Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Select Committee on Australia's Family Law System, I present the committee's report entitled Australia’s child support scheme: third interim report, incorporating a dissenting report, and the final report, incorporating a dissenting report.

Reports made parliamentary papers in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—On behalf of the Joint Select Committee on Australia's Family Law System, I'm pleased to present the following reports: the third interim report relating to Australia's child support scheme and the committee's final report. The committee was appointed by parliament in September 2019. Since that time the committee has undertaken a comprehensive two-year inquiry into the family law and child support systems. As part of this inquiry, the committee has received over 1,700 submissions and held 13 in-camera hearings and 13 public hearings. The committee has heard from many people who have had direct experience with the family law system—advocacy groups and other organisations, academics and members of the legal profession. On behalf of the committee, I thank everyone who has made a contribution.

The reports presented today follow on from the committee's first interim report presented in October 2020 and its second interim report on improvements in family law proceedings presented in March 2021. The first interim report canvassed the broad range of issues that arose in the evidence provided to the committee, touching on matters such as systemic issues, including: perceptions of bias within the system; the role of family consultants and expert witnesses; whether the adversarial nature of the family law courts could be improved; misuse of systems and processes; and professional misconduct. Secondly, it looked at legal fees and other costs in the family law system. Thirdly, it looked at delays in the Family Court. Fourthly, it looked at issues in relation to family violence and the family law system.

The second interim report detailed the committee's conclusions and recommendations in relation to the family law system, including current and proposed reforms, and suggested additional measures that the committee considered were needed to better support Australian families using the family law system. The 29 recommendations placed an emphasis on reducing delays and costs; improving the enforceability of orders; refining the family violence framework; amending the Family Law Act; alternative dispute resolution; and several other issues. I'm pleased to report to the House that the Australian government has responded quickly to a number of these recommendations—in particular, the government's addition of $100 million in funding over four years for the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia.

The committee reiterates its considered opinion that recommendations relating to the proportionality of costs and the use of arbitration are significant reforms that should be adopted by the government. The committee noted in its second interim report that it did not have sufficient time to consider several issues relating to child support that were raised in the many submissions to the committee. Given this, the parliament agreed to extend the presentation of the final report until 29 October this year and subsequently to 16 December this year to finalise its views and recommendations on the child support system and, furthermore, to conclude this inquiry.

Following extensive consideration of all the evidence, the third interim report makes 19 recommendations aimed at addressing systemic problems and improving the outcomes for children involved in the child support scheme. It is vital that the child support scheme is accessible to all. The committee recommends a greater allocation of resources to Services Australia to allow it to enhance its child support scheme services, particularly to assist those clients who have a disability and/or low levels of English proficiency.

The committee strongly believes that ongoing community engagement is an essential feature of effective government decision-making and policy development. Therefore, the committee has recommended that regular meetings of the Child Support National Stakeholder Engagement Group should be reconvened. The courts that deal with family breakdown and the concerns of children need to be well resourced. Building on the increased presence of court liaison officers, such as state police and child protection officers as recommended previously by the committee, there is a need to have also specialised liaison officers who can provide information to parents about the child support scheme. The committee therefore recommends a 12-month pilot program that co-locates child support scheme officers as court liaison officers in Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia registries.

A number of witnesses to this inquiry called for improved data collection to enhance the understanding of how the child support scheme is operating and to inform how it may be improved. The committee is supportive of this approach.

Finally, there have been several concerns raised by submitters regarding the child support formula. These are incredibly complex matters that the committee was not equipped to assess. Therefore, the committee has recommended that the Australian government convenes a ministerial task force, together with an expert working group including representatives of both custodial and non-custodial parents, to examine any of the issues raised regarding the child support scheme which the task force considers to have merit.

Turning to the final report, it notes the government actions and Family Court initiatives since March 2021 and makes further recommendations supplementary to those made in the second and third interim reports. In particular, the committee supports the extension of the Lighthouse Project and the Priority Property Pools under $500,000 Project, two important initiatives that are underway at the moment.

The committee met privately with the Chief Justice of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia and the Chief Judge of the Family Court of Western Australia to discuss the work of the respective courts and committees, and these discussions have informed the committee's deliberations on the final report. I'd like to thank in particular Chief Justice Alstergren and Deputy Chief Justice McClelland for their assistance to the committee during the course of this two-year inquiry.

The committee would like to express its deepest gratitude to all of those who were courageous enough to provide their personal experiences by submission and the giving of testimony in hearings—many of them, as I mentioned earlier, during in camera hearings. Similarly, the committee extends its thanks to the organisations, academics, legal practitioners and community groups who provided submissions and appeared at public hearings.

Throughout this inquiry, the committee has strived to understand the deficiencies in the family law and child support systems. The committee has sought to find practical solutions that are going to make a difference to the lives of many men, women, children and extended families that use this system every day.

I thank my colleagues on the committee, including the member for Moreton, who's in the House as I speak, for their constructive and thoughtful consideration of often very complex issues. I thank members of the secretariat for their wonderful efforts in what has been at times a very trying process over the last two years. In tabling these two reports, we conclude the work of the committee, and therefore I commend these and the previous interim reports to the House.

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