The Guardian 25 January, 2006
Where moralising meets privatising
Bob Briton
Australians will soon see the first of 65 "family relationship centres" opened in suburbs across the country. The new federal government-funded, privately-run services will absorb $400 million-worth of taxpayer’s dollars and have a brief to keep disputing couples together and out of the Family Court. They will enforce legislation passed late last year that will make it compulsory for couples considering separation to attend a free three-hour lecture that will give advice on child rearing and seeking help from family members.
Sounds Mickey Mouse? Not according to Attorney General Phillip Ruddock. In recent media interviews he likened the relationship centres to "air traffic control centres", "friendly, familiar places" like libraries or medical centres where couples in trouble can go for assistance through those rough patches. The idea for the centres has the backing of the Prime Minister. It was first raised by government backbenchers — pillars of moral rectitude, every one of them — who claimed that Australia’s 32 percent divorce rate is at the core of a whole range of worsening social problems.
Tender documents obtained by The Sydney Morning Herald reveal that centre operators are to be guided by the social prescriptions preferred by the government MPs. "If centres believe parents considering separation can resolve their difficulties and stay together, they should refer the parents to services that will help them to do so." Of course, in the Coalition’s world, the couple’s "difficulties" are all of their own making. Things such as housing stress, the childcare crisis, long anti-social working hours, growing debt to shore up declining living standards and the complexity of living in a modern capitalist society are not matters for concern judging by the rest of the Howard Government’s policy thrust.
Expert opinion is not on the Government’s side. Bill Grant, head of the NSW Legal Aid Commission says that the centres would have a negligible impact on the 8,500 family law cases the Commission handles each year. "At least 60 per cent are so complex they will never be solved in mediation." A large proportion of the remaining 40 per cent are also unlikely to be sorted out through that sort of intervention.
Dr Di Sansom of support service Access believes that the meddling may actually make matters worse. "Given the emotional state people will be in when they come, forcing them to negotiate with a partner could add to the anger and resentment." Sydney-based family law specialist Jennifer Weate told the media recently that the $400 million would be better spent in the under-funded Family Court itself where backlogs are causing delays, additional legal costs and dissatisfaction with the system.
Interestingly, the Family Court’s own voluntary mediation services have been wound down over the past five years, though most divorcing couples are still recommended to undergo a court-supervised negotiation phase before they proceed to trial.
Nevertheless, the Government is pressing ahead with a system to be run on the same basis as the lucrative Jobs Network. Centres will be able to outsource services to other private outfits and will be paid out of government funds according to the number of couples using the centres and the length of the parenting agreements being dealt with.
With the introduction of "family relationship centres", the Howard Government has been faithfully following the well-established practice of turning new manifestations of misery and alienation caused by neo-liberal capitalism itself into more private profits. In Britain, Blair has taken this to a new level. So-called Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) can be imposed on individuals and families that engage in behaviour that, while not illegal, is deemed by the courts to be disruptive to the community. Failure to comply with an ASBO could see the "offender" put in jail for up to five years.
The ASBO system was supposedly designed to crack down on the "yob culture" that has accompanied the breakdown of society in late capitalist Britain. However, it has had a number of tragic consequences including the case of a beggar who died in prison after he broke the conditions of his ASBO not to beg. About 42 per cent of the 5,000 Britons served with an ASBO every year will have to spend some time in the cooler for behaviour that would not warrant even a court appearance. ASBOs can be served for things like swearing at neighbours or greasing the handles of their wheelie bin.
The Blair Government is planning to pay teenage parents the equivalent of $70 a week to attend classes at Parenting Academies where they can learn how to get up in the morning and pay bills. It is all part of the "Respect Agenda" that will inevitably find its way to our shores. If there’s a scheme that lets the capitalist system out of its responsibility, blames the victim and somehow manages to fatten up the bank accounts of the already wealthy, the Howard Government and its state counterparts will be all ears.