Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in respect of the Courts Administration Legislation Amendment Bill 2015 because, of course, the significant under-resourcing of the family law courts, by which I mean the Family Court of Australia and the Federal Circuit Court, is a problem for access to justice generally but is specifically a problem for people for whom family violence is an issue.

Last year, in October, the Honourable Chief Justice Diana Bryant AO of the Family Court of Australia gave a well-received paper called 'The Family Courts and family violence.'In that paper, she indicated that family violence is a feature in about 41 per cent of the matters filed in the family courts. In noting that, the Chief Justice went on to identify 16 different, separate and discrete complexities facing those courts in responding to family law matters in which family violence was a feature. I think it is important to remember that as the workloads have grown, in terms of the number of cases for the family courts, so has the complexity. So not only have you seen increasing numbers but also you have seen a qualitatively more complex case load, and therefore a heavier workload.

In her speech, the Chief Justice spoke quite bluntly about funding and resourcing for the courts. She said it was very pleasing to see that the federal government had announced a $100 million package aimed at addressing family violence. But while acknowledging that, she said:

… I cannot but be concerned that the crucial role of the courts (and the corresponding necessity of resourcing them properly) has not to date been recognised as part of addressing family violence.

She went on to quote approvingly Fiona McCormack, the CEO of Domestic Violence Victoria and her colleague Prue Cameron, who had written in an opinion piece in the wake of the government's Women's Safety Package announcement as follows:

… this funding, welcome as it is, will not come close to filling the significant budgetary shortfall across the family violence system which has left specialist women and children’s services, legal services and the court system struggling to meet the demand which is growing exponentially.

The Family Court Chief Justice went on to make a number of significant comments. At this point, it is important to recall that there had been tens of millions of dollars worth cuts to legal services, both community legal centres and legal aid commissions, by this government that have yet to be rectified, cuts that we have observed and that we made very clear in our International Women's Day package last year that we will seek to redress. We have $50 million for funding for community legal centres and legal aid commissions, including funding for Aboriginal and Torres Islander legal services, because we understand that access to justice is important, particularly in a situation where people are escaping family violence.

It is not just the Chief Justice of the Family Court who has been so blunt, frankly, in her comments about the under-resourcing of the courts. The Chief Judge of the Federal Circuit Court—it is important to remember that an unwilling majority of family law matters are filed in the Federal Circuit Court—has become increasingly open in his criticism of this government's failure to properly resource the family court system, especially including his own federal circuit courts. He received Australia Day honours this year and he used the opportunity of having been given the Australia Day honours to highlight the issues in family court resourcing. In an interview with the ABC at the time, he actually called for more resources in regional Australia, where some families are waiting years—where you have a critical family law matter underway, and you might also have state court matters, DVO orders and child protection matters underway at the same time—for a final court hearing to settle disputes such as dividing property and parenting orders. He said:

If we really want to look after the children of Australia, we have to put resources into dealing with issues such as family violence which have a long-term effect on children as they grow.

He was very clear in his criticism of this government's failure to adequately resource. He drew out the example of Wollongong, where the wait for a final hearing for a family law matter in the Federal Circuit Court was now more than three years. Of course, the benchmark required of the courts is that 90 per cent of hearings be finalised within 12 months. They are nowhere near that even now. If you look at the annual reports, you will see that the most recent one indicated that only 73 per cent of matters were being determined within that time and therefore the benchmark is not being met. That is directly a consequence of this government's failure to properly fund the family law courts. It is a direct consequence of the scandalous under-resourcing of the courts and the consequence of that is long waits for people with family law matters that are complex, in a situation where we know that 41 per cent of these family law matters have family violence as a feature. It is a disgrace, and it is something that this government ought seriously to attend to.

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