http://www.thepunch.com.au/tags/families/ Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/dont-keep-mum-about-being-a-working-parent/ So, at last, and hopefully once and for all, women in the workplace no longer have to regard being a mother as some kind of dirty little secret. Thanks to the frankness of Tanya Plibersek and Julie Collins, the idea that working mothers need to somehow disguise or apologise for their maternal status has been blown to smithereens. I, for one, am rapt. News of this welcome development came in simple form last week; a single-sentence intro on a plain old news story, but one that felt a whole lot like a turning point. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/dont-keep-mum-about-being-a-working-parent/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/dont-keep-mum-about-being-a-working-parent/#item7401 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 There are 20 minutes remaining. Score’s locked at 16-all. The young family is in the lounge room, a rare event in itself, nervously watching their Wests Tigers. As a scrum is formed, Ray Warren proclaims with a hint of surprise the Tigers are $2.15 to win on TAB Sportsbet. Dad, slumped in his armchair, jolts, bolt upright. He commands his eight-year-old boy to bring him the phone. The little boy marvels as he watches Dad punch in the numbers with vigour. Dad replaces his customary “hello” for a mysterious set of numbers, before announcing down the line - no, demanding - he will have a hundred dollars on the Wests Tigers, and doing it with a sense of pride. The conversation ends, the phone dispensed with. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hey-Xenophon-dont-shoot-the-gambling-messengers/ There are 20 minutes remaining. Score’s locked at 16-all. The young family is in the lounge room, a rare event in itself, nervously watching their Wests Tigers. As a scrum is formed, Ray Warren proclaims with a hint of surprise the Tigers are $2.15 to win on TAB Sportsbet. Dad, slumped in his armchair, jolts, bolt upright. He commands his eight-year-old boy to bring him the phone. The little boy marvels as he watches Dad punch in the numbers with vigour. Dad replaces his customary “hello” for a mysterious set of numbers, before announcing down the line - no, demanding - he will have a hundred dollars on the Wests Tigers, and doing it with a sense of pride. The conversation ends, the phone dispensed with. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hey-Xenophon-dont-shoot-the-gambling-messengers/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hey-Xenophon-dont-shoot-the-gambling-messengers/#item7383 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 There are 20 minutes remaining. Score’s locked at 16-all. The young family is in the lounge room, a rare event in itself, nervously watching their Wests Tigers. As a scrum is formed, Ray Warren proclaims with a hint of surprise the Tigers are $2.15 to win on TAB Sportsbet. Dad, slumped in his armchair, jolts, bolt upright. He commands his eight-year-old boy to bring him the phone. The little boy marvels as he watches Dad punch in the numbers with vigour. Dad replaces his customary “hello” for a mysterious set of numbers, before announcing down the line - no, demanding - he will have a hundred dollars on the Wests Tigers, and doing it with a sense of pride. The conversation ends, the phone dispensed with. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/im-sorry-but-society-doesnt-owe-you-a-child/ There is no ‘right’ to have a child. This seems a callous thing to say, but wrapping any conversation about children up in cuddly pink fleece-lined jumpsuits doesn’t help what has to be a serious policy debate. While it must be devastating for couples who, for whatever reason, are unable to conceive, there are limits to society’s obligations to help them. Like most controversial health decisions, this is a tale of clashing rights and finite resources. Last year the Federal Government made changes to the Medicare Safety Net, effectively capping the amount they would pay out for assisted reproductive treatments. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/im-sorry-but-society-doesnt-owe-you-a-child/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/im-sorry-but-society-doesnt-owe-you-a-child/#item7049 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 There are 20 minutes remaining. Score’s locked at 16-all. The young family is in the lounge room, a rare event in itself, nervously watching their Wests Tigers. As a scrum is formed, Ray Warren proclaims with a hint of surprise the Tigers are $2.15 to win on TAB Sportsbet. Dad, slumped in his armchair, jolts, bolt upright. He commands his eight-year-old boy to bring him the phone. The little boy marvels as he watches Dad punch in the numbers with vigour. Dad replaces his customary “hello” for a mysterious set of numbers, before announcing down the line - no, demanding - he will have a hundred dollars on the Wests Tigers, and doing it with a sense of pride. The conversation ends, the phone dispensed with. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/families-best-shaken-not-stirred-or-blended/ The blended family is the signature dish of contemporary society. Indeed, we must be getting close to the point where step-families are actually the norm.  Perhaps in another couple of generations people will look at nuclear families like we currently look at virgin brides - a harmless anachronism. I for one would be sad to see the nuclear family go though. And there is a degree of species shame. You’d have thought if swans could pull it off we could.  Surely, it would be better for people to stick together for the duration. What matter 50 years of bitter silence, laced with the occasional poisoning fantasy, when you’re producing social stability. