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Tuesday, 2 February 2016
Page: 68

Senator MADIGAN (Victoria) (16:26): I, and also on the behalf of Senators Day, Muir, Wang, Lazarus, Leyonhjelm and Lambie, move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes the 2003 committee report by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Community Affairs, Every picture tells a story: Report on the inquiry into child custody arrangements in the event of family separation, which recommended that a new non-adversarial system be created; and

(b) calls on the Government to:

(i) recognise that thousands of Australian children continue to be harmed by a family law system that is not fit-for-purpose,

(ii) recognise That the Family Law Act 1975 should be revised, simplified, shortened and based on core principles of the paramountcy of the long-term welfare of children, gender equality, and equal parental care and responsibility, when neither parent has been proven unfit, and

(iii) undertake a root-and-branch review of the family law system with a view to creating a new mechanism that is not adversarial in nature and deals with family separation in a way that has a tangible and primary focus on the welfare of the child, including an urgency for decisions, education and fairness.