In today’s changing social landscape, divorce has become a significant and immutable feature. Currently, more marriages end in divorce than do not. The reasons for this are many and complex, and although these reasons are debated, the fact of the predominance of divorce is not disputed. With this upswing in divorce comes also an explosion in the number of children of divorce.

Due primarily to social and legal changes that occurred in the 1970’s, the dilemma of where and with whom the child would live primarily became a reality that more of us knew directly or indirectly. Simply put, child custody disputes have become a much more prominent feature of our everyday lives. Children are routinely fought over in custody disputes, and seldom does a day pass that one does not hear of some tragic and sometime violent event that occurred in the context of a custody dispute. Related to this, the courts have become choked with allegations of one spouse abusing the other spouse and/ or the children, again in the context of one of these custody disputes. It is within this complex social and legal issue that the terms Parental Alienation and Parental Alienation Syndrome were born.

This website is devoted to addressing this phenomenon of Parental Alienation and its legacy Parental Alienation Syndrome, also known as PAS. The purpose of this website is for the education of parents, mental health professionals, attorneys and judges, who find themselves dealing with these terribly difficult issues.

The sponsor of this website is Brian Ludmer in private practice in Canada. His practice is primarily devoted to dealing with all aspects of Parental Alienation Syndrome that is its evaluation and diagnosis as well as its treatment. He worked extensively with the late Richard Gardner, M.D., who first described the syndrome in 1985. He, along with Dr. Gardner and others in the field, served on the Scientific and Professional Advisory Board of the Parental Alienation Research Foundation in Washington D.C. until its demise in 2000. He has continued working in this field and routinely travels all over the United States, serving as evaluator, therapist and educator regarding PAS.

It appears we’re not the only ones excited about securing our latest contract for Australia Post’s new letter trays, with the Herald Sun publishing the success story last week, titled – “Sneddon & Kingston Plastics is changing at full throttle.”

The article quite rightly describes the 800,000 recyclable trays and 100,000 lids for Australia Post’s new mail sorting machinery as the largest contract in our company’s history – and depicts a rare feel-good story in the current Australian manufacturing climate.

An area often dominated by hard-luck stories about the dominance of cheap offshore suppliers and the downfall of the nation’s automotive industry… it’s certainly nice to hear some positive news regarding plastic injection moulding manufacturers, and here at Sneddon & Kingston Plastics we are extremely proud to be the subject matter of this success story.

As touched on in the Herald Sun’s article, we contribute this ‘against-the-grain’ contract success to our ongoing focus on innovation and adaptability. Being formally engaged in contract moulding services for the automotive industry, we were forced to adapt a few years ago when it became evident the automotive supply chain would not survive in this country. We invested in advanced automation and decoration technology, developed advanced plastic injection moulding services, and established a packaging process called “In Mould Labelling”, making it possible to work on more complex, specialised and short lead-time projects.

In Mould Labelling uses high precision automation equipment to place labels in the mould, becoming one with the moulded tray. This creates high quality and cost effective branding on products, which satisfied the Australia Post’s requirements perfectly.

Advanced technologies also helped us to develop our own product range of containers used mainly in the food industry, and whilst we see the packaging industry as our long-term direction, contract moulding work such as the Australia Post mail bins ensures we retain the skills we have developed, and provides a huge boost in ensuring our survival in the current environment.

To echo the words of our General Manager and third generation SK Plastics employee, Blair Sinsheimer:

“In an environment where companies are turning to foreign suppliers for goods, it’s great to have the support from one of Australia’s most trusted and recognised brands… We applaud Australia Post for keeping this work within Australia”.

We are on track to deliver the last of the new recyclable trays at the end of October, a move that will see the phasing out of the iconic white Australia Post boxes.