Family Court shake-up

The Turnbull government could also face difficulty pushing the reforms through the Senate, with the Greens warning they had “serious concerns”.

As revealed by The Australian, Attorney-General George Brandis is set to unveil plans for the Federal Court to take over the running of the Family and Federal Circuit Courts, including services such as payroll, communications and commonwealth vehicles for judges.

The reforms come after a ­report by consultants KPMG, handed to Senator Brandis more than 18 months ago, warned the courts were on track for a collective deficit of almost $75 million by 2017-18 and that their existing funding model was “financially unsustainable”.

In the Federal Circuit Court’s annual report tabled this week, Chief Judge John Pascoe said nine judges had retired over the past year and not all had been replaced. The Family and Federal Circuit Court recorded a combined $4.7m loss in 2014-15, while the Federal Court had a $500,000 surplus.

Greens legal affairs spokesman Nick McKim told The Australian the Greens had “serious concerns” about how the change would affect the Family and Federal Circuit Courts and the ­potential loss of family law ­expertise.

“Family Court staff across all areas have experience dealing with families in crisis, which is not something easily measured on a balance sheet.”

The chair of the Law Council of Australia’s family law section, Rick O’Brien, said the changes would not address the “fundamental problem”, which was that both the Family and Federal Circuit Courts were “drastically under-resourced” and did not have enough judges.

Leading family law barrister Michael Kearney SC said the proposal was bizarre. “Other than penny-pinching, there can be no logical rationale for seeking to divest the courts in the family law sphere of their independent operation and funding.”

SOURCE: THE AUSTRALIAN