Mr RUDDOCK (Attorney-General) (12:22 PM) —I move:

This bill will increase the jurisdiction of the Magistrates Court of Western Australia so that it can deal with the same matters in relation to family law and child support, and have the same appeal structure, as the Federal Magistrates Court.

This bill provides for more efficient arrangements for the Western Australian community in relation to family law and child support disputes. The bill will allow the Magistrates Court of Western Australia constituted by a family law magistrate of Western Australia to deal with a broader range of family law and child support matters. This means that Western Australians will now have a quicker, cheaper and simpler option in relation to litigation in family law and child support matters, similar to that provided by the Federal Magistrates Court for litigants in the rest of Australia.

The reforms will also free up valuable resources in the Family Court of Western Australia, allowing that court to hear more complex matters, in the same way as the Magistrates Court in the federal arena allows the Family Court of Australia to concentrate on more complex and longer family law and child support matters.

These amendments originate from a review completed in early 2003 of the workload and resources of the Family Court of Western Australia, carried out by the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department, in consultation with the Western Australian Department of Justice and the Family Court of Western Australia.

That review found that the limited jurisdiction of the Perth magistrates in relation to family law and child support matters meant that the Family Court of Western Australia judges were hearing matters that would be more suitable for a magistrate’s determination. This was an inefficient use of valuable judicial resources.

In the rest of Australia, many of these matters would be dealt with by the Federal Magistrates Court. However, the Federal Magistrates Court does not exercise family law and child support jurisdiction in Western Australia.

Western Australia is in a unique position in relation to its family courts, as it is the only state to have a state Family Court, the Family Court of Western Australia, which exercises jurisdiction outside of Western Australia. It is exercised by the Family Court of Australia. In Perth, the only court of summary jurisdiction that exercises family law and child support is the jurisdiction of the Magistrates Court of Western Australia constituted by a family law magistrate of Western Australia.

In order to ensure the more efficient handling of family law matters in Western Australia and optimise the use of judicial resources, the review recommended that the Family Law Act 1975, the Child Support (Assessment) Act 1989 and the Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988 be amended to give the Perth Court of Petty Sessions the same jurisdiction and appeal structure as the Federal Magistrates Court at a federal level. The Perth Court of Petty Sessions has now been amalgamated into the Magistrates Court of Western Australia.

These amendments complement efforts by the Western Australian government to reform its lower courts, including the establishment of the Magistrates Court of Western Australia, which commenced on 2 May 2005.

A ‘Family Law Magistrate of Western Australia’ will be defined as a person who holds office concurrently as a magistrate under the Magistrates Court Act 2004 of Western Australia and as the Principal Registrar, or as a registrar, of the Family Court of Western Australia. This reflects the judicial structure of the courts in Western Australia, where specialist family law magistrates and registrars hold appointments as magistrates of the Magistrates Court of Western Australia and as registrars of the Family Court of Western Australia.

In relation to appeals, the review recommended that appeals from the Court of Petty Sessions in Perth should, like appeals from federal magistrates in family law matters, go directly to the Appeal Division of the Family Court of Australia. Prior to these amendments appeals could be brought from the Perth magistrates to the Family Court of Western Australia and from there to the Family Court. This effectively provided an extra layer of appeal in contrast to the situation elsewhere in Australia.

Under Commonwealth family law and child support legislation, appeals from decisions of federal magistrates are heard by the full court of the Family Court unless the Chief Judge exercises a discretion to allow appeals to be heard by a single judge. If heard by a single judge this is an exercise of the appellate jurisdiction of the court and it is not possible to appeal from such a decision to the full court. Any further appeal will be to the High Court, by leave.

Appeals in these matters from the decisions of Perth family law magistrates will now go straight to the Family Court of Australia in the same way as appeals from decisions of federal magistrates. This acknowledges that Perth magistrates are specialists in family law matters and so there should be a more restricted right of appeal from their decisions.

In the same way as the Federal Magistrates Court is able to ease the workload of the Family Court and the Federal Court, it is anticipated that the extended jurisdiction for the Magistrates Court of Western Australia constituted by a family law magistrate will help to ease the workload of the Family Court of Western Australia, allowing that court to concentrate, as I have said earlier, on more difficult and time-consuming matters.

By matching the jurisdiction with that of the Federal Magistrates Court in these matters, the intention of the bill is to provide Western Australians with enhanced access to justice according to their needs and within their means.

The reforms will reinforce the government’s intention of aligning court resources and jurisdiction as efficiently as possible and place Western Australia in the same position as the rest of Australia in relation to these matters. I commend the bill and table the explanatory memorandum.