That's where the money went!!!

Wayne Butler and his cronies at Shared Parenting Council missed out on the government funding their woman and child hating forum and Barry Williams despite his frantic sucking up (sorry lobbying) in Canberra failed to secure more retirement funds to finance his cushy jetsetting lifestyle must be stewing in their own juices when the Department of Human Services announced that they would instead be sending the funds to the Child Support Agency.

The $223.2 million in funding is specifically to maintain services and address the mounting Child Support debt. As Child Support is exactly that and intended for the support of children, there are an awful lot of Australia fathers who don't give a toss about their children.

A recent media release also detailed the amount of greedy men seeking to take advantage of the governments generous stimulus payment and lodged their tax returns only to end up getting caught by the Child Support Agency for non payment of Child Support.

It must really grate! Good!


http://www.humanservices.gov.au/dhs/media/archives/ludwig/0905/090512-extra-in-supporting-separated-families.html


Lifestyle Guide for the Divorced and Unemployed.

FOREWORD

I was once a normal person. I had a loving family, a beautiful wife and two young boys. After several years in the workforce as a wage earner, mainly in the Commonwealth Public Service, I decided to spread my wings and take on private enterprise. My intent was to be able to provide the best for my family. I was very successful, I was even awarded two Australian Productivity Council Awards in the same year for best small business and best quality product; in the latter award I beat such large enterprises as the Hobart City Council, Cadbury's the chocolate factory and even Pasminco Hobart Smelter. I was a souvlaki maker, owning one of the Parthenon Souvlaki Bars, number four, in Salamanca Place, of Hobart and also the most successful shop of all in the chain. I engaged in an aggressive promotion of my business and products thus proving, to present and future clientele, that souvlakis, cooked properly under the guidance of the National Heart Foundation, are a healthy alternative to regular junk food. I was motivated to this course as I had suffered high blood pressure and cholesterol levels. It dawned on me that I ate most of my meals at the shop. Hence if I was to regain my health I would need to change cooking processes at work. I ran a business with eight full timers and about a dozen casuals. I owned a near waterfront property in the upmarket suburb of Tranmere. I even put in a proposal to the city council that resulted in the widening of the footpath along Salamanca place, combating conservative factions of the council and changing the look of Salamanca forever. Up until then my business was the only one with tables and chairs out the front. Salamanca place, with its widened footpath, is now renown world wide for its cosmopolitan atmosphere and its ample al fresco eateries. I was successful, overworked and overpaid. It all came crashing down when I realised that my marriage was to come to an end.

I won't go into any of the specifics of my divorce. I have moved on and besides, this is a book about surviving divorce. I don't even wish to give the impression that it was my ex wife's fault. It always takes two to mess things up. I was a slob and never spent a lot of time at home. I did pay for a gardener, a maid and the occasional dog's body to chop and stack wood; however that was no substitute for being there. I would wake up at 6am and come home at 10pm at the earliest. During the last year of my marriage I lived a zombie like lifestyle. I would get home, maybe have a quick bite to eat and then lay in bed, quite often fully clothed. I would not dream. I would close my eyes and after a split second open them, only to discover that it was morning and the ritual was to start all over again; a Ground Hog's Day nightmare. I didn't see my kids very often due to my extended working hours. I had become my father. I resorted to buying one of the early model mobile phones and installing it in my four wheel drive, so that I could chat to my boys whilst in between shopping for supplies. My wife did warn me not to buy another seven day a week business, and I tried. I looked for six months and the only profitable ones I could find were the seven dayers. The problem was that the state government had given out a heap of redundancies. This resulted in a surplus of businessman wannabes that had more money than sense. Every time I tried o negotiate a fair price for the purchase of a business, a wealthy redundant ex state public servant would crop up and pay top dollar. In about a year, there was a glut of businesses for sale at bargain basement prices...on the market because the same ex public servants discovered that there is a lot of work involved in running a business. I honestly did try.

