Mothers are not always believed. Fathers are not always believed. You don’t need to be male or female to lie.
Sometimes, a person will accuse the other party of lying because accepting responsibility can be hard if you choose to behave in a way that hurts those closest to you. Men who use violence struggle to accept responsibility for their behaviour and they put up barriers like minimising the violence: “it was just a tap”, blaming the victim: “she pushed me to it” or denying it: “she’s such a liar”. Jason, are you sure she was lying about the abuse?
