3 years ago
FAMILY LAW INQUIRY
GRAHAM PERRETT MP
The Joint Select Committee on Australia’s Family Law System has handed down their second interim report which details the committee’s views and recommendations on the family law system. The report makes 29 recommendations to improve the family law system.
Labor Members of the committee welcome the recommendations including: -
Labor Members of the committee welcome the recommendations including: -
- more funding for Legal Aid Commissions and Community Legal Centres
- funding for an additional 25 to 30 registrars in the family courts to address backlogs and delays
- a mandatory accreditation scheme for family report writers
- the urgent release of an exposure draft of legislation to address the current misunderstanding of equal shared parental responsibility
- amending the Family Law Act to reflect the impact of family violence on property settlements
- expanding legally assisted family dispute resolution
- the Family Law Council be re-constituted, and
- continued funding for non-legal support services for all victims of family violence.
These are all good recommendations that will improve the family law system, but we didn’t need this latest inquiry to know that these measures were needed. The substance of all these recommendations have been recommended by recent previous reports and inquiries.
We didn’t need this inquiry to know that false allegations are not prevalent in the family law system, but the committee unanimously accepted that false allegations of abuse are not widespread.
We didn’t need this inquiry, but now the report and its 29 recommendations have been tabled the Morrison Government should act swiftly to not just respond, but to urgently implement these recommendations.
There is no time to waste. The family law system has already had the axe put to it when Attorney-General Porter abolished the stand-alone specialist Family Court of Australia. Families need and deserve to have a family law system that is well resourced and able to respond to their needs when they are at their most vulnerable.
We didn’t need this inquiry to know that false allegations are not prevalent in the family law system, but the committee unanimously accepted that false allegations of abuse are not widespread.
We didn’t need this inquiry, but now the report and its 29 recommendations have been tabled the Morrison Government should act swiftly to not just respond, but to urgently implement these recommendations.
There is no time to waste. The family law system has already had the axe put to it when Attorney-General Porter abolished the stand-alone specialist Family Court of Australia. Families need and deserve to have a family law system that is well resourced and able to respond to their needs when they are at their most vulnerable.