Family Court cases you have to read to believe: Josey & Meibos

Posted in Human Rights by tjwithersauthor

The Family Court of Australia has made some really odd decisions in the past decade, which it uses as precedents when making decisions now.

There are a long list of cases that will blow your mind, and today, here’s just one of them.

In Josey & Meibos [2009] FMCAfam 470, the Family Court harshly reprimanded a mother when she changed her kids’ school to try to keep herself and her children safe from their father, who had a history of violence and anger against them.

Not only that, but the court ordered her to re-enroll the kids in their original school and creche, and ordered the mum to make all decisions like this jointly together with the dad in future.

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3Mar2025

Aussie kids say Family Court was meant to help but “they did the opposite”

Posted in Human Rights by tjwithersauthor

I just read the most heartbreaking message from 41 children who have been ignored and unheard when going through the Family Court of Australia.

One, 15-year-old said they felt “squashed”.

I just had to do what I was told and be quiet and suck it up, even if it wasn’t what I wanted.

Two sisters were ordered by the court to spend time with their father, even though they told the court they didn’t want to because they would not be safe with him. One of the sisters said:

That was always one of my biggest regrets because I’m like, maybe if I had said something differently, or emphasised it more, they would have understood what I was trying to say and actually listened… It wouldn’t have made such traumatic memories, which happened afterwards, when we were forced to see him.

The main themes they highlighted match previous research that looked into the fundamental flaws in Australia’s national “child-centred”, “DV aware” court.

For example, studies about the Family Court process and judges’ decision-making have found that:

“The courts are seemingly prioritising protection of the child from the risk of psychological harm by the mother due to her failure to facilitate meaningful ties with a father over the risk of alleged physical or sexual harm by the father. We see this as a serious concern.” (Easteal, Prest, & Thornton, 2019)
There is a “lack of fit” between the types of cases that end up in the Family Court, which “are invariably complex, and likely to involve allegations of domestic violence and/or child abuse, mental health concerns, high conflict, and substance misuse”, and the court’s repeated focus on shared parenting by both parents, “reflected in decisions that appear not to reflect the system’s overarching principle of the ‘best interests’ of children and may also pay insufficient attention to the safety of women and children.” (Laing, 2017)

So what is the Family Court of Australia actually supposed to be doing for children, and why is it refusing to meet its legal obligations?

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1Oct2024

Laws that silence victims of DV and SA in Queensland

Posted in Human Rights by tjwithersauthor

The incredible Grace Tame recently did an interview on the podcast The Imperfects, and it reminded me all over again that we need to keep talking about this. Thank you, Grace!

It may be 2024, but in Australia, most states and territories still do not allow victim-survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence to speak the truth.

Vulnerable people are silenced by the very legal system that claims it wants to protect us.

The legal system disproportionately favours the person with more money and power. That usually means abusers, who:

Have often spent years controlling or withholding household finances
Typically earn more thanks to the gender pay gap that still exists in Australia
Have the power of a respected position in the community, or
Are confident that their victim is not legally allowed to speak up about what they did.

With pro bono legal services and DFV support services across the state already stretched beyond capacity, vulnerable women, non-binary people, trans people, and children, are being left to fend entirely for themselves.

The current legal system in Queensland perpetuates abuse. Because it’s easier for an abuser to control a person when they know that person cannot “out” their abuser.

Read on to find out what laws we need to change.

photo shows author TJ Withers at the Brisbane March against domestic violence in April 2024, holding a sign that says Queensland laws silence victims.

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11Sep2024

Mum jailed for not picking up the phone, and other weird ones from the Family Court of Australia

Posted in Human Rights by tjwithersauthor

In my research into Australia’s domestic violence epidemic, I’ve found an endless list of cases in Australia where parenting orders have been used as a blunt instrument to punish mums who were trying to keep their children safe from domestic violence and other crimes.

Apologies that the language about the parents in this post is mostly gendered (“mum”, “dad”, etc.). I could have said “parent A / parent B”, but instead, I’ve used gendered language based on how the parents were talked about in the court judgements because I don’t know these people’s preferred pronouns.

So let’s talk about why in Queensland, the Family Court of Australia and the Magistrates Courts, mums get slammed for doing the very thing mums are known for: protecting their babies.

This is not legal advice; I am not a lawyer. I am publishing this as a concerned citizen and an advocate for DFV victim-survivors.

And please ignore any typos; I was typing out this post on my phone this morning when I couldn’t sleep. #3amthoughts am I right? 😅

Let’s get into it.

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24Oct2014

Writing about people you know – treading the fine line

Posted in Creativity by tjwithersauthor

Friends Season 1 Monica and Rachel
Image source: ‘FRIENDS’ TV show via Hello Giggles

Rachel:                Oh, and I’m sorry I said you were a cow in high school.

Monica:               That’s okay. I was a cow.

Rachel:                Yes, but I’m still sorry I said it.

– Friends, Season 1, Episode 17 “The One With Two Parts”

Disclaimer:

This post offers a broad overview of defamation law but is not intended to be read as legal advice. This is a complex legal issue that should not be taken lightly. If you have concerns about your own writing with regards to libel liability, you should seek independent legal advice.

I’ve had authors who were worried about writing about the people in their family. Memoirs are always a bit tricky like that. It’s your story, but it’s also the story of how your life was affected by them.

It’s more complicated than just which details to include and which to leave out. It becomes a question of, do you even want to represent them as themselves, or would you rather change their name, age, occupation, everything, in fact, apart from what they did for you or how they impacted on your life?

It doesn’t have to be for negative reasons. Some people really don’t want the credit. One of the writers I knew in uni wrote their own stories as novels because they didn’t want their subject to be embarrassed by how the writer looked up to them as their role model, their hero.

At the Brisbane Writers Festival, I heard a great talk by Sian Prior about her memoir, ‘Shy’, which chronicles her struggles with social anxiety. She wrote about living in the shadow of an ex of hers who was very famous. In her case, she said she didn’t need to check with him before writing about him. They had already parted ways, but more importantly, he had already written about their relationship in his own book! He’d already set the rules by not asking her before he wrote about her.

Her approach, knowing that she would uncover things about their relationship that people didn’t know, was to be rigorous about being honest. By contrast, she did check with her family about her portrayal of each of them, and they were all surprised but happy with her including them in her story.

Lots of people worry about defamation law – specifically, the written form, ‘libel’. Here’s the raw basics:

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