Court changes cast doubt on Collins’ judgement

The Government back down on family court changes is welcome, but casts doubt on Judith Collins' judgement for allowing the proposed reforms to get as far as they did, says Labour’s Justice spokesperson Andrew Little.

“The reforms included getting rid of the present counselling provision for separating couples, keeping lawyers out of any representation role and introducing a system of mediation --the details of which are yet to be released.

“The original reforms also meant children would be denied independent representation.

"The real question is how the draft law got as far as it did when there had already been extensive consultation with the sector and none of the reforms had been part of the consultative process.

"The proposed changes would have been hugely destructive to the modern and progressive approach we have to family dispute resolution.

"This is another classic case of Judith Collins blundering and bullying her way through another law reform and being tripped up by her own arrogance.

"She has totally mishandled this law change. But worse still, families and those helping them are yet to see the Minister's next set of changes.

“Until then we have no idea whether they will offer any improvements," Andrew Little said.

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