Lighthouse project will help courts protect families at risk

A $55m federal budget boost will help the Family Court’s expanded Lighthouse Project to detect and protect at-risk families.

A $55m funding boost for Family Court’s specialist case management system is ‘very good news for the Australian public’, says Chief Justice Will Alstergren. Supplied.

A world-first program that screens, triages and assesses families for risks including violence, child, drug or alcohol abuse and mental ill-health when they first approach the Family Court about parenting arrangements will be rolled out nationally following a $54.9m federal budget boost.

The Lighthouse Project’s funding is a big win for the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, and follows a record $100m single allocation for extra resources in the previous budget.

The court’s CEO and principal registrar David Pringle said the funding recognised “a substantial increase in the prevalence of family violence and high risk cases in the family law system”.

The pilot, which began in January last year, will now expand beyond Adelaide, Brisbane and Parramatta to the rest of the state and territory capitals — barring in Western Australia, which has its own Family Court — as well as Cairns, Rockhampton, Townsville, Newcastle, Wollongong and Launceston.

Previous court data showed about 80 per cent of litigants alleged at least one major risk factor in their situation. However, the Lighthouse pilot revealed that following more than 1400 interviews with high-risk litigants, half alleged four or more major risk factors.

The new funds will provide staff and facilities so that such risk families can be identified via an online questionnaire and interview as soon as possible and receive intensive case management including safety planning and referrals to support services.

Some high-risk cases can be further referred, if necessary, to the court’s specialist case management pathway, the Evatt List.

The combination of secure online questionnaire, personal interview, and intensive case management is a world first for a court.

Chief Justice Will Alstergren said the extension of the program was “very good news for the Australian public”.

“It has not only shed light on the high prevalence of risk in family law cases, but assisted the courts to manage those risks appropriately … to ensure safer outcomes for vulnerable parties and children involved in family law disputes,” Justice Alstergren said.

The funding will translate into 71 new jobs, mainly for registrars and support staff and includes 15 Court Children’s Services positions and $2.5m for capital expenditure.

The court also received $8.85m to employ more Indigenous family liaison officers and other staff to enable the smooth running of specialist Indigenous lists or modified case managment processes in Adelaide, Alice Springs, Darwin, Melbourne and Sydney.

Law Council of Australia president Tass Liveris said he was “particularly pleased” about the additional federal budget funding, not just for the Lighthouse Project, but for other initiatives in the family law sector, which had been significantly underfunded for many years.

However, he was concerned that some Legal Aid Commission funding to support case management provisions that came into effect on September would not cover increased costs to clients.

“We will have to wait to see the impact this funding has on reducing the backlog of matters, in meeting the growing demand for services and ensuring Australian families can afford assistance when they need it,” Mr Liveris said.