Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

Again, I accept that answer. The provision in section 60CC(2)(b) says, 'In determining what is in the child's best interests the court must consider any views expressed by the child.' I hope that, in working through it quite genuinely, you may consider an amendment, or even supporting an amendment. To respond to, for example, the Family Law Practitioners Association of Queensland, you might consider putting in the legislation in explicit terms—for parents who are having to flick through this piece of legislation, who just don't know what they're doing and are looking at 'any views expressed by the child'—that the court has a discretion to take into account the child's maturity, level of understanding or any other factors that would affect the weight the court should give to the child's view. That is all I'm seeking the government to consider overnight. It just makes what I believe, and what others who have submitted believe, bad drafting better. And, if the whole point is simplification, this is a positive step in the right direction.

The issue becomes, and we had a lengthy discussion yesterday: do you accept that—regardless of how it is explained, somewhere buried deep in the explanatory memorandum to a bill or, alternatively, online where you can always google it—what will affect most separating couples, and indeed almost anyone who opens a piece of legislation and tries to wade through it and who effectively acts in the shadow of the law, is the set of words on the page.