Commentary
Last week, a television crew from the Japanese public broadcaster came to Sydney to interview family law specialist Justin Dowd, former president of the New South Wales (NSW) Law Society. Japan is considering moving away from mum-custody towards “joint parental authority”,—which recognizes that it’s in the children’s best interests to have both mum and dad remain involved in their care.
The Japanese crew came to Australia because they acknowledged this country as one of the world leaders in encouraging separated parents to share decisions about raising their kids.
That achievement stems from former Prime Minister John Howard’s path-breaking 2006 reforms promoting “equal shared parental responsibility,” which resulted in a significant increase in care from dads, more shared care, better relations between parents, and less litigation (pdf)….