FAMILY COUNCIL OF VICTORIA
AGM AUGUST 2003
PRESIDENT'S REPORT

Since the last annual general meeting in August 2002, the FCV has met on a monthly basis at the offices of the Saltshakers who have generously offered these facilities during our long gestational period. We are deeply grateful to Jennie and Peter Stokes for their hospitality. I wish also to express my thanks to our office bearers who have conscientiously attended to the affairs of the FCV, despite the numerous discouraging events that have occurred during the last 12 months.
However one singular event was a great success, namely our think tank meeting held in February 2003. This meeting has been recorded in our minutes and a final report has been issued for dissemination to all our affiliate organisations and to other family councils in other states. Essentially the meeting discussed the issues that would confront us in the near future and explored the possible responses that the FCV should consider.
Throughout the year, we have regularly discussed matters that have become perennial:
the drug debate, the agenda of the radical gay and feminist organizations, the anti-life issues of abortion and euthanasia, the high rate of marital breakdown, the low birth rate, the use of human embryos for medical research, the effective control of the media over what may be expressed in a so-called pluralist society, the use of the judicial system to impose ideological opinions, the use of the legislative process to pass dangerous laws that threaten the common good of society, the power exercised by strident minority lobby groups, the destructive control of many United Nations Instrumentalities - the list is almost inexhaustible.
In response to what appears to be an overwhelming hostility to the values espoused by the FCV, we have realised the necessity to build our own forces, not simply to hold a defensive position but to engage in the debates in the open forums as best we can. Many of you as individuals or as small organisations have heroically participated in the lively exchanges with our opponents and have contributed considerable sums of money to produce and distribute your own literature. We have now moved cautiously towards the formation of a National Federation of State Family Councils. In this regard, the FCV has played a leading role.
Today we face the greatest challenge to all human societies and it is imperative that we harness all our efforts to be vigorously involved. That challenge is to the basic unit of human society - the natural family. The ignominious behaviour of the Supreme Courts of Canada and the United States over the issue of marriage is reflective of the erosion of the Charter of the United Nations and the insidious consequences of some international conventions that Australia has ratified. As we approach the year 2004 and the second international year of the family, we must focus on this grave peril to our society.
Terrorism is a gross and overt horror of modern times but the assault on the natural family can lead to a greater catastrophe for the future generations of children trapped by the social errors of the last 50 years.
I exhort you to understand that now is the time to remember our mission and to continue the struggle that led to the formation of the FCV.