The New South Wales Senate held an Inquiry regarding the children who are in out-of-home care (called OOHC, wouldn’t you know it). A retired solicitor George Potkonyak, made the following submission in 2018. It is well worth reading. I (MM) have added a bit of bolding. After that I will offer a transcription of a Youtube satire by Don Rufty.
George Potkonyak’s Submission to the Senate Inquiry, NSW, 2018 (abridged)
… The main driving force behind the current high numbers of children in OOHC are private interests connected to the governments. The number of children in OOHC has more than doubled between 2001 and 2012. In the Northern Territory it has more than quadrupled.
…Every case appears to be a case where the child is “in need of care and protection” and without “realistic possibility of restoration” of that child to parents. Thus each child is being sentenced to ‘care’ for the rest of his child-hood.
The central piece of the legislation governing [this] is the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998. …If it were not for its perverted interpretation and practical application, it could provide a reasonable prevention of and protection from abuse and neglect of children.
Jurisdictional Hierarchy
The Childrens Court is the first point of call. Each proceeding in the Childrens Court is presided over by a single Children’s Magistrate. … The proceeding is closed to the public with only parties in the case allowed to attend with some exceptions where a close relative of the child or a support person of the parent may be allowed to attend with consent of all parties and the leave of the Court.
There is a provision for media attendance, unless the court disallows, but it hardly, if ever, happens….
The District Court is the court to which a party dissatisfied with the final decision of the Childrens Court may “appeal” that decision, as of right.
However …there is a catch: the proceeding in the District Court is a new hearing; there is no review of the decision of the Childrens Court for an alleged error of law or error of fact… Whatever went … in the Childrens Court is swept under the carpet and will never see the daylight….
Childrens Court Proceedings
The Act empowers the Family and Community Services (FACS, formerly known in NSW as DoCS, Department of Child Safety) to receive and record “risk of harm reports” about any child from mandatory reporters or from any member of public.
The reports are made when the reporter believes on reasonable grounds that a child is at risk of significant harm (ROSH). The identity of the reporter is protected.
Once the report is received, the FACS “is to” carry out investigations and make an assessment – if the person responsible considers that the report provides sufficient reason to believe that the child is at risk of significant harm. If not, [he or she] does not need to carry out any investigations or make any assessment.
If one of the risk-of-harm reports is considered to be serious enough (usually an arbitrary decision by a case worker) the child is removed from the place where he or she is allegedly exposed to the risk of harm (usually the parent’s home) and placed into temporary foster care….
Establishment proceedings
One would expect that this stage of the proceedings – where the court is to establish whether the child is a child in need of care — is where the evidence would be tested according to law. Not so. If the parent has admitted to some of the allegations, the argument will be “Your Honour, by her own admission the mother confirms the facts…” or, if she denies the allegations, “your Honour, the mother lacks insight into the risk of harm posed by her behaviour…”.
It does not matter which kind of “trial” takes places, the magistrate will inevitably find that “the child is a child in need of care and protection”, otherwise the magistrate might lose his or her job for exposing the government to the risk of being liable for damages for unlawful removal of the child from his or her parents.
It is too obvious, beyond reasonable doubt, that the cases have been determined even before the parties walk into the courtroom.
Disposition proceedings
This stage of the proceedings is the equivalent to the senten-cing stage in a criminal trial. It normally takes place between 9 and 18 months later. FACS case workers will file hundreds of pages of “evidence” and the poor parent, in spite of allegedly giving consent “without admission” (of any allegations) has to prove now that he or she has “addressed the issues that led to the removal of the child” from his or her care. The identity of the reporter is not known thus not available for cross-examination. Final word: “Parental responsibility to the Minister until the child attains 18 years of age”, in other words, the life sentence. Of course, there are some sobering exceptions but they are very rare.
Comment by Mary W Maxwell
We are dealing with a very sick system in Australia. All the fancy words as to “care and protection” or “best interest of the child” must be set aside so citizens can focus on the reality no matter how discouraging or unreal it may seem. The reality is that a veritable horde of public employees, from the judge down to the tea lady, have bought into a cruel and dishonest system that is destroying lives.
The lawyers and judges know better than to do what they are doing. How could George Potkonyak be the only one to see through it? By the way, he has been defrocked.
I’ll now print the lecture Don Rufty gave on Youtube. He is an American Protective Dad who will now pretend to be a Family Court judge. This shows that it is not hard to see through the gibberish.
