Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When the historians come to look back at this 44th Parliament, they will look in amazement and say, 'How unlucky for a country to cop the worst Prime Minister since World War II, combined with the worst Treasurer since World War II and also, just to add to that, the worst Speaker since World War II.' But it is not enough that that trio are now festering off in some corridor somewhere; the fourth leg in that quadrella is the worst Attorney-General since World War II—sadly, someone who is still in that office. He has had the Arts portfolio stripped from him, but we still have the worst Attorney-General since World War II in office.

We had the extraordinary situation this week where the Chief Justice of the Family Court, Diana Bryant, not a political operator at all, took the unusual step of issuing a media release. Her statement highlights the impact that family violence has on the federal family law courts. Family violence complicates matters coming before the courts. Mediation is a common early intervention tool in most disputes, including family disputes, but it is not an appropriate intervention where there is family violence, obviously. Matters involving family violence, parenting disputes or property disputes will invariably end up before a judge to make a determination.

The Chief Justice, Diana Bryant, said that where there are delays, particularly at the interim hearing stage, it creates risk. The Attorney-General should know this. Litigants attending at court for a hearing may find that the sheer volume of matters on the duty list will make it unlikely that they can be heard on that day, and then they often agree to settle where perhaps they should not. The resulting consent order must be placed before a judge, but at that stage there is not enough evidence for the judge to be in a position to know what the risks may be. Delays in court are putting children at risk of harm—I will make it clear.

The Chief Justice has called for the urgent replacement of judges. There are six Federal Circuit Court judges and one Family Court Judge who have not been replaced. These are budgeted positions, so there is no cost to the budget. The Attorney-General cannot blame his cruel and thankfully frustrated divorce tax. The unfilled judicial vacancies are placing added pressure on the remaining judges, who must take on the extra workload created by their colleagues retiring. The Chief Justice said on Radio National, in an extensive interview that I recommend to people, that the courts never make up this lost time and that the delay in replacing judges is a crucial element in the delays being experienced across the country—in Brisbane, in Newcastle and, in fact, in all of our family courts.

The Chief Justice of the Family Court is not the only person of high office to have commented recently on the failure of the Attorney-General to replace our judges. In August, the Chief Justice of the Federal Circuit Court also released a media statement in which he said that until judges are replaced delays will continue to increase. The chair of the Law Council's Family Law Section, Rick O'Brien, in a media release in July this year, said:

There is absolutely no excuse for a failure by any government to ensure that retiring judges are replaced immediately.

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