With reference to the Family Court of Australia and waiting times for trial:

(1)   Given that the waiting time before trial for the Family Court of Western Australia has recently reached 2 years, is there a similar waiting time in the Family Court of Australia.

(2)   Has the waiting time for trial increased in the past 12 months to 2 years.

(3)   What measures does the Family Court of Australia currently implement to ensure the waiting list for trial remains at a minimum.

(1)   In the Family Court of Australia in 2009-10, 91% of all applications were finalised within 12 months. This is an increase from 89% in 2008-09 and represents an ongoing improvement in the percentage of applications finalised by the court within 12 months. For those matters going to trial, the time taken from filing to commencement of trial was 16.1 months in 2008-09 and 13.2 months in 2009-10.

(2)   As indicated in question (1), the waiting time from filing to commencement of trial in the Family Court of Australia has decreased over the last two financial years. The Family Court of Australia also achieved a 100% clearance rate in 2009-10, indicating that the court is keeping up with its new work and preventing an increase in its backlog of pending cases.

(3)   The Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia, along with the Chief Federal Magistrate, has published a protocol for the division of work between the Family Court of Australia and the Federal Magistrates Court. This enables litigants and their representatives to direct their family law applications to the most appropriate court to deal with the matter, reducing the need for transfers between the courts. The Family Court of Australia has an ongoing monitoring process for workloads and shifts resources across registries, as required, to manage workloads. During 2009-10, the court undertook a review of its oldest active cases to better understand the causes of the delay and determine ways in which they could be dealt with more appropriately. The benefits of the review are expected to materialise in 2010-11.