Chief Justice called family violence a national disgrace

“It is the Federal Circuit Court that receives 90 per cent of all parenting applications filed across the two courts,” he said.

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On Thursday Chief Justice Alstergren launched the Lighthouse Project, a three-year $13.5 million pilot to screen families in the Federal Circuit Court for risk using a confidential online platform called Family DOORS (Detection of Overall Risk Screen) Triage. The questionnaire can also be answered offline.

The tool will be piloted in parenting matters in Parramatta, Brisbane and Adelaide and used to connect families with health and other support services, such as police and child welfare authorities. Cases identified as “high risk” will be sent to a specialist list of 10 judges. A similar list already exists in the Family Court.

“The level of family violence in our society is a disgrace,” the chief justice told the National STOP Domestic Violence conference in Queensland.

“We as a community cannot accept the number of deaths every week, month or year, or the number of people scarred for life physically, or mentally.”

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He said that “for too long, the process of separation and divorce has been viewed largely as a legal issue” but “we know it is much broader than that”.

Chief Justice Alstergren said the new program was a significant step towards “improving risk screening and providing a system that is much more holistic in its consideration of the health and welfare of the families involved in family law proceedings”. Lisa O’Neill, the courts’ practice and procedure registrar, has overseen the rollout of the pilot.

Attorney-General Christian Porter announced a merger of the two courts in May 2018 and has met with fierce opposition from Labor, the Greens and peak legal bodies. He believes the merger will improve efficiencies and create a single entry point for family law matters while retaining family law specialisation.

Federal Labor MP Dr Mike Freelander, the member for the NSW seat of Macarthur, attended the conference via video link and described domestic violence as “sickness on our society”. He said in his 40-year career as a pediatrician he had witnessed horrific effects of abuse from patients who came to him for help.

“I recall two twins that were eight months of age who I attempted to resuscitate after having had their skulls smashed,” he said.

Sadly one of the twins didn’t survive and the other was left with severe cerebral palsy and blindness.

He also recalled “a six-year-old girl who had been starved to death”.

Dr Freelander said the Lighthouse pilot was desperately needed.

Federal Labor MP Dr Ann Aly, who appeared via video link from Parliament House in Canberra, spoke of her experience on the joint select committee examining the family law system.

“The predominant issue is the workload and waiting list that has caused more stress and more harm to people who are going through the family system,” she said.

Dr Aly, who had gone through the court system herself as a domestic violence survivor, said reform was needed urgently and “it’s quite actually rather disheartening to see the issues that I encountered over 20 years ago persist even today”.

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