Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to table an explanatory memorandum relating to the bill.

Leave granted.

I table an explanatory memorandum, and I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

FAMILY LAW (SELF-ASSESSMENT) BILL 2019

SECOND READING SPEECH

The Bill seeks to help speed up the resolution of relationship property and parenting disputes both for couples who cannot afford to go to court or for those who can.

Approximately 390,000 Australians have been forced to endure the pitfalls of our hugely dysfunctional divorce system since the time of the last election. Delays inside courts are up to six years in some instances. Delays outside courts average 23 months.

Part 2 of this Bill creates a new obligation on divorcees to disclose their financial affairs online and to divide their lifetime wealth by paying up minimum incontestable sums, promptly. Compliance under this Bill applies to Australians regardless of wealth or a trip to the Family Court. A statutory timetable and a series of minimum payment obligations are created.

The Bill deploys the same broad method of financial self-assessment that former Treasurer Paul Keating invented in relation to income tax, and which former Treasurer Peter Costello perfected in relation to GST. The Bill requires that each spouse self-assess a just and equitable division of the couple's relationship wealth and pay up front to the extent they are not in conflict, rather than when all matters are finally resolved.

Separating couples will have obligations to shrink their dispute to 10% of their relationship wealth and put the residual money in a joint bank account while they negotiate or mediate. The disclosures are to occur online at no cost to government.

Mediation on financial matters would thus become compulsory in much the same manner as mediation on parenting matters is compulsory under current law as a result of the reforms enacted by all Parliamentarians in 2006. Research shows that compulsory mediation already works to resolve eight out of nine property relationship disputes.

Introduction of this reform is the economic equivalent of: one, appointing 26 new federal circuit judges; two, on average giving back to separating couples 450 days of their lives currently taken up with payment delays; and three, quadrupling the effectiveness of Relationships Australia for middle class Australians.

Reducing financial tension in this manner would have more real-world impact on the number of instances of reported family violence disputes than all of the laws passed, and all of the funding approved, by this Parliament in this parliamentary term.

This Bill will help to restore the original intent of family law legislation, that is, to ensure that calmness, rationality, low cost and speed prevail. This Bill does not change the Family Law Act. It just makes the law applicable to all by flipping the compliance burden from the State onto the shoulders of the financially stronger spouse.

Part 3 of this Bill will require spouses to each abide by the existing laws on shared parenting. It will require parents who do not wish to comply with shared parenting to explain their reasons why and to mediate, regardless of going to court.

The existing exemptions for family violence remain in place and are bolstered by a number of other more robust exclusions to assist Legal Aid organisations to be more effective.

Residential parents with reasons to deny standard shared parenting contact hours must state these reasons in a Parenting Self-Assessment notice. Residential parents, and that most often means the mother, who have no reason and simply use courts to delay the inevitable will be subject to fines, as applies in some other jurisdictions.

The economic consequence will be a marked reduction in parenting disputes. This Bill will thus enable cases with real domestic violence issues to get priority in the courts. The time for talk about good intentions is over, and the time to act is now.

Where there are real issues of conflict, the Bill requires attendance at an anger management program. These programs are widely used in New Zealand and do a much more effective job than standing around aimlessly in court foyers. More education, and less litigation, is in the best interests of everyone impacted by separation, in particular the children.

This Bill will also place a limit on legal fees which often absorb all the assets of separating couples. This Bill will deregulate legal advice, as was recommended by the Productivity Commission report commissioned some years ago.

Family law has long been one of my priorities. In summary, this Bill does not seek to change the policy of the Family Law Act 1975, but rather to ensure it works the way that was envisaged– that is, quickly and rationally.

Nothing in the Bill precludes a person from then exercising a legal right and going to court. But in most cases, there will simply be no need to do so. This Bill proposes the adoption of methods which have been shown to work in other countries.

I commend this Bill to this Senate.

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.