Jackie Kelly (Lindsay, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Attorney-General. Would the Attorney-General inform the House how the new family relationship centres, such as the one in my electorate of Lindsay, have been providing useful services to families across Australia? Further, what progress is being made in expanding these centres?

Philip Ruddock (Berowra, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Lindsay for her question, because the member for Lindsay was present when I officiated at the opening of the new centre in Penrith in the electorate of Lindsay. I know that she is very vitally interested in the progress in reforming the family law system and the outcomes that we are achieving as a result of that reform process. The government has delivered on its promise to have major improvements in the system and this is a success story, and the data now shows how family relationship centres are helping in relation to this initiative.

From the start of July to the end of September—that is, in three months—over 9,100 people had contacted centres by phone; over 2,700 people had dropped into centres seeking assistance; and centres had conducted over 3,800 interviews or intake sessions. We have seen a situation where the number of dispute resolution sessions conducted at centres steadily increased from 224 in July to 637 in the month of September. The new family relationship advice line—it is an 1800 number: 050 321—received 27,000 calls from July to September.

The website, www.familyrelationships. gov.au, has recorded more than 89,000 hits in the same period. That is approximately 1,000 hits every day. In other words, these services are extremely popular and they are in demand. Before July, many people would not have known where to turn for help, but they have obviously found out very quickly that these centres are acting as the gateway to the new family law system.

I think it speaks for the professionalism and the competence of the people we recruited to undertake this task that the centres were able to open on time and that the whole process has been handled so well—quite contrary to the suggestions that we were hearing from the member for Gellibrand. We are on track with the tendering process for the next 25 centres to open in July 2007. We have delivered on our promise to overhaul the family law system and to give Australian families a better chance.