'Reasonable fear of violence' unreasonable

The word “reasonable” is a contradiction to the federal government’s “Violence Against Women, AUSTRALIA SAYS NO” campaign. For the sake of consistency it should be renamed, “Violence Against Women, AUSTRALIA SAYS AS LONG AS IT’S REASONABLE”.

This family law reform is creating an environment where evidence of violence will potentially be minimised, ignored and go unacknowledged. Its subjective insidiousness is to the detriment of the victims: women and their children.

Justice Warnick highlights problems inherent in the current use of the Family Law Court to hear cases on family violence and child abuse. Commenting on cases that proceed to trial in a submission to the Australian Law Reform Commission’s Review of the federal civil justice system (DP 62 at para. 11.11), he said (pdf file 623KB): “I often feel that the Court these days in child matters is acting almost as an arm of the public child welfare system.”

The reality is that the family court is an arm of the child welfare system by default. Justice Warnick’s observation that the court is often, unwittingly, an arm of the child welfare system, highlights the quandary and deficiency of the court’s basis for the cases: where the separated parents are in court over child contact and residency issues. Therefore, child abuse cases should not be heard in the Family Court at all.

Alistair Nicholson, former head of the family court, highlighted this years ago. The court was designed for divorce and property settlements. Evidence of child abuse and family violence are being heard by judges who have little or no professional knowledge relating to abuse and its effects on children's development.

This use of the word, “reasonable” demonstrates that the federal government is also ill equipped to deal with the problem of child abuse and family violence. That they continue to ignore the recommendations of their own experts in the area, The Family Law Council, is incomprehensible.

The new family law regime will create additional difficulties for victims of violence to defend their case. In an arena not designed for this purpose and not learning from its mistakes, further abuse and deaths of children on court ordered contact is predicted.