There is a war against men going on in Australia

Yes, Angela Shanahan (“New war on men will backfire on us all”, 29-30/5), there is more than a whiff of misandry around Canberra right now — and less than a whiff of courage from our politicians. But at its heart, it’s the age-old story of empire building.

The women’s industry exists to put women with the right politics into powerful positions; into boardrooms, into parliament and into consulting roles where they write long and complex documents about the need for and the treatment of women in parliament and in the boardroom. They’re experts on identifying sexism and male privilege. And at sitting on committees. But they’re not terribly interested in the scandalous levels of domestic violence against women and girls in Aboriginal communities. They’re on their own.

The Indigenous industry exists to put Indigenous high-achievers with the correct politics into powerful positions where they can write long and complex documents about the need for indigenous representation. They’re experts at identifying racism and white privilege. And at sitting on committees. But they’re not terribly interested in the plight of Indigenous children living in shamefully inadequate homes, skipping school, doing drugs and destined for life on the fringes. They’re on their own.

The diversity industry. See above.

Unions. See above.

What began as necessary movements to address real problems has swollen into top-heavy empires and bloated bureaucracies that have either resolved the issue and didn’t want to find the off switch, or lost sight of the real problems they were trying to address. In short, they’ve become a racket. Our very own never-ending stories.

Jane Bieger, Brisbane, Qld

I commend Angela Shanahan for her excellent article. There is, indeed, a war against men going on in Australia. Despite the abundance of research revealing that men are also the targets of domestic violence by their female partners, our governments continue to frame the problem solely as violence against women.

As for Shanahan’s comments on child abuse, University of Western Sydney academic Michael Wood confirms the statistics that completely debunk the myth that biological fathers pose the greatest risk to their children. Rather, the data indicates that the rates of serious child abuse are lowest in family units where the biological father is present.

Regarding Shanahan’s comments on the change of the rules of evidence in rape accusations, Lorraine Finlay, a well-known criminal law lecturer and former West Australian state prosecutor, confirms that the current laws undermine due process and the presumption of innocence because “when we require consent to be affirmatively established we are starting from the presumption that there is no consent, meaning that all sexual intercourse is unlawful until proven otherwise”.

Professor Augusto Zimmermann, Law Reform Commissioner, WA

As one of the authors, along with my colleagues from the Monash Deakin Filicide Research Hub and the Australian Institute of Criminology, I would like to clarify Angela Shanahan’s representation of our findings. The National Filicide Study (2000 to 2009) found that male parents and step parents together killed more children than female parents; mothers killed more children than fathers; stepfathers killed the next largest group; and parents or step-parents acting jointly the smallest group. It is not helpful to demonise any perpetrator group. The study’s statistics are alarming — that in Australia one child is killed by a parent or step-parent almost every fortnight and the numbers of deaths over the last decades have not declined as have the numbers of other family homicide deaths. Action to prevent filicide is urgently needed and dividing the perpetrators into parental groups is done by researchers to support and target intervention.

Thea Brown, Professor Emeritus, co-director of the Monash Deakin Filicide Research Hub, Monash University

Angela Shanahan’s excellent and authoritative article should be front-page material to redress the toxic elements raging against men in some feminist circles. I deplore the effect of this on boys and male adolescents.

Anthony Kelly, Lower Mitcham, South Australia, SA