A Notice of Decision.

A Notice of Decision.

Made under Part 6A of the Child Support (Assessment) Act 1989.

Applicant:                                       Ms. Dahlwitz.

Respondent:                                  Jack Dahlwitz.

Date of Conference:                     November 2002.

[I have found that at least one reason for departure from the administrative assessment of child support has been established and consequently must now consider whether a change to the assessment would be ;

• Fair (just and equitable) to the children and both parents; and
• Fair to the community .

In light of my findings on the reasons explained, I am of the view that a significant reduction in the annual rate of child support from Ms Dahlwitz would be appropriate and that Mr Dahlwitz has a greater capacity to contribute…I also note that Mr Dahlwitz has chosen to expend money on an overseas holiday, which is inconsistent with the expectation that the needs of his children take priority over other expenses…]

This was the closing explanation of a conference concerning the amount of child support Jack Dahlwitz was to either give or receive after his marriage was dissolved. There followed in the file in his possession, what he considered a retinue of double-speak, double standards and outright rubbish that allowed the female case officer to rule in favour of his ex…not that he contested the application (he didn’t even attend the “conference”, but relied on personal documentation to put his case) nor the decision…he expected no better from what he saw and had learned experience from other tradesmen who had been “scalped” by the Agency…..BUT…he did write a “Personal Letter” reproduced, as he states ; “here for whom so ever would care to be enlightened of the “other side” of the divide” ( Jack continues)..

“You can take it as it is written..I offer no excuses nor apologies for the sentiment contained in that letter from 2002…of course, I have had to censure names and titles etc..Be certain that I am NOT advocating myself as some sort of culture warrior for men, both genders have much to answer for..but I am, like so many fair-minded men AND women, fed up with the rubbish seemingly endlessly dumped on fathers in general”…

Ms. Mxxxxxxx Cxxxxxx,

Senior case officer..Child support agency.

“This is not an application for reassessment of the “Notice of Decision” that you made regarding child support between myself and my ex-spouse, rather, it is a personal letter to hopefully enlighten you to the realities of the situation for myself and many other working fathers in the same situation as mine. I was most distressed with your judgment that; “Mr Dahlwitz does have an earning capacity greater than $xxxx per year.”….also the thinly veiled comment that I was hiding my real earnings for the year because of the fact that I had sold my house and taken my daughter, (the same daughter that you so criticize myself for “neglecting”)..my fiancé and my mother for a holiday to England and bought myself a second-hand car. Yes, I sold my house…because I could no longer afford the payments on it, since my ex-spouse had taken illegal custody of the children and forbidden them to even go to see me…and reported the situation to Centerlink as though it was a mutual decision, not a legal one… I went on my own accord to admit to Centerlink that it was the case that the children did not stay with me 50% of the time and therefore they had to cut me off the  “pension education supplement”, resulting in the decision to sell my house!…Centerlink swiftly and apologetically reversed the decision when I challenged my “ex” after she kicked our daughter out of her house, not once, but twice! and she (my daughter) came to live with me. However, I could not live under such a precarious financial position, with my “ex” and her lawyers circling me like so many Indians around a wagon-train. if my comment “Invested the money in enjoyable commodities” appeared to you a little cavalier, it was meant sarcastically  (I obviously failed in this respect!), because of the fact that after so many years of hard slog, all I had to show was a piffling amount of cash!

However, I really did not expect too much of your department, hence my tongue-in-cheek seriousness to the whole damn thing! if you feel insulted by this comment, consider ; how many and various were the amounts of payment that were over time mooted about (and still I haven’t received a penny!). Consider ; the fact that you had no problem accepting Ms. “Dahlwitz’s” unproven assertions and how eager you seem to embrace any excuse to censure mine! Consider ; your comment ; “ I am of the opinion that he has the capacity to make a greater financial contribution towards the needs of (my daughter)….” It is of no wonder I feel that the “Chardonnay Set” has again sanctimoniously delivered a judgment biased both toward gender and class! Gender ; because I know my “ex” and her wily ways, and I can read in her application all the guile and jargon of the “poor-woman-victim-me” in its insinuations…her “abandoned”, and here was that evil man ; “running off to Europe with his new love…oh! the shame of it!…” etc,etc….”deserting his responsibilities ..(which in fact you yourself reinforced with your value-judgements)”…and the plight of self-sacrificing study and work and debts incurred because of… Well let me tell you ; me-ol’-china!…My ex-wife has been “studying” since I first met her, seventeen-odd years ago…everything from massage to management…. child-psychology to clinical naturopathy…self-enlightenment to self-empowerment…small business practices to the minding of everyone else’s business..she has never stopped studying!…and I worked, as stated..: The “good little worker”…the “good father”…I built our TWO family houses..one after the other..literally from the ground up…not contractors, not subbies..ME…and while working full-time in the building trade…and looking after the children while madam pursued her “enlightenment”…but you didn’t see that in the application, did you?… not from me nor certainly from my ex. Any report on the responses from working fathers would show a certain unwillingness to “whinge” on the imbalance suffered by these men. But then, maybe the “chardonnay set” doesn’t want to read such a report….maybe such a report doesn’t exist! …I wouldn’t be at all surprised, a lot of working men that I speak to are loathe to air their grievances to the general public…. cop it sweet… is more the order of the day. As a matter of fact, I would not even have written to you , save meeting my “ex” down the street and having her admonish (yes : admonish!) me with the sentence : “There was a lot of serious insinuation in that [notice of] decision, and I trust you will take heed of them”. Well, sister, here I am, you tell me the insinuations!…You tell me that I haven’t done my “bit” to support my children!…You tell me that I have the capacity to make a far greater financial contribution to the upkeep of my children…Both of you…ALL of you smug, self-satisfied, well-paid, free educated, well-placed intellectuals tell us working fathers that we have reneged on our responsibilities….And then castigate us for attempting to gain an education so we can climb out of the work-sleep-work cycle. And there is the class prejudice! it’s fine for My wife to spend years and a small fortune of the family’s funds dithering around in the miasma of sometimes dubious educational institutions, but when the worker tries (and I applied for university entry before we separated and after we had finally gained free-hold on our property…. and THAT, only possible because of the houses I had built before) to gain an education, he is a slacker, a malingerer…. no, sorry, I don’t accept your judgement….I don’t appreciate your inference, and I don’t respect your middle-class attitude. No, I don’t have an axe to grind, What I say is the reality of the situation and I care little what you think on the subject. But like I said, I would not even have written to you except for the fact of my “ex” using your decision comments as justification for her own smugness. A smugness that I had to tolerate most of the years of our marriage. I and a lot of fathers in the same situation expect little or nothing from your dept’!

If I appear angry in this missive, it is because I am… Angry for all us working fathers that have had to endure the slights of a society that would have better aimed its darts to that class of men and women that really did and does continue to malign and oppress those that try to do a good job of raising their families! And finally on the subject of my children…My daughter is with me FULL-TIME and I am of the opinion that it won’t be long before my son is also with me (on his own accord). And I will, as in the past, continue to house, feed and encourage them on their journey through life.

Sincerely..MOST sincerely.. Jack Dahlwitz.”