- Court Short
- By Bettina Arndt
- The Bulletin
- 18/05/2005 Make a Comment
- Contributed by: admin ( 47 articles in 2005 )
A $398m grant from the federal budget aimed at avoiding litigation over child custody may signal the death knell of the Family Court, as Bettina Arndt reports.
He won. Last year the full bench of the Family Court cleared a Sydney engineer of abusing his three children, and ordered his ex-wife to allow him to see them. But nothing changed. After five years and $100,000 spent fighting in the Family Court, the man has given up. He didn't 'win' at all.
The Family Court isn't the right place to decide what happens to children after divorce. That's the signal from the 2005 federal budget. Courts and judges will still be needed for affluent couples fighting over the spoils of the marriage but a new $398m injection for Family Relationship centres is aimed at keeping children's matters away from this adversarial system. The federal money comes close to matching the Family Court's budget.
The idea was proposed by Sydney University Professor Patrick Parkinson. His Family Relationship Centres, the linchpin of new announcements, will use child-focussed mediation to encourage separating parents to consider their children's needs.
Now the government faces the challenge of getting the centres up and running. The discussion paper produced by the attorney-general's department did a lousy job explaining child-focused mediation, leaving the impression that all couples would be required to do was have a chat about parenting plans before heading off for the court.
Luckily, the centres are required to be run by organisations with proven expertise. There are some major sticking points - like the suggestion families with a history of violence must be dealt with by the court. The court has made a hash of many such cases, as was acknowledged in a 2003 child protection report by the Family Law Council.
It may well be that the Relationship Centres will prove the best place for even these troublesome cases. Child-centred mediation is successful even in separating families with a history of violence.
Are we seeing the beginning of the end of the Family Court?
He won. Last year the full bench of the Family Court cleared a Sydney engineer of abusing his three children, and ordered his ex-wife to allow him to see them. But nothing changed. After five years and $100,000 spent fighting in the Family Court, the man has given up. He didn't 'win' at all.
The Family Court isn't the right place to decide what happens to children after divorce. That's the signal from the 2005 federal budget. Courts and judges will still be needed for affluent couples fighting over the spoils of the marriage but a new $398m injection for Family Relationship centres is aimed at keeping children's matters away from this adversarial system. The federal money comes close to matching the Family Court's budget.
The idea was proposed by Sydney University Professor Patrick Parkinson. His Family Relationship Centres, the linchpin of new announcements, will use child-focussed mediation to encourage separating parents to consider their children's needs.
Now the government faces the challenge of getting the centres up and running. The discussion paper produced by the attorney-general's department did a lousy job explaining child-focused mediation, leaving the impression that all couples would be required to do was have a chat about parenting plans before heading off for the court.
Luckily, the centres are required to be run by organisations with proven expertise. There are some major sticking points - like the suggestion families with a history of violence must be dealt with by the court. The court has made a hash of many such cases, as was acknowledged in a 2003 child protection report by the Family Law Council.
It may well be that the Relationship Centres will prove the best place for even these troublesome cases. Child-centred mediation is successful even in separating families with a history of violence.
Are we seeing the beginning of the end of the Family Court?
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