Time to make Australia better place
Date: 02/06/2006
Words: 334
Source: ILL
Publication: Illawarra Mercury
Section: News
Page: 18

SORRY is not a dirty word if only it needed to be said rarely.
Sorry Day was on May 26. It was a day for all Australians to say sorry for the atrocities committed against the Aboriginal community over the past 200 plus years.

The problems have been caused by laws that inflamed the situation. Laws acted upon in an uneducated manner.
This is especially when talking about the stolen generation of children removed from their parents for reasons that only the courts and politicians could conjure up.
Evidence overwhelmingly shows the effect these laws have had on the Aboriginal people.
It is time to say sorry officially and hope that it is accepted by the people hurt so badly.

In a 100 years' time, is the same situation going to be repeated due to the diabolical Family Law Court's rulings and ignorant understanding of the needs of children.
Are we going to need another apology for the children who have been taken from their fathers without reason? Will we need an apology for the high rate of suicide and the large numbers of dysfunctional children who have had their fathers removed from their lives for no apparent reason.

In 98 per cent of cases a child effectively loses one parent after a Family Court decision. The court only awards joint custody in 2 per cent of the cases, with 80 per cent to the mother, 15 per cent to the father, 3 per cent as wards of the state or to grandparents.
As a nation we have to stop making the same mistakes over and over, when the evidence shows clearly we are doing it wrongly.

Let's make Australia a better place. Treat all Australians as equal and let's not, in a 100 years' time, be in the same position. We should not be in a situation of apologising to children growing up with one parent due to a dysfunctional Family Law Court.
- NEVILLE EDWARDS,

Port Kembla.