Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Labor is pleased to support the Jurisdiction of Courts (Family Law) Bill 2005, which grants the Magistrates Court of Western Australia jurisdiction for certain matters arising under federal law. The bill amends the Family Law Act, the Child Support (Assessment) Act and the Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act. It proposes to grant the Western Australian Magistrates Court, when constituted by a family law magistrate, a similar jurisdiction to the Federal Magistrates Court for matters arising under those acts.

Unlike the other states, Western Australia has never referred its power to legislate for family law to the Commonwealth. Instead, it maintains its own family law system headed by the Family Court of Western Australia. In general, Commonwealth family law and child support law allow the Family Court of Western Australia to exercise a jurisdiction overlapping that of the Family Court of Australia. From the point of view of the court’s users, this reduces the cost and confusion of litigation, allowing the Family Court of Western Australia to deal with all of their matters.

In recent years in the federal sphere the Federal Magistrates Court has been dealing with many of the less complex matters in family law, leaving the Family Court’s resources to deal with the more difficult cases. Until now that flexibility has not been available in Western Australia for federal matters. The bill will implement the recommendations of the 2003 review, which suggested reforms to allow WA magistrates to fulfil a similar role in relation to the Family Court of WA as the Federal Magistrates Court does for the federal Family Court.

Western Australia has made its own reforms to implement these recommendations, creating the specialist family law magistrates. This bill now completes that process by an appropriate conferral of Commonwealth jurisdictions onto the Western Australian Magistrates Court when constituted by a specialist family law magistrate.

We understand that this bill has the support of the government of Western Australia, the Family Court of Western Australia, the Magistrates Court of Western Australia, the Family Court of Australia and the Federal Magistrates Court. In light of that support, and given the options for the flexible and efficient use of court resources that these changes will allow, Labor is pleased to support this bill.

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