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

Thank you, Senator Scarr. I appreciate what you're saying, but the fact is sheer frustration is actually bringing it out of me, because I am not happy with the answers that I'm getting from the minister with regard to the most important piece of legislation that's in this parliament at the moment, that has affected people's lives for decades and the impact that it has had on parents and children and grandparents and extended families. I'm sorry, but I'm getting frustrated at the weak excuses where all he can say is 'the rights of the child.'

The rights of the child are very important, by all means, but when we know what happens in the court system, I think that people are looking for answers. I think our whole family law system is busted. It's done and dusted. The whole thing should be thrown out and redrafted again. It has destroyed so many families. I hear it on a daily basis. I've been associated with this since 1996. I have been dealing with this. I have gone through it personally myself—not the court system that a lot of people have gone through—but I have. I've seen my children go through it. I've seen family members, friends, people who contact me, absolutely broken, destroyed. Suicides have happened because of this, not only with parents but also with children. Children have been murdered because of this, out of sheer frustration from the general public out there who said 'What is happening in that place? Why can't they see what is happening?' These judges are not held to account. No-one seems to be held to account. The lawyers keep a case going purely for the money that they are getting out of it. It has become a money-making business at the cost of people that are actually losing their homes, their lives, their businesses and their families. All we have here is failed legislation. It will continue to fail until you really address the real problems with it.

On top of that now we see organisations and individuals using domestic violence as an excuse to get their way, whether they're vindictive against the other parent or they don't want them to see their children, or they're using it for their own joy. I don't know how they can possibly do it. But that is the problem that we are having. I have letters here. Emails have come through to me all the time. I feel that this has just been buried. It has been the biggest issue that has come across my desk in the time I have been in the parliament. I know that David Leyonhjelm was dealing with it. When he left the parliament he said, 'Go to Senator Hanson. She is the only one who is actually dealing with this.' Because no other members of parliament here, I don't think they take the time to understand or debate it or discuss it or say what the real issues are involved in this, because they are all terrified to mention domestic violence false allegations, because you get howled down by the Greens. You get howled down by the bloody Labor Party. Excuse me. I retract that. You get howled down by the Labor Party.

The fact is that this is happening. You can't continue to bury your head in the sand. We have an opportunity now to make a big difference to this. In the inquiry which had, a joint inquiry with the House of Reps and the senators, there were 10 of us. You know what I found out? There were only three of us in that whole inquiry who had any knowledge of it, who had actually been through it. You might have heard it, but personally going through it to understand what is happening out there—this whole report that was handed down, everyone is side-stepping the whole issue without really going to the guts of the matter, what is happening in our family law courts.

The coalition tried to do something with the merger of the two courts. I fully agreed with that because you have to have more judges dealing with these issues to get the matters heard. That was very important. You had judges sitting there doing nothing—working nine hours a year, if that, or a few days a year. They were just waiting to retire and get their pension. People were waiting for years. Determinations weren't brought down for years. Determinations weren't brought down for that period of time and parents were sitting there waiting. In the meantime the kids grew up.

Parents say, 'I was denied the right to see my child.' When the child catches up with them years later they say: 'Why didn't you fight for me? Why didn't you do something? Why aren't I part of your life?' I met a father and daughter like that. She said: 'The courts denied me the right to see my father. Now that I have grown up and I'm in my late 20s we've actually connected. Now I understand his story. Now I understand he was denied his rights in the courts. They denied him the right to see me.'

Minister, I said to you before that parents are denied the right to see their children because of false allegations. The courts take the stance, 'We better not let that parent near the child just in case there is some truth in the matter.' There may be no former court case and no proof—there's nothing but allegations. They deny the parent the right to see their child. Then they say, 'We'll allow you to see your child, but you're going to have to be in a contact centre.' Guess what? They have to wait at least four to six months—sometimes even longer than that—to even get into a contact centre. On top of that they have to pay hundreds of dollars to the contact centre for them to see their child. Because it has been such a long period of time when it goes back to court years later they say: 'Because you haven't had much connection with your child we must take this very slowly. We're going to let you see the child for only a few hours a night.' This is what's happening in the system. Nothing in your bills really addresses this, Minister. There is nothing at all.

When I spoke about these health issues a father told me: 'I have the child most of the time. I can't even get a Medicare card. When the child gets sick I can't take them to the doctor because the mother won't give me the Medicare card.' If he wants the child's reports from the school to know how well they're doing, the school won't give them to him without the mother's permission. It's alright for the stepfather to get them, but not the actual father. And there had been no form of abuse of that child whatsoever—none. So the parent who has the custody of the child has access to everything and the other parent can't get anything unless they go begging to the mother, and the government department won't give them a Medicare card without the mother's permission. That's what I'm saying to you, Minister. A lot of the parents who have the child are on welfare. They can't afford the $90-plus to see a doctor. They might get the rebate back to help them. Where is their right to have access to the Medicare card for the child? Why isn't that in these bills?