Christian Porter should not have abolished the Family Court

Federal parliament decided on February 18 to abolish the stand-alone Family Court of Australia and merge it into the Federal Circuit Court.

The move was pushed by Attorney General Christian Porter and the Coalition and One Nation. It was opposed by many who work in the family law system, including 13 retired judges.

Angela Lynch of the Queensland Women’s Legal Service told Green Left that the decision would have a bad impact on victims and survivors of domestic violence.

Some Family Court matters used to be dealt with by the Federal Circuit Court. “There had been discussions for more than a decade about the fact we had these two court systems dealing with family law and there were many problems associated with that,” Lynch said.

However, it was a Coalition government that two decades ago that first separated the court’s functions and, at the time, women’s legal advocates were highly critical of that decision.