Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) | Hansard source

At the outset, could I please place on the record my congratulations to Senator Hanson on her candour; in particular, with respect to her own personal circumstances in sharing with the Senate—and, through the Senate, with the Australian people—what her children have been going through.

In my experience prior to coming to this place, acting as general counsel within a mining company, on many occasions I had people come into my office seeking advice with respect to how to deal with family law issues. Even though, obviously, I could not act for them in relation to their own personal family law issues, I always tried to give helpful suggestions and personal advice on how to navigate through those issues. I think Senator Hanson was absolutely correct when she said that our system should strive to try and achieve calmness, rationality, speed and lower costs in the system, because when the system goes wrong it can certainly have devastating consequences upon families, children and the wider community.

In speaking to the Family Law (Self-Assessment) Bill 2019, I'd like to state at the outset that the Morrison government is committed to keeping all Australians safe and secure, and that is why the government has taken action to improve Australia's family law system. It is good that, today, Senator Hanson, through introducing this bill, is increasing the debate in relation to this matter. The government is also committed to ongoing improvements to family law to ensure that it helps families separate in a safe, supportive and timely way. It should be noted at the outset, again, that the government appreciates that Senator Hanson's intent is to improve the operation of the family law system, which is an intention shared by the Morrison government. I was impressed with the exhaustive nature of the explanatory statement, which I did read, in relation to the bill. It's a substantial piece of work. While the government may not necessarily agree with the way many of the crossbench bills achieve their aims, they should be commended, as this one should be, for actually engaging in the process of drafting legislation to put forward their ideas with the limited resources at their disposal.

Turning to the bill in question, the government appreciates its aims to assist separating couples to self-solve their property and parenting disputes. However, it is the government's view that the dispute resolution models proposed are unlikely to achieve this outcome in some respects. While the bill intends to establish dispute resolution regimes that keep matters out of court, the prescriptive nature of some of the provisions contained in the bill are, in the government's view, unlikely to reflect and balance the vast complexities and differences between different families, or suit their needs or the needs of their children. When couples separate, the Family Law Act 1975 provides that the best interests of the child is the paramount consideration when resolving parenting matters. In determining what is in a child's best interests, of primary importance is the need to protect children from harm and, in the absence of factors such as violence or abuse, for the children to enjoy a meaningful relationship with each of their parents. I should note that that theme came through Senator Hanson's comments as well as being a major part of her motivation.

The Family Law Act is gender neutral and focusses on the rights of children and the responsibilities that each parent has towards their children, rather than on parental rights. It is not clear that all prescribed rules in the bill would be in the best interests of the child—from the government's perspective—for all families experiencing separation. Under the Family Law Act the court exercises a broad discretion in making an order, having regard to all relevant circumstances to make orders that are just and equitable, which is unlikely to be possible for all cases under the provisions in this bill. Given the level of prescription in the bill, however well-intentioned it may be, there is a risk more families may turn to the courts if they consider that the conditions set out in the bill are not suitable for them.

While intending to be compatible with the Family Law Act, there are some unresolved technical issues and gaps in the bill from the government's perspective. For example, the bill includes some terms that are undefined and makes presumptions that are not consistent with the current Family Law Act. This includes prescribing conditions for male spouses and female spouses, but there are also exceptions and carve-outs from the proposed self-assessment regime in a very wide range of circumstances. The bill would also make it an offence not to comply with high-level principles and, as such, would be difficult for police to enforce.

In terms of the government's commitments, whilst there are some issues with the drafting of the bill, we note the intent of Senator Hanson. The Morrison government is also committed to improving the family law system for Australian families. The Morrison government has already committed to structural reform of the federal family law courts to help end the unnecessary costs and delays for thousands of Australian families that arise from a split federal family court system. This will allow families to have their matters dealt with as efficiently as possible and under a single set of rules and procedures. These reforms will significantly improve the family law system. They will reduce the backlog of matters before the family law courts—which contribute to the delays Senator Hanson referred to—and, consistent with some of the intentions presented in the bill today, would drive timely, cheaper and more consistent resolution of disputes for Australian families. It is estimated that these structural reforms have the potential, in time, to allow thousands of additional cases to be resolved each and every year. They're not just cases; they're thousands of individual families looking to have their matters processed as quickly and efficiently as possible.

The government will also seek, again, to progress its clear and measured plan to bring together the Family Court of Australia and the Federal Circuit Court of Australia, to be known as the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, the FCFC. The FCFC will become, in effect, a single point of entry into the family law jurisdiction of the Federal Court system and will create a consistent pathway for Australian families having their family law disputes dealt with in the Federal Courts.

This government also commissioned the first comprehensive review of the family law system in 40 years. Forty years is just too long. Forty years is simply too long, and it's a good thing the government has commissioned that review. That review, released in April this year, contained 60 recommendations for the family law system. The government is carefully considering the Australian Law Reform Commission's wide-ranging view of the system and is intent on ensuring the system works for Australian families, keeping them safe and allowing for efficient and timely separations, as is the intent of this bill.

In relation to some other recent family law measures, the government's intention to commit to improving the family law system is clear from a range of significant measures this government has taken to assist and protect separating families. These include the establishment and now extension of specialist domestic violence units and health justice partnerships, costing $31.8 million over four years, which provide legal and social support and assistance to vulnerable women experiencing family violence.

Establishing and extending the Family Advocacy and Support Service to the tune of $22.6 million over three years provides duty lawyers at family law courts to provide services to families affected by family violence. In the 2019-20 budget, an additional $7.8 million was committed over three years for dedicated men's support workers to be engaged in all Family Advocacy and Support Service locations. The dedicated men's support workers will provide access to support services for both alleged perpetrators and male victims of family violence. Eleven million dollars has been allocated to improve information-sharing between the family law, family violence and child protection, including the co-location of state and territory family safety officials in family law courts. In addition, there've been introduced prohibitions against perpetrators of family violence from cross-examining their victims in family law proceedings, and the provision of $7 million to Legal Aid commissions to represent affected parties. Lastly, $10.7 million has been allocated over four years for the family law court system to employ up to 17 additional qualified social workers and psychologists as family consultants.

With respect to government measures aimed at helping to keep families out of court altogether, many of the government's family law supports are directed at helping those Australian families in this time of difficulty to resolve their disputes without needing to go to court and without needing to incur those legal expenses, which can be quite prohibitive. We note that, again, that is consistent with the purpose underlying this bill.

As part of the Women's Economic Security Package, the government provided $50 million over four years for family law property mediation. The government also provides mediation services that support families to reach agreement about their property splits between themselves, with a view to helping keep those families out of our court system. The measure is expected to provide an additional 31,200 couples across Australia with access to affordable property mediation each year.

The government will also provide $10.3 million for Legal Aid commissions to run a two-year trial of lawyer-assisted mediation in each state and territory. The trial will support families with asset pools up to $500,000, excluding debt, to resolve their property disputes with the help of experienced legal aid lawyers. We need to do better through the system, with respect to those families with assets of $500,000 or less. It's ridiculous that so much of a mistake can be chewed up in terms of legal expenses.

These recent measures are on top of the $160 million per year for family law services to support people with family law disputes outside of court. These services include counselling and education programs and were accessed by 70,000 men and 86,000 women last year. So those services, which are being provided, are being used.

In closing, the government remains committed to working with the crossbench, including Senator Hanson, to improve the operation of the family law system in Australia. The government thanks the senator for the contribution and advancement of the debate.