Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice) Share this | Hansard source

I am very happy to respond to the member for Moreton's questions, although a lot of the issues that he raised were similar to the issues that he raised in his first intervention, and the answers remain substantially the same—that is, we are making a significant investment in the Federal Court system, including into the Family Court system, in this budget: $22.5 million. That is a significant sum of money and obviously will enhance the capacity of the court to provide services. We are making a significant investment in the capital budget for the Federal Court system so that they can do important maintenance.

In terms of the timeliness of court matters, clearly that is vitally important. People who are involved in Family Court matters need to get their matters resolved in a timely way. I have been advised that, in the 2013-14 annual report of the Family Court, 87 per cent of applications were finalised within six months and 93 per cent were finalised within 12 months. So the delay that the member referred to would be an extraordinary delay, based on the annual report that the court has provided about the timeliness with which it deals with matters before it. The Federal Circuit Court, in the same, reported that 82 per cent of applications were finalised within six months and 94 per cent were finalised within 12 months.

It is the case in family law, as I am sure the member will be very aware, that some matters are intrinsically very complex, and therefore they can take a longer period of time to reach conclusion. The Family Court does specialise in dealing with what can be extraordinarily difficult matters to adjudicate. It is a matter for the Chief Justice of the Family Court and the Chief Judge of the Federal Circuit Court to allocate judges resources to meet the workloads in the different registries.

I appreciate the question that the member has again raised with me about a Family Court judge in Brisbane. I am just awaiting some advice from the Attorney. I hope the member appreciates that this is not the general part of the portfolio that I deal with on a day-to-day basis. I will endeavour to get back to him with a sensible answer. But of course the appointment of judges to the Family Court or to any court around Australia does require careful consideration. I am afraid I do not even have the background for that matter, so I am not suggesting that we are necessarily doing this, but I will get him a sensible answer—but, if we are looking for judges, then clearly we need to make sure that we are going to find the right person. We do not want to make rushed appointments. We need to make sensible appointments. I am sure that, if the Attorney is looking at appointments at this stage, he is proceeding in his usual careful and deliberative way.

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