The Greens welcome the announcement of family law amendments aimed at putting children\u2019s welfare first in family law matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After years of inaction, and unnecessary, damaging inquiries, we welcome the government\u2019s willingness to listen to the experts instead of the political grandstanding that has traumatised survivors of family and domestic violence and provided a platform for hate and misinformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fair, child-safety focussed outcomes can only be achieved with adequate resources, yet both the Federal Circuit and Family Court and the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children remain woefully underfunded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Greens leader in the Senate and spokesperson on women Senator Larissa Waters<\/strong> said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFinally, after years of wasted time and damaging misinformation campaigns – including Pauline Hanson\u2019s toxic family law inquiry – we may start to see real improvements to the family law system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe evidence has repeatedly shown that gendered violence is a core problem at the heart of the family law system, and that children frequently bear the brunt of violent relationships and protracted legal matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe sector has long called for removal of the presumption of equal shared parenting, strengthening the obligations of Independent Children\u2019s Lawyers (ICLs) and family report writers, and definitions of family that respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and kinship. We are pleased to see the Labor government listening to the experts and implementing these changes to centre children\u2019s safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cChildren\u2019s safety must be a key consideration in all situations, including matters under the Hague Convention. We know that many perpetrators of family and domestic violence have been able to weaponise the court process to continue their abuse and control. The proposed amendments will give the courts more capacity to identify and prevent systems abuse, and help to keep women and children safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Greens will review the proposed amendments and work with stakeholders and the government to ensure a strong, fair, and safe family law system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFailing to adequately fund the courts and frontline family and domestic violence services has created delays and gaps in the system that continue to put women and children at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe only way to strengthen the outcomes and timeliness of family law matters is to ensure they are heard by experienced, specialist judges. Funding for judicial training, as well as wraparound support services including safe rooms, risk screening and triaging programs, and cultural liaison workers are essential to the success of any reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children, released last year to great fanfare, has laudable goals. But ambitious aims need to be backed with funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe women\u2019s safety sector has repeatedly called for a $1B per year investment to ensure funding meets demand, and the Greens support these calls. The Government\u2019s budget response was nowhere near this amount, leaving frontline services about $700m short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf the Attorney General wants these reforms to work, his government needs to stump up the funding for them to do so, as well as properly resourcing frontline domestic, family and sexual violence support services and prevention programs including age-appropriate education.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Greens welcome the announcement of family law amendments aimed at putting children\u2019s welfare first in family law matters. After years of inaction, and unnecessary, damaging inquiries, we welcome the government\u2019s willingness to listen to the experts instead of the political grandstanding that has traumatised survivors of family and domestic violence and provided a platform … Continue reading “FAMILY LAW REFORMS WELCOME, BUT INADEQUATE FUNDING LEAVES WOMEN AND CHILDREN AT RISK”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19974"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19975,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19974\/revisions\/19975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}