"The LFA receives at least 5 calls a fortnight from the parents or wives of men who
have suicided as a result either ofbeing hounded by the CSA or as a result ofthe nonenforcement ofFamily Court access orders. Ifthe Parliament continues to allow these
things to happen year after year, when it is aware ofthe situation, it will be culpably
negligent."
We challenge you Barry Williams to name names. We're sure some families of those that have suicided as a result of the CSA hounding would love to have their voices heard and have the CSA held responsible. Or is it that you lied???
Then Barry Williams saw a new avenue to fund his lifestyle down in Canberra, Get the government to pay for a Mens Crisis and Accommodation Service (MAACS) which surprise surprise did not allow women. What's that? Discrimination? Isn't that what you bleat about now about Womens Refuges? The service was for men AND THEIR CHILDREN to be all placed in one cess pit of violence and anger. If in fact you did get any clients and again we challenge you to name names of people who actually used this service, you thought it was ok to place children in an environment full of suicidal and quite likely violent men that most likely had allegations of child sexual abuse levied against them because as you say yourself, all women do this to gain an advantage in the property settlement? What the hell were you thinking? Thank goodness someone saw some some sense and got rid of you.
"I should finish this preliminary foray into the issues by referring to a major new development in the ACT, namely the establishment of a Men’s' Accommodation and Crisis Service in Canberra (known as MAACS), being run by the LFA ACT.
We are very appreciative of the ACT government's help with MAACS, which opened on 14 April 1999, the first of its kind in Australia. Already it has proved successful. The service has been in use at almost all times, and we have had to turn a number of people away because they did not meet our criteria, e.g. because they were not victims of marriage breakdown or had not been residents of the ACT."
http://www.lonefathers.org.au/policy.php
5. The Lone Fathers' Association's fixed lease agreement with ACT Housing expired in March 2000. From that time the Lone Fathers' Association was on a standard two week Community Organisation Rental Housing Assistance Program tenancy agreement. The Lone Fathers' Association was served with an eviction notice on 21 January 2002, when the organisation made it clear that they would not vacate the premises when their purchase agreement with the Department of Education and Community Services expired on 31 January 2002.
6. The Department of Education and Community Service's purchase agreement with the Lone Fathers' Association allocated $105,859 per annum (excluding GST). An additional $10,000 per annum was recently allocated to MAACS under the Community Capacity Building initiative.
In addition, the department allocated an additional $5,000 per annum to the Lone Fathers' Association to purchase professional supervision services to improve the performance of their workers.
The service tendered for was an extension on that previously purchased by the department. An additional $50,000 was made available from the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) for the purchase of outreach support to families who have either recently left a refuge or who are at imminent risk of becoming homeless.
ame of Organisation | Name of Service | Funding provided in 2000-01 (inc GST) | Funding provided in 2001-02 (inc GST) |
Lone Fathers' Association | MACCS Refuge |
$113,883 |
$67, 926 |
"Mr Speaker, the government subsequently decided to provide funding for this service to the Lone Fathers Association, without any transparent decision-making process. The service was funded under a cloud of inappropriate process and we believe it is appropriate, as the new government, to set in train a process that is transparent."
Interesting bit of Cronyism here in that Jim Carter was also the Caretaker. How convenient!
"
MR STEFANIAK: My question is to the Minister for Education, Youth and Family Services. Minister, I refer you to the yet to be resolved saga in relation to the crisis accommodation service for men and men with children, formerly run by the Lone Fathers Association in Belconnen.
Minister, no doubt you are aware that the Lone Fathers organisation did not spend all of the money allocated to it when it was running the service, and that a sum of approximately $20,000 remains unspent. I understand that there is some dispute in relation to who should keep this money. The Lone Fathers have sought to do this, but the department has apparently placed the matter before an auditor and put a freeze on those funds.
Without going into what should happen to that money, would you tell us whether you are you aware that the department has refused to allow the Lone Fathers to pay the former live-in caretaker the money owed to him as a result of the redundancy in the change of contract, and his other entitlements? I understand his entitlements amount to approximately $4,500. Is the minister further aware that the Australian Services Union has advised that this money should be payable to him, and wants it paid to him. Will you, Minister, direct your department to allow Mr Carter to be paid the money that is duly owed to him out of the abovementioned $20,000?
MR CORBELL: Mr Speaker, the responsibility for this program is now the responsibility of the Minister for Disability, Housing and Community Services, so I will ask Mr Wood to respond.
