Submission to the Joint Select Committee on Australia's Family Law System
February 2020 | Download full submission
In this brief response, we set out our strong support for the full implementation of Women’s Legal Services Australia (WLSA)’s Safety First in Family Law Plan. We also outline our ongoing concerns about the Government’s proposed family court merger.
Women’s Legal Services Australia (WLSA)’s Safety First in Family Law Plan
Of matters that come to the family courts, 70% involve family violence, and yet the system is not set up to adequately protect the safety of women and children. Community Legal Centres NSW strongly endorses the five steps proposed in WLSA’s Safety First in Family Law Plan. The Plan calls on the government and family courts to:
- Strengthen family violence responses in the family law system
- Provide effective legal help for the most disadvantaged people accessing the system
- Ensure family law professionals have a real understanding of family violence
- Increase access to safe dispute resolution models
- Overcome the gaps between the family law, family violence and child protection systems
The Plan is based on the findings of numerous comprehensive inquiries into the family law system over the past decade.
In the past three years alone, there have been several major inquiries into Australia’s family law system: the Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs inquiry into how to better support and protect people affected by family violence in the family law system; the Australian Law Reform Commission ‘first comprehensive review of the family law system since the commencement of the Family Law in 1976’; and the current joint select committee ‘wideranging inquiry into the family law system’.
While some important reforms have been introduced as a result, many more recommendations that would improve safety for women and children have not yet been implemented.
Concerns with the Government’s proposed family court merger
Community Legal Centres NSW remains deeply concerned about the Government’s proposal to merge the Family Court of Australia and the Federal Circuit Court of Australia into a single generalised court. Any reform should serve to strengthen the system and improve the safety it can provide. Inquiry after inquiry has recommended increased specialisation in the family court in the interests of safety – which must be the first priority. This proposed merger would instead result in a loss of family law and family violence specialisation, through the loss of a stand-alone specialist superior family court.