Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party, Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

( I thank members for their contributions to the debate on the Family Law Amendment (Risk Screening Protections) Bill 2020. The Morrison government is committed to addressing family violence and continuing to improve the protections offered through the family law system to those vulnerable families affected by violence and abuse. This bill will support the implementation of the Lighthouse Project in the Adelaide, Brisbane and Parramatta registries of the federal family law courts from 2020 until mid-2022. The Lighthouse Project has been enabled by $13.5 million in funding provided by the government in the 2019-20 MYEFO which will allow the federal family law courts to pilot risk screening, triaging processes and a specialist family violence list in each of the three registries.

This bill will ensure that the appropriate protections are in place to support the effective implementation of these important new processes by protecting sensitive risks for any information and conferring immunity on court workers. The new family safety risk screening process will allow the early identification and ongoing assessment and management of risks to vulnerable families navigating the family law system. This bill will amend the Family Law Act to ensure that information generated during the risk screening process is confidential and inadmissible. This will ensure the family safety risk screening information cannot be disclosed, except in limited circumstances. Important exceptions to this confidentiality will enable disclosure if it is necessary to protect a child from the risk of harm or to prevent or lessen serious threats to the life, health or property of a person. It will also ensure that information obtained or generated through the risk screening process is inadmissible, subject to exemptions such as where family safety risk screening information indicates that a child has been abused or is at risk of abuse.

These confidentiality and admissibility provisions are consistent with existing family counselling provisions of the Family Law Act. By ensuring the confidentiality and inadmissibility of information obtained through risk screening, the bill will enable parties to freely and confidentially participate in the process. It will also ensure that many at-risk parties will receive tailored referrals to support services and assistance with safety planning. Finally, the bill will provide immunity for court workers, such as registrars and family counsellors, when undertaking new non-judicial roles as part of the family safety risk screening process. This immunity reflects the protection currently afforded to judges and family consultants under the Family Law Act.

The Family Law Amendment (Risk Screening Protections) Bill will ensure that appropriate protections are in place to support the government-funded Lighthouse Project initiative and allow new family safety risk screening and triage processes in the federal family law courts. This bill is another reform of this government to address family violence and builds on the more than $1 billion invested by the government since 2013. The bill will help to improve the identification and management of family safety risks to achieve better outcomes for families engaged with the family law system.

I commend the bill to the House.

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