Senate debates

Wednesday, 17 February 2021

Bills

Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia Bill 2019, Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2019; In Committee

8:15 pm

Photo of Amanda StokerAmanda Stoker (Queensland, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister to the Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Senator McKim, I'm glad you have raised that because it gives me an opportunity to provide clarity. The arrangements for the four additional judges to whom I referred in the context of the disallowance motion are for the new judges that have been allocated for the Federal Circuit Court. But the work that they do is related to migration, so, strictly speaking, their workload won't be in the family space that is addressed in this bill, though it should be said that the vacancies of attrition have a relevance to these family matters. But it is true to say that it is absolutely relevant to the funding of those additional migration Federal Circuit Court judges that there is a fiscal responsibility in the way that we operate that court, and that means that the fees associated with, for instance, filings for migration cases will be applied to cover costs associated with dealing with migration cases, such as the costs associated with those judges.

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