Suffice to say I was lost. I wasn't just broke, I was in debt to the tune of about $16,000 with a strong desire not to go bankrupt, but no idea how to repay my debts. If I owed half a million thereabouts, it would be logical to declare bankruptcy. But the amount that I owed was too little for bankruptcy and too much to be able to repay, whilst out of work. I also had no idea where to go from here. I can remember the very first time I had access to my children and the very first time I had to drop them off and leave alone. I cried a lot. I often tell anyone that is kind enough to listen that the day my marriage ended was the worst day of my life. On that day, I discovered that I had lost my wife to my best friend (editor's note. I recently found out that it was to my two best friends!!). I also discovered that the baby girl in my wife's womb was not mine. Unfortunately little Zoe did not make it, she died after being four and a half months in her mother's belly. Ironically, Zoe means life, in the Greek language. My two German Shepherds were also put down that day. It was as low as I could get. But I survived. I became stronger for it. There is only one thing that could devastate me now and that would be the loss of a child. The good news is that any other disasters life will throw at me are minor in comparison. This is why I smile a lot. Nothing bugs me, no one truly upsets me (except when trying to hit me in a night club) and up until recently, I've chosen to live one day at a time. My volatile ex girlfriend Julie (we were actually engaged three times in five years) gave me reason to move on, reason to want to grow, reason to set not only financial goals but moral and spiritual ones as well. I'm still exploring the latter having been an atheist all my life. I'm not into church worship; traditional Greek Orthodox exposure has put me off for life. Instead I try and live my life honestly, believing in the concept of Good Karma. Do the right thing and life will eventually give you what you want. It's a strange concept to grasp when the reality hits you that you don't really know what you really want. I used to think that it was riches; I now realise it is something as simple as stability. To be happy with what you have and who you are is the beginning of accepting yourself. It's been said in many self help books that first you must learn to love yourself before you can truly love another. You must also learn to live your life for yourself and not through or for some one else.

Let there be no doubt that this is a highly soul bearing book. Some of you may even feel embarrassed whilst reading some sections. Some of you may not get past the regular bragging and sexual adventures. The point that I try to make is that this is how I survived by reacting in that particular fashion. All caution went to the wind. The other point to bear in mind is that if now, down the track, I attempted to re-write many of the passages; I would be lessening the quality of the whole…and why? For the sake of making me feel safer via the lessening of the embarrassment factor of the segments? Its best to leave my work alone as it truly reflects how my mind operated at the time. Keeping things unfiltered, unchanged may result in some crassness; but at least it is valid crass…well here it goes:

In September of 1991 I was miserable, lonely and lost. I thought that my world had come to an end. What I would like this book to be is, for starters an easy read, which any one can come to realise that life is what you make of it. You start with nothing, its all downhill hill from there. If only I could have grasped that single concept at the time, I may not have worried so much. I made a commitment to myself that I would write all my thoughts, as silly as they might seem in hindsight, with only corrections to grammar and spelling. I have written sober, intoxicated and stoned. I have written when happy, when angry and when sad. I have employed a disorganised approach, as that is also the way my mind was working at the time. You will experience flash backs and my never ending fetish for side tracking and shooting off in tangents. I talk about how to succeed in business and university. I even mention several great feeds, to the point that I have included a recipe section at the back. I did work as a chef in many restaurants over the years.

The actual inspiration to start writing about my experiences came in 1997 when my father died. A realisation emerged that my wonderful father who had provided all for me over the years actually didn't. Dad gave me material items, anything I wanted, all I had to do was ask, or whinge. What Dad didn't do was talk to me, give me a chance to get to know him, find out what his thoughts were on any issues. I realised that I didn't know that much about him. He was too busy providing for his family, too busy working seven days a week. I guess I turned out much the same, only I didn't have as tolerant a wife as he did. I didn't want that to happen to my kids; not really knowing what their father was like, so I started writing. I was devastated at the loss of my father. It was not a good year. A few months earlier I had also lost my close friend Derek Chan. A wonderful, brimming with promise young man of 19, Chinese by descent, and my top choice as my assistant head of security at the night club that I worked. Derek died in a freak car accident, when his new sports car rolled out of control (possibly was left in neutral with the hand brake not quite on) out of his garage, down his steep drive way and ran him over. I miss them both.

