Under new legislation proposed to Parliament, fathers may be given the right to request DNA tests for children where paternity is in doubt. This would give fathers the right to a paternity test without the mother's permission.
United Future Deputy leader Judy Turner said it is outrageous that an "outdated statute" prevents children from having a relationship with their father and from actually knowing who he is.
Ms Turner's Family Proceedings (Paternity Orders and Parentage Tests) Amendment Bill was recently tabled in Parliament.
The bill, if passed, would enable the Family Court to order that a mouth swab be taken from a child, who is at the centre of a dispute, provided the supposed father has sufficient proof that there is doubt over whether or not he is the actual father.
At present a judge can make a recommendation, "but if the mother refuses to have the test done then that is as far as it could go," Turner said.
"A lot of men have been left in limbo...either they can be named as the liable parent and have a strong suspicion that they are not and therefore do not want to face 18 years of payment for a child that actually is not theirs."
"The other, and probably more tragic one, is where a guy believes he is the father and she [the mother] will not name him, and he does want to support the child, and he does want to apply for access. He cannot even apply for any contact with the child until he is officially named as the father."
Turner said that DNA testing should be a last resort, encouraging mediation as a first step to avoid court costs.
Nevertheless Sue Price, co-director of Men's Right Agency in Australia said that mediation does not work. Part of the problem, she said, is that there are only around 65 mediation centres in Australia and about 50,000 divorces a year.
"The time lag in actually getting into your first meeting is probably six weeks to two months. By that time, children are gone. Children are well entrenched in their new life and dad hasn't seen them for two months or three months," she said.
"What this is doing is delaying people's ability to be able to make an application to the court."
Jim Bagnall spokesperson for the Coalition of Fathers has called the present situation in New Zealand a 'holocaust'.
"We have 300,000 children in this country not living in the same home as their fathers and that is one third of all our children," Mr Bagnall said.
The coalition provides support and advice for fathers who could be denied access to their children.
"You need to identify who is your real father- whether you accept him or reject him. It is good to know who your real father is so that you can spot yourself in them and they can spot themselves in you."
Bagnall said this is a human rights issue, because the mother has the right to say who the father is.
"Does she also have the right to pick and chose who he is?... Does the child have a right to say, I should know who my real father is?" argued Bagnall.
Some people suggest that there be compulsory DNA tests at birth to avoid future parental conflicts, said Price.
"It is going to force people to be honest with each other. When I have talked to some of these kids who have found out that they are not the child of the person that they thought they were they have hated the mother. It is a lie," she said.
Taylor said that both the Law Commission and the Law Society have made recommendations that the family court be empowered to order paternity testing.
Hamilton barrister Tracey Gunn acknowledges that lawyers are "limited in terms of how they can help male clients."
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