A Far South Coast lawyer has lashed out at long waits for family court hearings, saying funds spent keeping refugee children in detention should be diverted to unclog the system.
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Bega-based solicitor Andrew Warren said local families were waiting up to two years for their day in court, making divorce more traumatic, especially for children.
A lack of regional services forced cases to be heard in the ACT or Sydney.
“I don't think it is acceptable that parents have to wait two years to get their parenting disputes sorted out,” he said.
“Often, by the time you get to court, the status quo is entrenched. It is solely the responsibility of the federal government, which provides the funding for the courts.”
Judges involved were “incredibly hard-working and overworked” and “if the government spent less money keeping children locked up in detention, they might have more money to spend on the family court system”, Mr Warren said.
“Because it now takes so long to get a final hearing date in a parenting matter, more and more people are following interim applications, seeking to have interim orders made, pending a hearing date being provided.
“This just clogs the system up even more.”
Meanwhile, a months-long campaign to relieve chronic backlogs in Wollongong’s overloaded family court system appears to have fallen on deaf ears, with Attorney-General George Brandis telling a senate estimates hearing he had not heard from local MPs.
Lawyers say Wollongong’s Federal Circuit Court now has a backlog of more than 600 cases.
When asked about representations made to him by Illawarra MPs, Senator Brandis answered: “The only politician who has raised the issue of Wollongong is Senator Fierravanti Wells.”
This has outraged the region’s Labor MPs, Sharon Bird and Stephen Jones, who have sent several letters to Senator Brandis – and received replies from his office –about the broken system.
Liberal MP Ann Sudmalis has also advised him of the court’s problems as recently as last week.
- YOUR SAY: ben.smyth@fairfaxmedia.com.au