I never intended to write a book, it started as just a few notes on a cheap laptop, sort of a diary. I was so down, that I ended up resigning from all my casual jobs. All I did for several months was write. It felt good to get my thoughts on paper, and like I said, the intent was so that there would be a permanent record for my children to read later on in life, in case I made the same mistake as my father. I was oblivious to all around me during this phase of my life. If I forgot to pay the hydro bill, I simply used kerosene powered lights and cooked in my four foot long open fire place. At night, which is when I did my best work, I would borrow power via a very long extension cord, from the communal power in the laundry room, from the block of flats that I lived in. At six am and before my landlady would arrive for her daily reconnaissance inspections, I would retrieve the extension cord and catch some sleep, only to repeat the ritual in the afternoon, when I knew that the coast was clear.

It does amaze me that when I decided that I would actually keep writing with the expressed intent of putting together a self help book on surviving divorce; that I would end up working for a government agency dealing with post divorce/separation support. I am a technical advisor with this agency. Its straight forward, plenty of client contact and minimal exposure to office politics. If the topic hadn't been a boring one, I may have written about office scurrying. I guess that at the end of the day, human interactions will always involve some level of manoeuvrings. It's very entertaining to watch less popular staff align against popular staff and try and score points against each other. Once you become aware that this is happening, you can do away with reality TV shows and entertain yourself at work. It will certainly make the day go faster. Lets face it, if you have to work for a living, not having had the benefit of a very fat inheritance etc., then it is imperative that you either love what you do for a living or…chose a job where time flies. I don't think that many would believe my following comment…I love my job and time also flies. I just wish that it paid better. Having spoken to several colleagues that do the same work in other countries, we seem to get paid more for what we do.

I tell you now, I am no expert in anything that I talk about, and life has been my apprenticeship. Learn from my mistakes as I eventually did. I just seemed to have amassed a very wide range of experiences in life and have some how managed to survive it all. If I can survive, anyone can. The difference to you is that you have the precious opportunity of learning how another survivor did it. Remember, divorce or separation is not an end; it is the beginning of a new era, a rebirth, and a unique chance to start all over again and hopefully not make the same mistakes. Your forward growth will actually commence the moment that you stop looking at that rear vision mirror. Its that simple.

Good luck in your journey.

Lone Fathers Association a Leech on Society??

It seems Barry Williams has been conning the Federal Government and the Australian Tax Payer for years. Apart from obtaining Government funding for so called mens health issues and trading on the back of the suicides of men in our society and using statements like these in 2003 to obtain that funding:

"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

http://www.hansard.act.gov.au/Hansard/2002/week04/1090.htm

"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.

Some of the Funding Mens Rights Groups have recently received in Australia

Wow so much interest in this post lately. It's a pity most of you didn't do as instructed and paste the link into your browser instead of clicking on the link, now we know who you are and where you came from. Ta!



Dads in Distress Inc Local Answers - NSW 15/08/2007 31/10/2009 $231,858 N

Dads in Distress Inc Local Answers - NSW 15/09/2007 31/10/2009 $302,016 N

Dads in Distress Inc Local Answers - NSW 29/07/2004 1/08/2007 $330,000 N

Dads in Distress Inc Local Answers - VIC 22/08/2007 1/08/2009 $266,728 N

Shared Parenting Council of Australia Incorporated Child Support Scheme Reforms
Communications - Key AdvocacyGroups Program 21/03/2007 30/06/2008 $238,370 N

Lone Fathers Association of Australia Inc Child Support Scheme Reforms Communications - Key Advocacy Groups Program 1/09/2006 30/06/2008 $132,000 N

Lone Fathers Association of Australia Inc Child Support Scheme Reforms Communications - Key Advocacy Groups Program 1/07/2006 30/06/2008 $265,100 N