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

[by video link] by leave—The Joint Select Committee on Australia's Family Law System was established in September 2019 and initially had a final reporting date of today, 7 October 2020. Submissions were due on 18 December 2019 and extensive rounds of public and in camera hearings were planned over the first half of this year. Like many in the community, the work of the committee has been delayed by travel and other restrictions imposed through the COVID-19 pandemic. As a consequence the committee was unable to travel after the first five hearings in February and March of this year.

The committee continued to receive a large number of requests, particularly from individuals, to provide late submissions and appear before the committee, to provide evidence of their experience of Australia's family law system. To ensure that the committee heard from a wide cross-section of the community on these issues the committee has continued to accept submissions and has held an additional six public and 10 in camera hearings by video and teleconference since May this year. In all, the committee has received over 1,600 submissions and heard from 67 organisations and individuals in a total of 11 public hearings and 85 individuals during 13 in camera hearings.

On 31 August this year both houses of parliament agreed to extend the reporting date for this inquiry to the last sitting day of February 2021. This extension has provided the committee with additional time to comprehensively consider the significant body of evidence that has been received. The first stage of that consideration has been the development of this interim report. The report summarises the wide range of issues and viewpoints raised during the inquiry. Importantly, the committee has included quotes from de-identified individual submitters and witnesses whose evidence was received in camera. The committee thanks all those individuals for agreeing to the publication of this material.

The committee has not arrived at any conclusions or made any recommendations in this interim report about the information provided, however, believed it was important to make public the wide range of issues that have been raised with it during the course of the inquiry. The committee's final report will contain detailed consideration of matters relevant to the terms of reference and the committee's recommendations.

The interim report is comprehensive, running to 12 chapters and over 300 pages. This is reflective of the breadth of the issues that have been raised with the committee. The interim report has been arranged thematically into chapters and covers the following areas. First: systemic issues such as perceptions of bias within the system, the role of family consultants and expert witnesses, whether the adversarial nature of the family courts could be improved, misuse of systems and processes and professional misconduct. Secondly: legal fees and other costs of the family law system. Thirdly: delays in the Family Court. Fourthly: issues in relation to family violence and the family law system. Later chapters examine issues arising in parenting and property disputes, alternative dispute resolution mechanisms and support services available in the family law system, as well as interaction between the child support and the family law systems.

I would like to thank the members of the committee for their commitment and engagement in this very broad ranging, complex and at times emotional inquiry. The committee has heard some very personal and heart-wrenching accounts of people's experience of family separation and their navigation of the family law system. The committee expresses its thanks to all those individuals and organisations that have made written submissions. The opportunity to hear directly from so many people about their experiences with the family law system has significantly enhanced the committee's work, and the committee thanks all submitters for sharing their personal stories. The committee wishes to acknowledge those individuals who shared their private circumstances and experiences with the family law system at the committee's in camera hearings. The opportunity to speak with so many people, to hear a diverse range of experiences, to ask questions about the failings in the system from the viewpoint of those most affected and to receive proposals for improving the system will greatly assist the further deliberations of the committee.

The committee appreciates that the recounting of those experiences can be difficult and traumatic, and the committee thanks those individuals for bringing such a candid and personal perspective to the inquiry. Similarly, the committee extends its thanks to the organisations, academics and professionals who provided submissions and appeared at public hearings. This evidence has greatly enhanced the committee's understanding of the various elements of the family law system and identified a number of areas of further interest for consideration in the final report.

The committee proposes to hold at least one further private hearing prior to the completion of the final report. To date, the committee has not heard from a significant stakeholder—namely, the family courts—having resolved to first hear from individuals and organisations of their experience of the system. The committee will then have a significant body of evidence to consider in developing its final recommendations, and I look forward to presenting on behalf of the committee the final report by the end of February next year. I take this opportunity to thank not only all the members of the committee but indeed the members of the secretariat for their significant efforts during the course of this inquiry. I commend the interim report to the House.