Philip Ruddock (Berowra, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

in reply—I thank the member for Gellibrand for her comments and her support of the Jurisdiction of Courts (Family Law) Bill 2005. Interestingly, I was in the parliament when the Family Law Act was enacted and I recall well the establishment of the courts. We had a very prominent Western Australian, Peter Durack—who was at a later point Commonwealth Attorney-General—and he was very anxious, I might say, to see the continuation of the model in which the states continued their jurisdiction in relation to family law matters. And Western Australia, of course, went down that route.

The offer was made to other states to have state family courts. In the end that was not so; we have moved on. It does look a little anomalous but I do not know that anybody would want to unwind the measures that were put in place that responded particularly to the needs identified by Western Australia as being somewhat unique. But we have endeavoured here to respond, as I said, to a jurisdictional change in line with recommendations that were developed jointly between my department, the Western Australian justice department and the Family Court of Western Australia. It is a collaborative arrangement and very worthy of support. I am glad it has the support of the opposition and hopefully we will have it concluded fairly soon.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Ordered that the bill be reported to the House without amendment.

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