Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Select Committee on Australia's Family Law System, I present the committee's interim report, incorporating a dissenting report, entitled: Improvements in family law proceedings. I do so on behalf of the chair, the member for Menzies, and indicate that I will seek leave of the House to make a short statement in connection with the report following on from the member for Menzies appearing virtually from Melbourne.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] by leave—The Joint Select Committee on Australia's Family Law System was established in September 2019 and initially had a final reporting date of today, 7 October 2020. Submissions were due on 18 December 2019 and extensive rounds of public and in camera hearings were planned over the first half of this year. Like many in the community, the work of the committee has been delayed by travel and other restrictions imposed through the COVID-19 pandemic. As a consequence the committee was unable to travel after the first five hearings in February and March of this year.

The committee continued to receive a large number of requests, particularly from individuals, to provide late submissions and appear before the committee, to provide evidence of their experience of Australia's family law system. To ensure that the committee heard from a wide cross-section of the community on these issues the committee has continued to accept submissions and has held an additional six public and 10 in camera hearings by video and teleconference since May this year. In all, the committee has received over 1,600 submissions and heard from 67 organisations and individuals in a total of 11 public hearings and 85 individuals during 13 in camera hearings.

On 31 August this year both houses of parliament agreed to extend the reporting date for this inquiry to the last sitting day of February 2021. This extension has provided the committee with additional time to comprehensively consider the significant body of evidence that has been received. The first stage of that consideration has been the development of this interim report. The report summarises the wide range of issues and viewpoints raised during the inquiry. Importantly, the committee has included quotes from de-identified individual submitters and witnesses whose evidence was received in camera. The committee thanks all those individuals for agreeing to the publication of this material.

The committee has not arrived at any conclusions or made any recommendations in this interim report about the information provided, however, believed it was important to make public the wide range of issues that have been raised with it during the course of the inquiry. The committee's final report will contain detailed consideration of matters relevant to the terms of reference and the committee's recommendations.

The interim report is comprehensive, running to 12 chapters and over 300 pages. This is reflective of the breadth of the issues that have been raised with the committee. The interim report has been arranged thematically into chapters and covers the following areas. First: systemic issues such as perceptions of bias within the system, the role of family consultants and expert witnesses, whether the adversarial nature of the family courts could be improved, misuse of systems and processes and professional misconduct. Secondly: legal fees and other costs of the family law system. Thirdly: delays in the Family Court. Fourthly: issues in relation to family violence and the family law system. Later chapters examine issues arising in parenting and property disputes, alternative dispute resolution mechanisms and support services available in the family law system, as well as interaction between the child support and the family law systems.

I would like to thank the members of the committee for their commitment and engagement in this very broad ranging, complex and at times emotional inquiry. The committee has heard some very personal and heart-wrenching accounts of people's experience of family separation and their navigation of the family law system. The committee expresses its thanks to all those individuals and organisations that have made written submissions. The opportunity to hear directly from so many people about their experiences with the family law system has significantly enhanced the committee's work, and the committee thanks all submitters for sharing their personal stories. The committee wishes to acknowledge those individuals who shared their private circumstances and experiences with the family law system at the committee's in camera hearings. The opportunity to speak with so many people, to hear a diverse range of experiences, to ask questions about the failings in the system from the viewpoint of those most affected and to receive proposals for improving the system will greatly assist the further deliberations of the committee.

The committee appreciates that the recounting of those experiences can be difficult and traumatic, and the committee thanks those individuals for bringing such a candid and personal perspective to the inquiry. Similarly, the committee extends its thanks to the organisations, academics and professionals who provided submissions and appeared at public hearings. This evidence has greatly enhanced the committee's understanding of the various elements of the family law system and identified a number of areas of further interest for consideration in the final report.

The committee proposes to hold at least one further private hearing prior to the completion of the final report. To date, the committee has not heard from a significant stakeholder—namely, the family courts—having resolved to first hear from individuals and organisations of their experience of the system. The committee will then have a significant body of evidence to consider in developing its final recommendations, and I look forward to presenting on behalf of the committee the final report by the end of February next year. I take this opportunity to thank not only all the members of the committee but indeed the members of the secretariat for their significant efforts during the course of this inquiry. I commend the interim report to the House.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I join the member for Menzies in thanking the secretariat for the way they have handled what has been a very difficult process. I particularly thank the chair for the great work—the way he has handled people who come to this inquiry with a lot of issues, sometimes. The committee's interim report documents the extensive work undertaken thus far, as detailed by the chair. The committee has received more than 1,500 individual submissions and 163 submissions by organisations. Although hearings have continued by teleconference and videoconference, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted on the work of the inquiry. In these circumstances it was perfectly reasonable to extend the reporting date to the last sitting day in February 2021.

I admit that I commenced this inquiry with some genuine concerns about yet another inquiry into family law being instigated while many recommendations from recent previous inquiries had not been acted upon and in some cases not even responded to by the Morrison government. The two most recent reports—the report of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs inquiry into a better family law system to support and protect those affected by family violence, chaired by Senator Henderson, which was tabled in December 2017, and the report of the Australian Law Reform Commission inquiry into the family law system, Family law for the future: an inquiry into the family law system, tabled in March 2019—have a combined 93 recommendations to the government to improve the family law system. The vast majority of these recommendations have not been acted on.

Despite these concerns, I've taken my role in this committee seriously. I've engaged with the inquiry process in good faith and have diligently participated in the conduct of this inquiry so far. The committee has heard from many submitters. We've heard personal stories of pain and anguish when navigating a family law system that is at breaking point. We have heard from frontline workers who do incredible work with very little government support. And we have heard some interesting ideas for reform that should be given due consideration by this committee. Labor members of this committee have included some additional comments in the interim report, including some interim recommendations. While this inquiry continues to its conclusion early next year, the family law system continues to buckle right now through neglect. Families are suffering because of the inaction of the government to implement changes that have already been recommended in report after report after report.

There are recommendations for reform, common to many previous inquiries and reports, that have established and continued support, including from witnesses and submitters to this inquiry. These reforms should not need to wait for this inquiry to be finalised before being implemented. Labor members have made seven recommendations for urgent reforms that the government could implement right now. The eighth recommendation by Labor members is for the government's bills that would merge the Family Court and the Federal Circuit Court to be abandoned.

It is ironic that there are plenty of reform ideas that have been recommended time and time again by various inquiries, even with majority Liberal numbers on those inquiries, and reports that the government ignores, but the one reform it is doggedly pursuing has not been recommended by any parliamentary inquiry and has not been recommended by any academic paper. It has only been recommended by a six-week desktop accounting review, which qualified its recommendations to say that, if the Australian Law Reform Commission review did not make the same recommendation, then any decision for reform should only be made on the advice of court stakeholders, who should consider what would bring about the greatest positive outcomes. Of course, the ALRC review actually did not recommend merging the courts. This inquiry has heard witness after witness tell the committee that the government's plan to merge the courts is a terrible idea; it will hurt families. The merger bills should be abandoned and should be abandoned right now.

I implore members on the government benches to consider the additional comments by Labor members and the eight recommendations for reform. The safety and wellbeing of families and children should be a priority of the Morrison government. I hope that the Attorney-General hears this plea. At the conclusion of my submission, I move:

That the House take note of the report.

Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.