Andrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Coalition Policy Development Committee) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I rise to speak about the slashing of nearly $50 million from the family counselling and dispute resolution services or family relationship centres. This is a Labor Party cut described by the masters of spin as a rebalancing. These huge cuts to reduce funding for family relationship services, flagged in the 2010 budget, are causing both anxiety and bewilderment in this critically important sector. The Attorney-General’s Department is looking to cut $48.4 million over three years across the sector—a reduction of about 12 per cent. These cuts will take effect next year and there is considerable uncertainty about how they will be applied.

This rebalancing of the system is to help fund increases to community legal centres, legal aid and family violence legal services. The Labor Party is looking after its Labor mates within the legal system to the great detriment of families at a time of enormous emotional distress. This represents a deliberate shift back to a heavier reliance on a very adversarial legal approach in the resolution of family disputes, which can be extremely costly, traumatic and drag on and on. It was a system that failed. It was the reason for the creation of the family relationship centres in the first place.

$36 million will be cut from family relationship centres. This will see a dramatic reduction of three free hours of family dispute resolution to just one free hour. Those on an income of $50,000 per annum will be charged $30 per hour for the additional third and fourth hour. Cuts of $4.5 million over three years are also planned in the family counselling area, resulting from increased efficiencies. There is, however, no explanation for how the figure was arrived at and no detail about how the cuts will be applied. It is also unclear as to whether this measure will apply across all family relationship centres or will vary according to demographics.

The Attorney General’s Department has also advised that funding for research and development will also be ceased. It makes little sense eroding funding for family support. Demand for family counselling is higher than it has ever been and shows no sign of declining. Anecdotally, waiting times are currently as long as eight weeks. Counselling and dispute resolution not only can help keep families together but also, in the event of separation, can result in amicable and workable postseparation arrangements. The alternative is a highly destructive, adversarial legal approach.

The case for early intervention for couples who have only recently separated and who are finding it difficult to agree on arrangements for children is compelling. Early support of a non-litigious nature reduces problems down the track, which is supported by the fact that Family Court filings have been on the decrease since the introduction of family relationship centres and the free dispute resolution. Research released early this year from the Frankston Family Relationship Centre found there has been a cultural shift in regard to families seeking help when separation occurs. The research also found that 67 per cent of parents reported that, with the support of the centre, they had achieved new ways of viewing their relationships with their children, families and former partners.

The Frankston centre is operated by a wonderful organisation in Family Life, based in Sandringham in my electorate. Family Life chief executive Jo Cavanagh is a leading thinker and doer in the family support field. She makes this very valid point: ‘We are not in a position to determine whether increases in funding to legal services is warranted or not, but it is a mistake to treat family separation as a legal problem rather than a social problem and return to an overreliance on legal responses to family disputes.’ While families should of course have access to legal services, that should not come at the expense of the highly successful family relationship centres, which have achieved so much success in such a short period of time. This decision by the government to transfer nearly $50 million of funding from family relationship centres to funding Labor lawyers is a highly cynical and retrograde step. It confirms that Labor has truly lost its way.