Don Rufty’s Role-playing a Judge (fictional)
“I am the honorable Judge Roy Bean. I will be presiding over the destruction of your family. The course of your trial will be very lengthy. These cases will be conducted on a kangaroo court basis. During the upcoming months I will be violating your rights left and right….
“I prefer for you to be as compliant as possible with all of my directives. I have backup – the sheriff’s deputies are here to do all of my bidding. They will not actually be enforcing the law, they will be enforcing my orders.
“They violate the law as part and parcel of our family court racket. Do not mention or reveal to anyone what takes place here. I am putting you under a gag order. In the event of appeal, the judges over me will condone everything that I do.
“Our aim is to extract as much money as possible from you. By dragging it out, it will help you become accustomed to not having your children. By the way, the attorney you hired will be colluding with myself and the CPS workers. You will become a pauper. You will not have a chance.
“And don’t mention “constitutionality.” I don’t allow that in my courtroom. There will be no rights to a jury trial; you will not be allowed to defend yourself. Also there will be no adherence to due process. If I were to allow that, it would be crystal clear from the record that we have no case to stand on against you.
“The years ahead will be very stressful. Some of you moms and dads will commit suicide. I don’t encourage that, but it happens.”
All rise.
Don’t ask me why “Childrens Court” does not have an apostrophe. It just doesn’t. Very irritating.
Though probably not as irritating as what goes on inside the Childrens Court.
Hi Mary, ask George about a great advocate Mary Moore.
I can’t reach Potkonyak at the moment, Greg, and I thank you for drawing my attention to him in the first place. Can you give us a few hints here about Mary Moore? Or email it to me? Danke.
Hi Mary, I have sent a few links via messenger to Gumshoe News for you to check out. You’re welcome. 🙂
Hey! Maybe the bullying days of Oz Childrens Court will soon be over. Here is a ruling from UK Appeals Court:
They said: “It will be immediately apparent from reading these extracts… that the Judge’s interventions during the Claimant’s evidence were highly unusual and troubling.
“On numerous occasions, the Judge appears not only to have descended to the arena, cast off the mantle of impartiality and taken up the cudgels of cross-examination, but also to have used language which was threatening, overbearing and, frankly, bullying.
[Standard Office Procedure toward Protective parents] …
“One is left with the regrettable impression of a Judge who, if not partisan, developed an animus towards the Claimant.”
[The Appeals judges said that they had] “carefully considered and reflected upon this matter and are driven to the conclusion that the nature, tenor and frequency of the Judge’s interventions were such as to render this libel trial unfair”. “We, therefore, uphold the Claimant’s fifth Ground of Appeal,” they added.
“The Court of Appeal reversed Mr Justice Jay’s judgments on a number of grounds, including unfair judicial treatment”. Yay.
So far as I’m concerned the key remark is:
“the magistrate might lose his or her job for exposing the government to the risk of being liable for damages”
As you know, in the early 90s certain W.A. officials made a concerted effort to make the offspring of persons like myself State wards. Apparently they weren’t counting on the fact that the home-ed mob was a force to be reckoned with. by all accounts the Ones I dealt with were seriously misconceived re my capabilities; eventually they tried to back out as quietly and unobtrusively as they could.
So the 1st solution that comes to my mind is to create a parallel trap ( as I already said re a related Post a while back; unfortunately no one seemed to “get it”)
Actually a letter to a few key polies merely expressing said intention could well suffice; it really doesn’t take much to severely cramp the style of anyone intent on maintaining a position of prestige power at the expense of the life of a child
Please expand the parallel option Berry
well if a group of thugs is routinely bashing and robbing old ladies one solution would be to “plant” a few with bricks & capsicum spray in their handbags and provide the gang leaders with a subtle but pointed warning.
The main problem, as I see it, is that the principle of self-defence is alien to the culture of the Age. A strong support group will always trump the work of a million professionals.
Lawyers can be useful, but only if YOU instruct them re exactly what to do/not do. Seeking or accepting “legal advice” is always disastrous
And lest we forget,the culture of the Age pivots on birth registration.
Which is what people unwittingly do to their kids, not realising that they’re handing control over to the State.