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/families-best-shaken-not-stirred-or-blended/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/families-best-shaken-not-stirred-or-blended/#item6783 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 There are 20 minutes remaining. Score’s locked at 16-all. The young family is in the lounge room, a rare event in itself, nervously watching their Wests Tigers. As a scrum is formed, Ray Warren proclaims with a hint of surprise the Tigers are $2.15 to win on TAB Sportsbet. Dad, slumped in his armchair, jolts, bolt upright. He commands his eight-year-old boy to bring him the phone. The little boy marvels as he watches Dad punch in the numbers with vigour. Dad replaces his customary “hello” for a mysterious set of numbers, before announcing down the line - no, demanding - he will have a hundred dollars on the Wests Tigers, and doing it with a sense of pride. The conversation ends, the phone dispensed with. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hackers-just-slackers-when-it-comes-to-being-sexy-devils/ Many years from now, a child will look up at his father and ask him for a tale from his wild and untameable youth. The man, whose eyes will scream a life without regret, will chuckle quietly and pat him gently on the head. “Well,” he will say, “There was this one time I drank all this Red Bull and stayed up all night and wrote this algorithm that made Twitter users’ accounts spam other users’ accounts with a message telling them there’s a really funny picture of them online and they should totally click it - and then they did and it sent it to all their friends!” “Lol,” he will add, as the boy shakes his head and punches him in the knee cap. Hard. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hackers-just-slackers-when-it-comes-to-being-sexy-devils/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hackers-just-slackers-when-it-comes-to-being-sexy-devils/#item6763 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 There are 20 minutes remaining. Score’s locked at 16-all. The young family is in the lounge room, a rare event in itself, nervously watching their Wests Tigers. As a scrum is formed, Ray Warren proclaims with a hint of surprise the Tigers are $2.15 to win on TAB Sportsbet. Dad, slumped in his armchair, jolts, bolt upright. He commands his eight-year-old boy to bring him the phone. The little boy marvels as he watches Dad punch in the numbers with vigour. Dad replaces his customary “hello” for a mysterious set of numbers, before announcing down the line - no, demanding - he will have a hundred dollars on the Wests Tigers, and doing it with a sense of pride. The conversation ends, the phone dispensed with. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/angry-men-have-never-met-a-thug-who-wasnt-innocent/ As the 11-hour Parramatta siege was unfolding on Tuesday, with a 52-year-old man occupying a lawyer’s chambers with his 12-year-old daughter, allegedly claiming to have a bomb in his rucksack, a remarkable discussion was taking place in real time on social media sites among Australian men’s rights advocates. Knowing nothing about the personal circumstances of the perpetrator, the consensus among these advocates was that the man who started the siege had to be regarded as the victim here. The victim of the Family Court, the victim of a system skewed against men, the victim of a feminist conspiracy. Knowing nothing about how the siege would resolve itself, and indifferent to the risk of harm to the 12-year-old girl, police and office workers, there was even a sense among these men’s rights advocates that the man was something of a hero. Poor bloke, pushed to the brink, someone has to stand up to the system. Here’s some examples, with the names deleted: feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/angry-men-have-never-met-a-thug-who-wasnt-innocent/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/angry-men-have-never-met-a-thug-who-wasnt-innocent/#item6676 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 There are 20 minutes remaining. Score’s locked at 16-all. The young family is in the lounge room, a rare event in itself, nervously watching their Wests Tigers. As a scrum is formed, Ray Warren proclaims with a hint of surprise the Tigers are $2.15 to win on TAB Sportsbet. Dad, slumped in his armchair, jolts, bolt upright. He commands his eight-year-old boy to bring him the phone. The little boy marvels as he watches Dad punch in the numbers with vigour. Dad replaces his customary “hello” for a mysterious set of numbers, before announcing down the line - no, demanding - he will have a hundred dollars on the Wests Tigers, and doing it with a sense of pride. The conversation ends, the phone dispensed with. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/paid-leave-for-dads-a-useless-cynical-waste-of-money/ In a patently cynical attempt to relive its past glory, the Gillard government this weekend used Fathers’ Day to announce that it will extend parental leave to dads. Back on Mothers’ Day in 2009, the Rudd government won almost universal plaudits by announcing an 18 week paid parental leave scheme.  In the lead up to the 2010 election the policy was still seen as such a vote winner that Tony Abbott flagged his own extravagant six month scheme, reversing his previous conviction that parental leave would be introduced ‘over his dead body’.  More than a year later, this latest addition of paternity leave - essentially feel-good middle class welfare in search of an evidence base - shows just how anxious to revive its flagging popularity the government has become.  feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/paid-leave-for-dads-a-useless-cynical-waste-of-money/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/paid-leave-for-dads-a-useless-cynical-waste-of-money/#item6652 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 There are 20 minutes remaining. Score’s locked at 16-all. The young family is in the lounge room, a rare event in itself, nervously watching their Wests Tigers. As a scrum is formed, Ray Warren proclaims with a hint of surprise the Tigers are $2.15 to win on TAB Sportsbet. Dad, slumped in his armchair, jolts, bolt upright. He commands his eight-year-old boy to bring him the phone. The little boy marvels as he watches Dad punch in the numbers with vigour. Dad replaces his customary “hello” for a mysterious set of numbers, before announcing down the line - no, demanding - he will have a hundred dollars on the Wests Tigers, and doing it with a sense of pride. The conversation ends, the phone dispensed with. