Tory Shepherd: Pauline Hanson is a patsy for a mob of angry men
The Brotherhood and One Nation’s “anecdotal” male suicide statistics are a cruel attempt to cast doubt on women, writes Tory Shepherd. If they truly cared, they would be pushing for more men’s mental health support.
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Don’t let Pauline Hanson distract you from the shocking rate of male suicide.
She and her offshoot Malcolm Roberts are set to use a family-law inquiry as an opportunity to toss red herrings about with abandon — but men’s lives depend on people not falling for their fishy tricks.
One Nation pushed for the inquiry into family law, and the Federal Government merrily obliged. Prime Minister Scott Morrison even put Senator Hanson as 2IC to conservative backbencher Kevin Andrews.
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But she, and One Nation, are just patsies for a mob of angry men using made-up numbers to wage war on the family law process. These patsies want to use a taxpayer-funded inquiry to ram fudged figures into the debate.
One of their biggest inspirations is the Australian Brotherhood of Fathers. Founder Leith Erikson, who has sizzled sausages with Senator Roberts and Senator Hanson, is among those who have spruiked the Brotherhood’s invented idea that 21 fathers a week die by suicide, thanks to the family courts.
It’s hard to get anyone from the Brotherhood to even defend that figure or say where it came from — The Advertiser’s requests were repeatedly ignored — but it’s right there on their website. It’s “anecdotal”.
About 45 men in Australia die each week by suicide. That’s horrifying, and consistently about three times higher than the rate for women. But all men are being done an enormous disservice by the Brotherhood and One Nation’s zealous promotion of that “21 fathers” statistic.
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They claim that almost half the male suicides in Australia are because of false allegations of domestic violence, dads not being able to see their kids, and the family law system.
Only some of the 45 men who die each week have dependent children, only a minority would be caught up in the family law system.
But here’s what we do know: Relationship breakdown can be a risk factor for suicide, one risk factor in a very complex situation.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics says mental and behavioural disorders are the most common risk factors, but psychosocial events such as a break-up, or losing one’s job, or a devastating injury, can all play roles.
Other risk factors include living outside a capital city, or being an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person.
The family-law system needs to be better resourced to do its job, as previous inquiries have found. But for the Brotherhood and One Nation to use unscientific suicide statistics for their own purposes is just a cruel and dangerous distraction.
For years, men’s groups such as this have been pretending to care about male suicide and mental health, when in reality they are seeking vengeance for their own experiences.
If they were serious about helping men, they’d be campaigning for access to mental-health support for men, before, during, or after the family law processes.
They’d be fighting for better resources for the courts, better mediation processes, judges who specialise in domestic violence.
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Instead of tub-thumping about how they are the victims of women and the courts, they would start a men’s shed, or ask their friends “R U OK?”.
If they had an ounce of integrity, they’d take all that energy they’re spending bitching online to fight disadvantage, homelessness and loneliness.
They’d be frothing at the mouth about how high suicide rates are in Aboriginal communities, or starting outreaches into rural and remote communities.
And they’d be passionate about working out what is hurting men, and what evidence-based strategies there are to help.
But they’re not. They’re working with One Nation to build up a false picture of male suicide, at the risk of diverting help from where it’s really needed, after being given the opportunity to do so by the Australian parliament.
If you need help, call Lifeline on 131 11 14, MensLine Australia on 1300 789 978, or 1800 737 732 for domestic violence support.