Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Australia) Share this | Hansard source

When you are talking about the Family Court, you are talking about something incredibly important. Every member of this House has probably looked into the eyes of a parent who's said: 'Can I show you a photo of my children? I haven't seen them for six years.' You know, as they give you the photo, that it is going to break your heart—and it does. It breaks your heart looking at the photo, but the person giving you the photo lives with that every day. There are so many people—we all meet them every day—who struggle with the exceptional delays in the Family Court system and who are unable, even with the system that we have, to work through their relationship with their ex to do the best thing by the child and both parents. We all know this. It is a thing that breaks your heart. I am a grandparent and, if Grandad and I broke up—which we won't—I think I would just about die if I couldn't see my grandchildren. Grandad and I can't break up because I think it would kill me. It would kill me. So we're talking about something incredibly important.

I'm not a lawyer at all. In fact, I'm a piano player. I'm a conservatorium graduate classical piano player.

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