MR WOOD: Mr Speaker, I am aware of half of that story, that is the half in which there is $4,500 owing in redundancy payments. I am not aware that the $20,000 has been frozen. However, the advice that I have is that such commitment as there is is a responsibility of an organisation. There was a claim earlier that it should be paid by somebody else, by the government or something. The suggestion in reply is, as I recall, that the money owing to the person should be paid out of the remaining funds. If they are frozen, I can see there might be a problem, so I will check the second half of the story and see where we may take it.
MR STEFANIAK: Minister, I do thank you for that, at least, and I will liaise further with you. Will you endeavour to do that as a matter of urgency, as I understand Mr Carter has been seeking what is rightly his for some time now?"
Rightly his eh?
Here is Bill Stefaniak the Liberal MLA that was responsible for a lot of the misallocated funds.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/08/26/2346611.htm
Here is where Stefaniak tells the Government that despite "homeless men with children" being very rare, Barry Williams is receiving calls "at all hours of the day and night from men with children" in order to defend his friends deception to the government. More lies Barry? Is this the same guys that are threatening to commit suicide? And now it's HOMELESS MEN that you are receiving government funding for instead of men who have been victims of domestic violence? Wow you sure are one busy guy.
MR STEFANIAK (11.09): This matter has been hanging around for a while. I must admit I was a little bit concerned about the government response. Homelessness is a very serious issue. In the latest Chronicle we saw a very sad story about homelessness. Homelessness among men particularly is a distinct problem. The Chronicle referred to some figures that have been with us for almost 12 months. Up to 2,000 single men have been unable to find crisis accommodation. The St Vincent de Paul Society indicated to me and to the committee that they turn away up to six homeless men a night.
It is not common to see homeless men with children. Nevertheless, that is a very real problem. The committee looked at accommodation and the support services for homeless men and their children. The inquiry arose out of a motion I moved in December 2001 in relation to some problems with the contract that was awarded to group to run a shelter in Belconnen for a homeless men and children. That contract cut short the tenure of the group running the shelter at the time, Lone Fathers. There were a number of problems with the way the department looked at that service. There were significant concerns with the report by the so-called independent consultants. There were factual errors, from what I could gather, and there were some real concerns with the way the department accepted that report. There were all sorts of allegations of bias in the way the consultation was done. I thought that with the significant problems the minister should have put everything on hold and have the new minister investigate it. He did not-I think that is an absolute shame-and another group took over.
I said at the time that I was not going to bag the other group. They went in there with every good intention. They were the successful tenderers. Their philosophy was somewhat different from that of the previous runners of the service. The question here is the need and the government addressing the need.
We saw a clear need for not only one service on the north side but also a service on the south side. For months after that, as housing spokesman I kept getting figures from Barry Williams, the founder of the service for children and men in Australia. He was getting phone calls at all hours of the day and night about men with children in crisis. Quite clearly, there is still an unmet need. There is a real need for a similar service on the south side. I am disappointed that the committee report does not go far enough. I think it has a bit of window dressing. It could have made more useful recommendations to the government about this service.
When we think of homelessness, we think of homeless single men and we often think of women with children in crisis needing special accommodation. Compared with other places, Canberra is quite well served with accommodation for women with children. The crisis services do a very good job.
More and more we are seeing men with children being left out on the street. Under family law, once the mother always got custody of the child. I am advised that in about 40 per cent of cases now the father gets custody. That is just one of the changes in our society. Even though a lot of people might not think of men with children being out on the street, their need for crisis accommodation is real.
The service that Barry Williams set up was an Australian first. ....It was a good service that looked after about 60 men and 100 children during its operation. (Name, names Barry) I was very disappointed-indeed, quite angry and even disgusted-that Lone Fathers lost that service and that the government did not look at the matter properly...."
http://www.hansard.act.gov.au/Hansard/2003/week04/1328.htm
Both Stefaniak and Williams were candidates in the 1992 Elections.
http://www.elections.act.gov.au/elections/1992/candidates_92.html
We intend to expose more of this scandal and implore the government to investigate ALL of the funding that has been provided to LFAA.
Barry Williams and Jim Carter it's time you got real jobs instead of living off the Australian TaxPayer like you have been doing for the past 30 years!!! No doubt the next project you apply to have funded from the Australian Government will be to do with the indigenous population because there's money there isn't there and someone has to fund YOUR lifestyle.
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