Children’s Safety at Risk by Judith Collins’ Family Court Reforms

On 27 November 2012, the Minister Judith Collins introduced the Family Court Proceedings Reform Bill to Parliament. It has been referred to the Justice and Electoral Committee for public submissions.
The Bill makes the following changes to proceedings involving the care of children:
• All parties to a dispute over children must use the Family Dispute Resolution Service with fees of $897. In most cases it is currently free to access the Family Court and its counselling services. This will all change if the Bill becomes law on 1 October 2013. If people cannot afford the new fees (or do not qualify for the limited grounds for a subsidy of the fee or exemption) or they do not use an approved family dispute resolution provider, their case cannot be heard by a Family Court judge.

• Lawyer for children appointments will be limited. If evident child safety issues are not raised, it will be unlikely that the Court will appoint a lawyer to act for the child. Children’s concerns will be overlooked and they will effectively be silenced in decisions relating to them.

• People will have limited rights to have lawyers act for them. People will no longer have the choice to have a lawyer act for them unless proceedings are started with an urgent application or a Judge directs a Court hearing. Legal Aid will not be available in those other cases and Court staff cannot advise people on matters of law.

Many people will not be able to complete Court documents or represent themselves without legal assistance for a variety of reasons, including: stress, intimidation, language barriers, health, and confidence issues. Access to lawyers will be denied for most disputes over children even where there is domestic violence, sexual abuse, and drug/alcohol issues.

These changes will have a significant impact on families, children and vulnerable people in family disputes. Denying families access to justice will lead to increased conflict, domestic violence, unresolved disputes for children and serious issues for children being overlooked. It is our opinion that this will result in higher costs for the state. The reforms are a false economy.

Women’s groups, lawyers and academics have been campaigning throughout the country to raise awareness of these issues. A dedicated website and an online petition has been created by the campaigners (www.childrenneedavoice.com). The deadline for people to make written submissions to Parliament is 13 February 2013.

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