Good evening,

Great comments and reading tonight.

Ihategov - without knowing what these people PM you about and don't write it here. I wonder if some of them are going through the docs process of being taken legally taken to the highway to hell. They are probably too scared to write due to fear of repercussion from this department. Remember what the ex-CSO said 'some docs workers are vindictive' so if this is the case of them not wanting to publicly discuss their concerns due to this fact, then I can hardly blame them for choosing to PM you.
This group of people are very vulnerable.

Now about the issue of 'some parents deserving to have their kids taken off them' or however that was put. I really believe that ultimately a child is best with their primary care-givers. Some parents look pretty rough to me, but I am not to judge. This is where I think the government should be putting more bucks into PREVENTION. So if some families are identified as high needs with children at risk, parenting issues etc THEN there needs to be more community services available like the likes of Triple P parenting courses, lifeline courses, Amend. But from where I stand in the world there isn't a huge lot of these programs around that is easily accessible to parents. Docs intervention is very heavy handed and punitive - I don't believe this whole current process of tearing families apart (gosh, not to mention the confabulations and conspiracies by docs workers to keep the family apart is justifiable anymore. This current whole way of intervening in families is archaic and draconian in approach. Just because a parent has had a mental health issue or drug and alcohol problem does not warrent a child being removed from their home. It's just not good enough to have one part of the government saying that we work on 'harminimisation' and another department (i.e. docs) coming from a whole different paradigm.
I, along with many other health professionals in this community believe that going straight to this extreme measures that docs employ is vastly useless to building stronger families and hence communities.

Yes, to EW, I have problems understanding the operations of CSA as well. How can the father of my child be completely exempt from paying child support (yes, that is $0.00) until Nov 2009. Father lives interstate and see child 1/2 school holidays and when it suits him otherwise. Then a girlfriend of mine has one son living with her and the other son lives with his father and SHE has to PAY the father about $160 per week because she is the higher earner, and that son who lives (son chooses this, as both boys are teenagers under 15 yo) with his father still sees her on weekends and whenever. The CSA is another tragic organisation. I (of course i would have) rung them up and said how can this be?
Oops, getting of the main subject here.

Yes, I am concerned about this report of docs knocking on the priniciples door every day in one week. I believe this and am not surprised. I wonder which branch of docs? Must be Strathpine/ Burpengary.

Good on you Notvyet for writing that comment. It is so true. Australia is going mad. Politicians in this country are so far removed from the real world of what is happening out there to the little man. I was only saying this today to like minded workers who are at the coal face of today's reality. (We were discussing the issue of homeless people and how the government are doing very little and don't recognise this problem.)
Anyway why spend money on social issues (such as the need for increasing parenting confidence and skill, homelessness, poverty, indigenous health, etc when you can spend money on terrorism/ security. Look at your safety net for the poorest Australians - it doesn't matter really to the government. Votes, money, power, greed.

And finally (it's 10pm) I will write more of my journal on here. And yes, I will look up statistics and other tid bits of information that (I find interesting) may be useful to someone.

And really finally now think about ways to get this message across. What could we do?
I personally think a lobby group needs to start up to repeal this current child protection act.
Do you have a social conscience? I do.
Cheers.