Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I want to begin with a quote from 1974:

The essence of the Family Courts is that they will be helping courts. Judges will be specially and carefully selected for their suitability for the work of the court … Here will be a court, the expressly stated purpose of which is to provide help, encouragement and counselling to parties with marital problems, and to have regard to their human problems, not just their legal rights. Parties will not be driven to the court by their own despair as a last resort …

So spoke Gough Whitlam when supporting the introduction of the Family Court. The introduction of the Family Court in 1974 was a part of the modernising of Australia after all of that frozen-in-time Menzies era where we fell behind the rest of the world. The election of the Whitlam government modernised Australia. Part of that modernisation was about treating women properly by moving incredible acts through the parliament—of which this was just one—to recognise that we needed to change our laws to reflect the changes that had occurred in society and the standards that had occurred in society. This was a time before no-fault divorce when you had extraordinary problems and impacts, particularly on women and children. This is a reform that has made an enormous difference to the quality of life for people.

Family break-ups can be really difficult. They require some form of specialised assessment and, where there's a need for legal intervention, they require compassion. They require experience and consideration built up over a period of time, which you get with a specialised court process. That's why we have various lawyers who are specialists in family law. But what we're saying with this legislation is that none of that's necessary. We'll just turn back the clock. We'll roll the Family Court, with all its specialist staff and resources, into the Federal Circuit Court, one of the most overburdened courts that there is.

This is a government that is anything but conservative. Conservatives support institutions in society. This mob undermine institutions in society. We see it every day, with the shutting down of debates in this parliament and with their failure to respect this democratic institution. We see it with the way that the Senate dealt with this bill last night, curtailing proper debate by ramming it through after, frankly, a shameful deal with some of the crossbenchers. It's a shameful deal that leaves all states except for one without any appropriate resources. This is the Australian parliament. We make laws for Australia. This legislation does not do that.

True to form, of course, this government hasn't listened to any expert advice. Over 150 family law experts, ranging from the Law Council of Australia to Women's Legal Services Australia, community legal centres, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services, child protection advocates and disability services right across Australia, called on the government to abandon this proposal. The Family Court is far from perfect. It's been under-resourced. There haven't been enough people appointed to it under this government. The government starves the institution, undermines it and then gets rid of it. This is a terrible, destructive and negative move from a government that is defined by what it's against rather than what it's for. (Time expired)

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