Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to relate a truly remarkable story from Port Pirie in my electorate. It's a story that pulls on the heartstrings, but it's also one that epitomises how important it is to stamp out gender biases in our family law system.

My constituent David drove himself to the point of bankruptcy and suicide, going through a three-year custody battle for his daughter. The case saw David's daughter removed from a life of severe neglect and delivered into the loving care of her father when she was eight years old. When she came into David's care, his daughter was not in a good state. She was unable to perform even basic tasks like showering herself, washing her hair or telling the time. She was unable to read or write simple words and unable to do basic maths.

Shortly after coming into his care, his daughter sat the three-year basic skills test; she finished at the bottom grade in every single facet of the test. That low point became the beginning of a truly inspiring story that saw David, with the support of his daughter's school, set her on a path to achieving her full potential. After the test, David spent every weeknight and many weekends at his kitchen table teaching his daughter himself. The results were astonishing. Soon his daughter mastered both spelling and maths—so much so, indeed, that she no longer had to attend the special needs class, and, soon after that, she was invited to join a class with the gifted and talented children.

The year 5 basic skills, language and maths test gave evidence of her remarkable progress. She finished fourth overall. Imagine that—from bottom grade in everything to fourth in the school, in only two years. David was beaming with pride.

But that was only the beginning. His daughter went on to finish third in her class when graduating from high school. After that, she completed a psychology degree at university, followed by an honours year where she won the Flinders University Medal for her efforts. She earned a PhD scholarship in forensic psychology, and she completed this at the age of 25—not bad for a girl who had special needs classes as a 10-year-old! She now works as a project supervisor in research evaluation for a private company.

I am personally a very strong advocate of defeating domestic violence and the need to protect women and children. But, if David's story tells us anything, it's that modern phenomena such as working parents, child care, drugs and alcohol, mental health issues and family violence mean that every parent and case must be assessed on their individual circumstances. I don't envy any judge who is responsible for making parenting decisions. They are often placed in no-win situations. But we must make sure that our family law system always makes needs based decisions on the merits of each individual case, in a process that is fair and balanced, without any focus on gender.

Currently, there is a review underway of the family law system, which was established in 1976—the first for 40 years. The Review of the family law system discussion paper poses 33 questions and makes 124 proposals. For those who have an interest in this area, I urge that they read that report and feed back into it. For David, and others like him, I strongly urge them to do that.

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