Partenity Tests Australian Law

Socialist Alternative misunderstands Cuba ... again

Socialist Alternative, an Australian socialist organisation, denies that a genuinely popular revolution, let alone a socialist revolution, ever took place in Cuba from 1959 onwards. It seems Socialist Alternative believes in miracles: the Cuban state “is a product of a revolution carried out by a few hundred or, at best, a few thousand guerrillas". The decisive role of an The millions-strong demonstrations in support of the revolutionary government throughout the past five decades; the mass literacy campaign in which thousands of young people left their classrooms, lanterns and textbooks in hand, to eradicate illiteracy in 1961; the half a million Cubans who volunteered to serve in Cuba's internationalist mission in Angola and Namibia; the outpouring of solidarity after each hurricane that passes over the island; the neighbourhood committees that organise blood donations, guard duty, recycling, attention to the needs of vulnerable children, the elderly and the infirm; Cuba's untiring and selfless contribution to health care, education and sports programs in small, poor countries such as Kiribati and Tuvalu that are all but invisible on the world stage — none of this registers with the comrades from Socialist Alternative. Or perhaps they are ignorant of these deeds. "The Cuban Communist Party (PCC) finally held its sixth national congress on the 16-19 April. This congress, the first since 1997, was convoked to allow the PCC leadership to obtain endorsement for a whole plethora of changes to Cuban economic policies. Unsurprisingly the conference endorsed the 311-point reform package unanimously." That the nearly 1,000 delegates to the PCC's sixth congress voted unanimously to approve the final draft of the Economic and Social Policy Guidelines for the Party and the Revolution is not surprising, but Liz Walsh doesn't explain why. The Guidelines approved by the congress were the culmination of a years-long process of public debate and consensus-building initiated by Raul Castro in July 2007, when he called for structural and conceptual changes to Cuba's model of socialist development and invited Cubans to debate the country's problems and propose solutions, repeatedly urging a free and frank debate without false unanimity.

Daddy not so dearest - life-style | Stuff.co.nz

Australian men's groups are calling for mandatory paternity testing of all newborns as it emerges a record number of men are finding they are not the fathers of children they believed to be theirs.

Almost a quarter of paternity tests conducted by one of Australia's largest DNA laboratory companies show the man submitting a sample is not the father, compared to an estimated one in 10 "exclusions" 10 years ago.

The number of tests taken in Australia has doubled from 3000 in 2003 to more than 6000 last year.

Thousands of men are turning to DIY testing kits - available online - to discover whether they are the biological father while they are still in a relationship and without telling their partners about their suspicions.

Some have brought up children to adulthood or paid tens of thousands of dollars in maintenance to the Child Support Agency (CSA) before finding out they have no genetic link.

Australian Men's Rights Agency co-director Sue Price said: "People's lives are being ruined by this. It is not just the men, it's the children who grow up thinking one person is their father and then find out it's someone else.

"In the future, more and more health treatments are going to be based on genetic technology, so it is going to be even more important to know who your biological father is.

"Mandatory testing would get rid of all these problems."

The DNA Bio Services lab conducts more than 2000 such tests a year from the sale of its DIY kits.

New 2007 figures compiled by the company show that one in 4.5 paternity tests exclude the man as the biological father - a record high since DNA testing began 10 years ago. Managing director Gary Miller said: "The increase is across all social classes and ages - it affects everyone.

"Before, a lot of the work was for men who had been contacted by a woman or the CSA for maintenance and wanted a test to prove they weren't the father.

"Now we see a lot of men in a relationship or just out of one who are just looking for reassurance that they are the father and then find out they're not and are completely devastated."

Under Australian law, the family courts will only order a paternity test if there are reasonable grounds to doubt that the estranged partner is not the biological father.

The CSA does not require proof of paternity beyond a birth certificate or acceptance by a man that he is the father. This means some men pay tens of thousands of dollars through the CSA before finding out they are not the father.

The moral, social, and commercial imperatives of genetic testing and screening, the Australian case

Mothers kept in the dark on paternity tests. The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 March 2000, In: Australian Law Reform Commission, ALRC 96: Essentially Yours: The ...

Law Institute journal, the official organ of the Law Institute of Victoria

An estimated 3000 paternity tests are carried out each year in Australia. ... contact the Australian Law Reform Commission, GPO Box 370s. ...

The Australian law journal

GENETIC TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION • Australia-wide DNA Paternity Testing service ... Attorney-General to carry out Parentage Testing under the Family Law Act ...

Disputed paternity proceedings

Law Rev. 965 (1939); 15 Notre Dame Lawyer 153 (1940); Harley: Blood Grouping Tests in Disputed Paternity, 238 Lancet 911 (London, 1940); 19 Chicago-Kent Law ...

Genetic ties and the family, the impact of paternity testing on parents and children

Court Supervision The most restrictive option for genetic testing for parentage ... the model of court involvement was rejected by the Australian Law Reform ...