Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

Registrars—we're talking about registrars. As the CEO of the Federal Circuit Court told the Senate committee inquiry into the bill, the chief judge has also focused on supporting judges through greater assistance from senior registrars and registrars aimed at alleviating the workloads of and pressures on judges. Registrars are doing this by undertaking many high-volume duty lists, as well as interim and interlocutory disputes, and by undertaking dispute resolution in both property and parenting disputes. There is a program at the moment, the registrar assistance pilot. The Federal Circuit Court has recently introduced the registrar assistance pilot, whereby judges can be provided with assistance by a registrar conducting duty list work, ADR or FDR or other appropriate court work. In the first six months of the pilot operation, registrars have provided the equivalent of 128 days of assistance, dealing with over 1,500 procedural hearings.

It's not all about the judges, and that's what you're going on about. It's about clearing the backlog in the courts. I visited the court in Brisbane last week and I spoke to them. Because of COVID they had extra cases put on, but they've cleared those cases and also cleared about 13 or 15 per cent of the backlog. I mentioned before the Lighthouse Project that has been introduced. That is streamlining by merging the two courts. You have two sets of rules and two sets of processes. This is merging them all into the one process, which is easier for the Australian people who are going through the system. The Lighthouse Project is done online. They can sort out the domestic violence problems that they have. They know how to triage it and put them through the system.

Contravention orders have had a big backlog. They take over seven months in the Family Court and 6.9 months in the Federal Circuit Court to be heard. They hope now to address those within 14 days. If we're honest with ourselves, it's not just the judges. There are a lot of other things that need to be addressed if we're going to make improvements in the family law courts. Yes, families have had to wait a long time to have their hearings. The Federal Circuit Court deals with 90 per cent of the cases that are heard.

In the 2020-21 budget the government announced it is providing significant investment—around $120 million over four years from 2020-21—for the family law system. This includes funding for family law services of $87.3 million; an additional family law federal court judge, five additional family law registrars and further support staff; funding of $2.5 million for the federal family law courts to continue operating specialist COVID-19 lists; $4.8 million of additional funding for the Family Violence and Cross-Examination of Parties Scheme; and $7.7 million for the relocation of federal law court registries in Rockhampton and Launceston to safer and more secure premises, so there is something for Tasmania. Also there is $1.8 million of funding to implement federal family violence orders and $2.5 million of funding for a new case management system for the Family Court of Western Australia.

The government has also introduced legislation, which has now passed this parliament, to support the implementation of the new family safety risks screening and triage processes being piloted in the family law courts, which is to be known as the Lighthouse Project, with $13.5 million of government investment. So you can't say that the government have sat on their hands and done nothing about it. As I said before, it is the Labor Party that sat on their hands and did nothing about it. When I was here in the other place in 1996 I was talking about family law matters. Nothing whatsoever happened over the years. This is why I have been so involved in this whole matter.

I take my hat off to Rex Patrick. He is supporting the government on this, as is One Nation. I do believe that it is going to help the people of Australia. Stop playing politics in this place and look at what is right for the Australian people. I'm sick and tired, and so are the people of Australia. We're fed up with you knocking something purely because you're on the opposition bench.

It has been proven that this is going to help the Australian people. People are suffering, families are suffering, kids are suffering and all you're worried about is your job in this place. It's about standing up and representing the Australian people the best we can. We should come to a decision that is going to be beneficial to them and solve their problems, because, through the family law system, too many kids are being dragged away from their families, too many people are suiciding and too many people are being murdered in this country. This is part of the way of dealing with this and helping those families. It is not just the mums and dads; it is the grandparents and extended families. I heard that through the whole inquiry we've gone through. This is a start to mending the problems that we have. It is about time that, instead of nitpicking and carrying on with politics, we actually tried to agree together on what is best for this and started working for the Australian people.