Submission to the inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violence

03/09/2020

The New South Wales Bar Association has made a submission to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs’ inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violence.

The Association’s recommendations included that:

a. The Committee advocate to the Parliament to properly fund and resource the family law system, including legal assistance, as a front-line service and critical protection for survivors of family violence, and commit to doing so on an ongoing basis;

b. The Committee advocate to Parliament to consistently and adequately resource domestic violence support services;

c. The Committee advocate to Parliament to properly resource the Cross-examination of Parties scheme;

d. The Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia Bill 2019 (Cth) and accompanying transitional amendments bill should not be passed by the Parliament;

e. A specialist, stand-alone and properly resourced Family Court be maintained in Australia to continue to provide specialist assistance to children, families and survivors of family violence;

f. The Committee advocate to the Parliament to adopt the Association’s Family Court 2.0 Model and relocate judicial officers hearing family law matters and the family law jurisdiction of the Federal Circuit Court into a second division within the Family Court;

g. The Committee advocate to the Parliament to carefully consider and engage with the 60 recommendations of the Australian Law Reform Commission’s landmark review of the family law system (ALRC Report), including recommendations to overcome any jurisdictional gaps and improve information sharing between state-based child protection and family violence prevention, and Commonwealth family jurisdiction;

h. The Committee advocate to the Parliament to ensure due considerations, protections and safeguards for vulnerable people are built around any potential permanent changes to national or state e-witnessing and e-signature laws; and that

i. The Committee inform itself and build upon the findings and recommendations of previous reports and inquiries into family law and family violence, including the ALRC Report and the 2017 House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs report A better family law system to support and protect those affected by family violence.

The submission is available here.

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