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Stable-families-stable-society-its-that-simple/ In 1998, the House of Representatives Legal and Constitutional Committee issued a report entitled To Have and To Hold about marriage and family in Australia. Writing the preface to the bipartisan report, I commented: “This report is about strengthening marital relationships. It is about preventing marital distress and the consequent breakdown of relationships. It arises from our concern for children; for their future, their happiness, and their ability to form their own loving and fulfilling relationships.” While the family continues as a human aspiration, there have been a series of changes in family patterns throughout the industrialised world that point to a decline in marriage and a weakening of family life. To Have and To Hold summarised these patterns: feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Stable-families-stable-society-its-that-simple/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Stable-families-stable-society-its-that-simple/#item6650 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 There are 20 minutes remaining. Score’s locked at 16-all. The young family is in the lounge room, a rare event in itself, nervously watching their Wests Tigers. As a scrum is formed, Ray Warren proclaims with a hint of surprise the Tigers are $2.15 to win on TAB Sportsbet. Dad, slumped in his armchair, jolts, bolt upright. He commands his eight-year-old boy to bring him the phone. The little boy marvels as he watches Dad punch in the numbers with vigour. Dad replaces his customary “hello” for a mysterious set of numbers, before announcing down the line - no, demanding - he will have a hundred dollars on the Wests Tigers, and doing it with a sense of pride. The conversation ends, the phone dispensed with. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/smacking-a-pointless-act-for-frustrated-parents/ To smack or not to smack? There are few questions more hotly contested in the world of parenting. Nothing has the power to stop a barbecue in its tracks more than the casual admission that you give your kids the occasional clip behind the ear – or conversely, the solemn declaration that you would never lay a hand on your child, which brings with it the explosive suggestion that any parent who does so must be some kind of psychotic thug. The conversation becomes even more heated when members of the older generation are present, and quickly descends into anecdotes about how they were thrashed repeatedly as kids and turned out OK, and how walking 10 miles to school and 12 miles home wasn’t child abuse but character-building. In recent weeks we have seen a few events which have thrown light on the issues of child rearing and corporal punishment. I read several pieces which sheeted home the London riots on the fact that a whole generation of youngsters has avoided discipline, with the end result of this life without behavioural consequence being an unprecedented collective act of mass theft and vandalism by people with no political agenda. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/smacking-a-pointless-act-for-frustrated-parents/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/smacking-a-pointless-act-for-frustrated-parents/#item6595 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 There are 20 minutes remaining. Score’s locked at 16-all. The young family is in the lounge room, a rare event in itself, nervously watching their Wests Tigers. As a scrum is formed, Ray Warren proclaims with a hint of surprise the Tigers are $2.15 to win on TAB Sportsbet. Dad, slumped in his armchair, jolts, bolt upright. He commands his eight-year-old boy to bring him the phone. The little boy marvels as he watches Dad punch in the numbers with vigour. Dad replaces his customary “hello” for a mysterious set of numbers, before announcing down the line - no, demanding - he will have a hundred dollars on the Wests Tigers, and doing it with a sense of pride. The conversation ends, the phone dispensed with. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Why-Britain-is-broken-and-how-it-might-be-fixed/ Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the late US senator, ambassador and statesman, caused widespread consternation when he released a report in 1965 about the disintegration of the negro family in America. Sub-titled ‘The case for national action’, Moynihan’s report argued that without jobs, negro men would become alienated as husbands and fathers, leading to family dysfunction and breakdown, increasing out-of-wedlock births and sole parenthood, declining education outcomes and entrenched poverty. “From the wild Irish slums of the 19th century Eastern seaboard, to the riot-torn suburbs of Los Angeles, there is one unmistakable lesson in American history; a community that allows a large number of men to grow up in broken families, dominated by women, never acquiring any stable relationships to male authority, never acquiring any set of rational expectations about the future – that community asks for and gets chaos. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Why-Britain-is-broken-and-how-it-might-be-fixed/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Why-Britain-is-broken-and-how-it-might-be-fixed/#item6502 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 There are 20 minutes remaining. Score’s locked at 16-all. The young family is in the lounge room, a rare event in itself, nervously watching their Wests Tigers. As a scrum is formed, Ray Warren proclaims with a hint of surprise the Tigers are $2.15 to win on TAB Sportsbet. Dad, slumped in his armchair, jolts, bolt upright. He commands his eight-year-old boy to bring him the phone. The little boy marvels as he watches Dad punch in the numbers with vigour. Dad replaces his customary “hello” for a mysterious set of numbers, before announcing down the line - no, demanding - he will have a hundred dollars on the Wests Tigers, and doing it with a sense of pride. The conversation ends, the phone dispensed with.