That is exactly right.

Many employers are of the attitude that "it's not personal, it's business" and if a parent is taking too much time off work because of DoCS meetings or court hearings, they run the risk of kissing their jobs goodbye.

No job, no way to pay the rent/mortgage. Especially if the child is already in care... No family payment to help out with costs... Just the dole and that's not going to pay anyone's rent let alone the mortgage once the bills are paid and food is on the table.

And if a parent suddenly finds themselves homeless, that only fuels the DoCS fire... They simply can't reunify a child with it's parents if there is no home for the child to go to.


Many parents DO lose their homes because of high court costs. If a parent earns too much money or doesn't meet the Legal Aid criteria for whatever reason, they have to dig into their own pockets to cover the costs. A lot of the time that means re-mortgaging the family home.

A similar situation came up with my case at the end of 2006. I was self employed and earning $10K a month. DoCS wanted me to have access to my children when I should have been working.

Heck, I was all for access to my children, but the idea of having it during the times that I was meant to be earning a living to support my children was incomprehensible (they had no idea what my income was like - that wasn't the point).

DoCS refused to negotiate... They were paying for the children to be delivered to me so I had to be available to the children... No ifs or buts.

They sent my business to the wall.

By the end of 2006 not only was I pretty much unemployed, but even though I had informed Centrelink that I no longer had certain children in my care - I got hit with a massive debt months later when the carers applied for my payments for my children.

So I rang my then CSO and I let rip.

I had a go at her about forcing me out of my job. I asked her how DoCS expected me to be able to support my children when I had no income. I got no reply.

I also asked her how they expected me to feed my children during contact visits when I had no incoming funds to support them with. I got no reply.

I asked her how I was meant to meet my children's needs (clothing, shoes etc that DoCS/carers were NOT buying) with no income... I got no reply.

(I'd like to add here that the carers of my eldest daughter were not even buying her sanitary liners!!!)

And I asked her how I was meant to pay my brand new fat Centrelink bill with no income... I got no reply.

My attack was so strong and so valid that they never dared to use it against me... But I know that they wouldn't think twice about using this kind of situation against another family.