Australian Family Law Reforms Good Start - Dr Newman

ACT welfare spokesman, Dr Muriel Newman, is calling for a major family law overhaul to be taken up in New Zealand after an Australian federal bi-partisan report recommending massive reforms to family law in Australia, was released this week.

Dr Newman said she believed the Australian proposals, including a major emphasis on shared parenting, lawyer free divorce and fairer child support systems and using the Family Court as a last resort, showed what progress could be made when politicians focussed on strengthening families as the outcome.

"I am writing to Justice Select Committee Chair, Tim Barnett, to draw attention to the proposed Australian model as the Committee moves into consideration of the Care of Children Bill.

"I believe many of these reforms can be incorporated into the Bill to strengthen the legislation and to reflect the importance of the role of the family in society to the welfare of children," Dr Newman said.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>