Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to speak in support of this private members' bill tabled by my colleague the member for Moreton. It is of course disappointing that this is not a reform that the government has seen fit to take up itself. We have spent so much time over so many years in this parliament and in parliaments across the country talking about how we can make children safer; talking about reforms to systems to try to protect our most precious citizens and our future; talking about how we can reduce the instance of family and domestic violence. This is, on the face of it, a simple reform that would do just that. But it is more than that. It's a deeply important reform to make sure that children and the best interests of children are genuinely at the heart of our family law system.

We know that our family law system doesn't work perfectly. In many respects it's hard to imagine a family law system that everyone who enters it and exits it would be happy with, because, by definition, you're not going into the family law system because things are going well. It's difficult enough when relationships break down and people's dreams and hopes for the future aren't realised, and when couples have to split finances, assets and sometimes dreams; it's another thing altogether when children are involved. Far too often, those of us who are privileged to be in this place have representation after representation from constituents who are struggling to get through day by day because they're not getting the child support payments they are owed, or they have no savings left because they've all been drained in legal fees from family law cases that have been drawn out and out and out. They're absolute tragedies, but in some respects they pale in comparison to the tragedies of children who have grown up witnessing and experiencing family and domestic violence. The Family Court system is essentially an extension of that.

What this bill does is remove section 61DA of the Family Law Act, which provides the presumption of equal shared parental responsibility in parenting matters. This presumption, as has been shown by report after report and organisation after organisation, has caused confusion since it was introduced. The bill also removes another section which mandates that before a judge can determine what parenting arrangements should be ordered, the judge must navigate a complicated pathway and consider various options for the child. The law as it operates is currently difficult for ordinary people to understand. It makes court processes longer and more expensive. What is important, and what this bill ensures, is that any decision about a child is based on what is in that child's best interest, without the need for a complex pathway—a pathway that has been described as 'practically impenetrable' by a judge who has to apply it.

The presumption of equal shared parental responsibility sounds like it would be a good thing on the face of it, but in fact it has put victims of domestic violence on the back foot in parenting negotiations and has caused the need for fighting against assumed norms of cooperative and ongoing parenting where that might not be safe for children. It's to the credit of the member for Moreton that he's put forward this bill in order to redress that issue with the support of family law and family and domestic violence organisations around the country.

My local community legal centre has experienced the shadow pandemic of domestic violence first hand. As Jackie Galloway from PCLC has said:

… 2020 will be remembered by many of those working in the family violence sector as the worst on record.

There has been a surge in people affected by family violence for the first time and a surge in people seeking help. When one woman dies every week in Australia, more has to be done. (Time expired)

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