Secret plan to de-merge family law

Opposition legal affairs spokeswoman Michaelia Cash has accused Labor of secretly moving to de-merge the Family and Federal Circuit courts.

Opposition legal affairs spokeswoman Michaelia Cash. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Opposition legal affairs spokeswoman Michaelia Cash has accused Labor of secretly planning to de-merge the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, with the Coalition saying the move would clog up the system and cause litigation costs to skyrocket for separating families.

In an interview with The Australian, Senator Cash said Labor’s move to bring forward a review into the former Coalition gov­ernment’s court merger showed that Anthony Albanese was considering undoing the reform.

Under Labor’s proposed reforms to the family law system, the review into the court merger could be brought forward to as early as September next year.

Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia Chief Justice Will Alstergren said the courts experienced a dramatic lift in clearance rates after the Coalition introduced its reforms, including those initiated by the courts.

Senator Cash said undoing the merger would be “purely for ideological reasons” and the Albanese government had not undergone proper consultation for changes.

She said breaking up the courts could spark a dramatic slowdown in clearance rates in the family law system, with the Coalition’s merger designed to improve efficiency in family law cases and clear a backlog of 20,000 matters.

A spokesman for Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus did not deny the government intended to break up the Federal Circuit and Family Court.

He said the government was “committed to reviewing the operation of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia to ensure it is responsive to the needs of litigants, and, importantly, that those at risk of family violence are protected and supported”.

Chief Justice Alstergren said the recent changes had en­abled the courts to work through 25 per cent of the pending cases in the past two years. The average time from filing an appeal to the delivery of a judgment in family law cases has also halved, while 92 per cent of the matters filed were resolved within a year.

Labor opposed the Coalition’s merger at the time, with Mr Dreyfus saying it effectively spelled the end of a specialised family court and the move had been “rejected by the entire family court sector”.

“There is a very deliberate amendment in this legislation relating to bringing forward the review date of the merger of the family and federal courts from five years to three,” Senator Cash said.

She said expediting the review was “an entirely political decision … intended to allow Labor to re-litigate the merger of the family courts ahead of the next election”.

“This is despite the hugely successful nature of these changes. I find it very disappointing and it is purely ideological reasons that the Attorney-General would go down this path.”

Chief Justice Alstergren said there was unprecedented level of co-operation between the courts, enabling the legal system to better manage high risk family law cases and collect robust data.

“It has allowed us to really assess how these cases can be properly dealt with in the court system and ensure that not only are they dealt with a lot quicker but that they’ve got really good quality about them, with the surrounding services that people need when they are vulnerable,” he said.

“We’ve done almost 4700 mediations in the past financial year, which is a huge amount nationally and overseas, with a success rate of 60 per cent, which is almost unheard of.

“The current reforms are talking about bringing the review forward to three years; that’s a matter for government,” he said.

“We’re very proud of the results and we don’t think on any objective basis that anybody could have any other view than that.”