Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move Australian Greens amendments (1) and (2) on sheet 1207 together:

That the House of Representatives be requested to make the following amendment:

(1) Amendment (1), subclause (3), omit "25 Judges", substitute "40 Judges".

(2) Amendment (1), subclause (4), omit "25 Judges", substitute "40 Judges".

Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia Bill 2019

Statement pursuant to the order of the Senate of 26 June 2000

Amendments (1) and (2)

Amendments (1) and (2) are framed as requests because they amend the government amendments to the bill to require that the minimum number of judges to hold office in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 1) is 40 rather than 25. As this will have the effect of increasing the number of judges to be remunerated, it will increase the expenditure under the appropriation proposed by clause 18 of theFederal Circuit and Family Court of Australia Bill 2019.

Statement by the Clerk of the Senate pursuant to the order of the Senate of 26 June 2000

Amendments (1) and (2)

If the effect of the amendments is to increase expenditure under the appropriation proposed by clause 18 of theFederal Circuit and Family Court of Australia Bill 2019, then it is in accordance with the precedents of the Senate that the amendments be moved as requests.

I'm happy to rise to seek the support of my fellow senators for my amendments, particularly Senator Patrick, as he seems pretty keen to support this shoddy legislation on the condition that there is a minimum number of judges in the legislation. I want to be clear: I completely oppose the merging of these courts because, as the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services have made clear, this merger will not fix the root causes of the problems of the family law court. As at 17 February there are 32 judges currently listed on the Family Court's website, who would become Division 1 judges, not including the Family Court of Western Australia judges. The government's amendment requiring 25 judges doesn't make any sense. It's going backwards from the current number of 32 judges. It does not make any sense to go backwards at this time, particularly to a figure of 25 in view of the crippling backlogs and workloads facing the courts.

The Chief Justice made a statement in November 2019 that at least one extra judge is required in every major registry to make a massive difference to the backlog. That would make it at least 40 judges. The Chief Justice said, '"an extra judge in every major registry would make a massive difference" to backlogs'—quoted in Tony Keim, ‘A family (court) affair’.