Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for that series of questions. On the final question he asked me, about the appointment of a Family Court judge in Brisbane, I will try to get him some advice about that before the close of this session. But on the main point he was making, about fees in relation to Family Court matters, I first want to remind the member of what I said at the outset in my opening statement, and that is that we are actually injecting a significant amount of money into the Federal Court system: $22½ million is being injected over four years, and of course that will go to enhancing services in family law. In fact, $16.6 million will be injected into the Family Court and the Federal Circuit Court and then $5.9 million into the Federal Court. Also, $30 million is being provided to the courts for critical maintenance and infrastructure works. We are merging the back office functions of the Federal Court, the Family Court and the Federal Circuit Court, and that will provide efficiencies. But unfortunately it does not provide enough efficiencies for us to move forward with the other elements of this package. The elements of this package in total are designed to avoid any cuts in services. I think the very important point to make here is that only those who can afford to pay will be levied these fees. It is not the case that everybody who appears before the Family Court, particularly if they cannot afford it, will be levied these fees. That remains a vitally important point.

The member invited me to comment on the Family Court system in general. I personally have not experienced any matters in the Family Court, for which I am deeply grateful. But obviously as members of parliament we are exposed to people who are involved in Family Court matters on a regular basis, and I think most members would agree with me that they can be some of the most difficult meetings we take. And people who do find themselves involved in protracted Family Court matters can often come to us in great degrees of distress, because the Family Court system is a difficult system.

When you are going through a difficult divorce it can be extraordinarily hard, particularly where it involves the distribution of assets or, more significantly, access rights to children. We are very mindful of our responsibility to make sure that the family justice system works well, but we do need to make sure that the funding available to that is appropriate. We do not want to cut services to people who are involved, particularly in protracted Family Court disputes, so we do need to make sure that the court's funding is on a sustainable footing. That is what this package is designed to do. It comes with significant investments that we are making in the Federal Court system and, in particular, the Family Court system. Overall, we have got the balance right.

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