Mr Jull asked the Attorney-General, upon notice, on 11 November 1998:

(1) Have some registries of the Family Court, such as Brisbane, fallen behind others in dealing with property and child matters; if so, why.

(2) Is the Family Court meeting its own time standards; if not, what is it doing to rectify the problems.

Mr Williams (Attorney-General) —The answer to the honourable member's question is as follows:

The Family Court has advised me that:-

(1) Yes. The relative position of Registries is not a constant. Workload and available judicial resources fluctuate over time. Brisbane in particular has sustained a considerable increase in workload while its judicial strength has been relatively constant. Melbourne and Adelaide have had similar workload increases without additional judicial strength. The Full Court workload has increased substantially which means that the Appeal Division Judges are less available to sit at first instance. Melbourne has 2 Appeal Division Judges while Brisbane, Canberra, Sydney and Parramatta have one each. Judicial resources are temporarily diverted to help out where Registries are falling behind the generally prevailing levels of delay. There are limits to this in practical terms because of cost and the extent to which Judges can be expected to be away from home. Fundamentally, it is a question of the number of applications filed and the number of Judges available to hear them.

(2) Not universally. The Court has been and is engaged in extensive reviews of its procedures and practices and currently has external consultants engaged to map its processes and to look for improvements to assist in meeting standards. The Court is also undertaking a review of its case management system, in part to address the issues which are also confronting other courts, namely cost and delay. The Court has sought legislative amendment to allow Rules to be made in relation to trial management and those Rules have been drafted. The Judges have also delegated certain of their powers to Judicial Registrars and Registrars. However, the rate of growth in workload coupled with the increasing number of litigants who present without legal representation has meant that time standards are not always able to be met.