Senate debates
Tuesday, 2 February 2016
Motions
Family Law
4:26 pm
John Madigan (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Hansard source
I, and also on the behalf of Senators Day, Muir, Wang, Lazarus, Leyonhjelm and Lambie, move:
That the Senate—
(a) notes the 2003 committee report by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Community Affairs, Every picture tells a story: Report on the inquiry into child custody arrangements in the event of family separation, which recommended that a new non-adversarial system be created; and
(b) calls on the Government to:
(i) recognise that thousands of Australian children continue to be harmed by a family law system that is not fit-for-purpose,
(ii) recognise That the Family Law Act 1975 should be revised, simplified, shortened and based on core principles of the paramountcy of the long-term welfare of children, gender equality, and equal parental care and responsibility, when neither parent has been proven unfit, and
(iii) undertake a root-and-branch review of the family law system with a view to creating a new mechanism that is not adversarial in nature and deals with family separation in a way that has a tangible and primary focus on the welfare of the child, including an urgency for decisions, education and fairness.
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