I certainly had no idea, in fact the implications didn’t start to sink in until my 1st child reached the age of compulsory school attendance: During the two terms he spent at two, ostensibly very different, “private” schools I had an uncanny hunch that the entire family was becoming a slave of Y O U – K N O W – W H O The penny didn’t drop until after I informed the respective “authority” that we had withdrawn from the obeisance. That’s when I was confronted by the fact that all government created rituals are essentially Satanic
It goes without saying that the principle of mature-age consent is fundamental to any healthy society:
https://www.quora.com/Do-Amish-have-birth-certificates?share=1
e. g. once the children born to those committed to Amish precepts reach maturity they have to choose between following in Mom & Dad’s footsteps or breaking away. All morally grounded communities function like so The practice of signing newly born babies into any belief system defies the very concept of law & order.
Don Rufty nailed it indeed Im always happy to read when others know what I do from experience with the masonic family court and their thieving pedo enabling lawyers
Have no fear, Wayne, Gumshoe is with you. There’s a new day comin’, relief is in sight! Everything will be turned upside down. Or as they said in Blazing Saddles, our new sheriff is near!
In light of our Campaign Papers 1, 2, and 3, we have just received a limerick from reader Cornelia:
Vote in today’s election or get hit with a fine!
Which of the candidates do you think will shine?
Pyne, Xenophon, and Lawn Bowls have ferme’d la bouche,
Now we’ve got Anti-vax, The GAP, and Larouche,
This revolution-seeding country of mine!
Re Prime Ministr Morrison’s victory, the New York Times said this a few minutes ago:
“But whatever the eventual margin of victory, his coalition’s performance amounted to another swell in the wave of populist fervor that swept President Trump into office and set Britain on a path out of the European Union.
“This election presented Australia, a vital American ally in the Asia-Pacific, with a crucial question: Would it remain on a rightward path and stick with a political coalition that promised economic stability and jobs, or choose change and the promise of greater action on climate change and income inequality?”
Dear Readers, feel free to use this column to tell us anything of tonight’s results. It i most pleasing that Rebekha Sharkie won in Mayo, SA as she has been helpful to children’s cause. ABC:
“Rebekha Sharkie has claimed victory over Georgina Downer in Mayo.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young is likely to remain in the Senate.”
The rulers are into occult kabal rituals , hence the elections being on the eve of a full moon .
Strange coincidence how , in numerology , the late Bob’s birth and death dates are two sixes and Scot’s birthday is a six .
At one minute: “Make sure the people responsible for this terrible act (2002 Bali bombing) are brought to justice.”
Well, OK, if you insist….
.
Who should one write to when a newborn baby has wrongfully been stolen from it’s family in N.S.W? And I know everyone says the same thing “I did nothing” “I would never hurt them” blah blah but this is actually the case and I thought that at the first court date the judge would look over and read the absolutely contradicting load of B.S and right away say “give this woman back her baby” but then reality. Why if your in this area of work like a judge, lawyer, what ever other “experts” they have you can’t seem to see what’s written in front of you? Anyone who reads these papers says the same they all say wow! Wow I can’t believe this crap never seen anything like it! So why won’t anyone help me and my family be able to be a family like we should be? So again I beg please tell me or point me in the right way as to who/where to write sone letters? Thank you.
Jess, one wonders what the hell’s going on… appalling
I just want my baby girl back, I can’t wrap my head around any of this not just what happened to myself, but what is and has been going on for so long and why this is not more publicised, how is this not more well known to everyday people who are not involved either by working in this area or being a parent who’s child has been put through the system? How do I get my voice heard & my child returned? Who’s door do I knock on (very loudly) this has absolutely broken me, I’m not the person I was! Lost any confidence in myself and my ability to paretnt which is ridiculous as this was my 4Th daughter, along with being a preschool teacher for 20+ years how can this happen? I just want some help.
Apologies for spelling errors as it’s hard to see what I’m typing through the tears.
You mention a “first court date” and a “judge”. So some sort of application to remove custody was made by some government department ? If so what’s the corresponding law and what court rules apply ?
Without knowing such details it would be impossible to comment
e.g. the above mentioned case was initiated by the W. A. Education Department via a truancy prosecution under section 16 of The School Education Act 1928. Once that was given the thumbs up I was summonsed by the same Department under section 18 of the same Act “to show cause why (the child) should not be made a ward of the State”. Due to the fact that, prior to said action, the respective officer had issued a “school exemption certificate” for the same child under the same Act neither action was legally grounded.
Not that Judges/Magistrates/Politicians give a damn about the law but if YOU’RE prepared to put it in their faces it can be a really powerful tool.
Are you asking me?
[…] George Potkonyak pointed out, the Childrens Court has “dispositional proceedings” and “establishment proceedings.” That […]