Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens oppose schedule 1 in the following terms:

(8)    Schedule 1, item 13, page 19 (lines 1 to 34), TO BE OPPOSED.

We have just been having the debate around the difference between equal shared parental responsibility and joint shared parental responsibility. We have been through those arguments before. As I have articulated before, I believe this puts the rights of the parents before the best interests of the child. I think we have been through these arguments fairly thoroughly. I am not convinced by the government’s position. I still believe that the government amendments put the rights of the parents before the best interests of the children, and I believe we should be going for a joint parental responsibility approach rather than presuming an equal shared parental responsibility.