Issue No 24 October 1998
Family Law Council Newsletter
IN THIS ISSUE
- New Chairperson and Council members
- Director of Research to retire
- Two major Council reports released
- Discussion paper on violence and family law
- 24 September 1998 Council meeting
NEW CHAIRPERSON AND COUNCIL MEMBERS
The Attorney-General, the Hon Daryl Williams AM QC MP, has appointed Mr Des Semple as Chairperson of the Family Law Council for a 3 year term commencing from 18 August 1998. Mr Semple was a member of Council from 1 July 1995 to 30 June 1998. He is a social worker by profession with a lengthy background in child protection administration at a senior level. Mr Semple is currently Head of KPMG's Public Sector Management Consultancy Group. He is the first non-lawyer to chair the Council since it was established in November 1976.
Four other appointments were made to the Council. They were: the Hon Justice Richard Chisholm, Ms Susan Bastick, Mr Fabian Dixon and Ms Dianne Gibson.
The Hon Justice Richard Chisholm, has been a Judge of the Family Court of Australia since September 1993. He is based in Sydney. He was formerly a member of the Council during 1988-1990. Prior to his appointment to the court, Justice Chisholm was Associate Professor of Law at the University of NSW.
Ms Susan Bastick is the NSW State President of the Australian Family Association and lives in Sydney.
Mr Fabian Dixon is the President of the Law Council of Australia. He is a solicitor in Hobart and currently practices almost exclusively in the family law jurisdiction.
Ms Dianne Gibson is Executive Director of Family Services Australia, which is one of the three peak Councils for the provision of family services to the community. Ms Gibson has extensive experience in the provision of mediation services.
The new appointments bring the number of Council members to ten.
Please address all correspondence and inquiries concerning the Family Law Council News to:
The Director of Research
Family Law Council
50 Blackall Street
BARTON ACT 2600 Telephone: (06) 250 6375. Fax: (06) 250 5917
DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH TO RETIRE
by Jenny Degeling
The Director of Research of the Family Law Council, Mr Bill Hughes, has announced that he proposes to retire from full-time work from 10 December 1998 after 41 years in the Commonwealth Public Service. Bill has been the Council's Director of Research since 9 July 1990 - a period of over 8 years. During this period he has served under four Chairpersons and has worked with a large number of Council members, observers and staff.
Since its establishment in 1976 the Council has, among other things, published 36 major reports to government, of which 17 - or almost one-half - have been produced since 1990. Bill worked with the Council committees responsible for most of those reports. Many of the recommendations made in them have already been implemented and others are currently under consideration.
Bill has an ongoing interest in history and this led him to write the Council's history which was published to mark the Council's 20th anniversary in October 1996 (The Family Law Council 1976-1996: A record of achievement.) A primary concern of his has been to ensure that the Council's records were preserved and made more accessible to researchers and others, and this led to Council's meeting papers being collected, bound and indexed. One set of the papers for the period 1976-1996 is now available at Australian Archives. A second set, including the period since 1996, is held in the Council's Secretariat. Other improvements in the records include the annual volumes collection of Council and Council committee minutes and a bound and indexed set of papers from many of Council's major projects.
As well as being a lawyer, Bill holds a Masters degree in Administration and has a keen interest in public administration. In March 1995, he published an article in the Australian Journal of Public Administration titled "Advising the government: the Family Law Council" (Vol 54 No 1 at pages 46-57) which examined the role, membership and operation of advisory bodies such as the Family Law Council. This article has since been included in briefing material provided to new Council members and many have said that it is an excellent introduction to working on such a body.
During his period as Director of Research, Bill has established a wide network of contacts in the courts, among the legal and other professions, with a number of overseas people and organisations, within the State and Federal public services and with students and researchers. Members of the general public often ring and talk over family law issues and problems with him. He maintains that an advisory body has to listen to anyone who has relevant information, views or experience and the more open such bodies are to outside views the better their advice to government will generally be.
Bill says that he has enjoyed working with members of Council and the Council's observers, who represent a wide range of expertise and experience. "The capacity of the Department to provide quality advice to the Attorney-General is clearly enhanced by having bodies such as the Family Law Council", he says.
TWO MAJOR COUNCIL REPORTS RELEASED
The Attorney-General approved the release of two major council reports in August 1998 - Parental Child Abduction and Child Contact Orders: Enforcement and Penalties. It is expected that the two reports will formally be tabled in Parliament when Parliament is reconvened after the elections.
The report Parental Child Abduction arose out of a reference to Council by the Attorney-General in September 1996. Council was asked to examine a number of specific questions, including whether parental child abduction should be regarded as a criminal offence and if so what defences and exceptions should apply, in what statute should the legislation be contained, in what court should offences be tried and whether police should have power to intercept telephone calls and use listening devices in such cases.
Council released a discussion paper on the issues in February 1997 and received 29 submissions from a range of persons and organisations. Council's report indicates that, in general, the submissions put forward a range of relevant and helpful views on the issues and were a significant assistance in the drafting of the final report.
The main recommendation in the child abduction report is that abduction of a child by a parent should not be a criminal offence. Council was not convinced that parental child abduction is in the nature of a criminal offence, considered that there is no strong evidence that criminalisation would lead to an appreciable improvement in the rate of recovery of abducted children and was of the view that alternatives to criminalisation (which are examined in the report) could achieve the aim of improving the recovery rate of abducted children. Council also took into account a number of possible negative effects of criminalisation on the people involved, including the children.
Release of the report Child Contact Orders: Enforcement and Penalties (June 1998) followed publication of the interim report Penalties and Enforcement (March 1998).
In the final report Council has made a range of recommendations to Government. The report says (para 1.18) that:
- ... the problems in relation to child contact are quite diverse. Council does not believe that there is a simple or single solution to those problems, but rather that a range of solutions is required... Council has sought to identify the range of problems which exist and to find solutions for each of those problems, while recommending some changes which it considers will have an overall positive effect.
The Council's recommendations were made against the background of a three tiered approach in dealing with contravention of child contact orders - preventative, remedial and punitive. Those recommendations include the following:
- the need for a community education program to help change any erroneous attitudes existing in the general community about parenting after divorce;
- the need for legislation dealing specifically with child contact;
- a move away from a formal court hearing to a summary process, using Federal and State Magistrates;
- more emphasis to be placed on the use of primary dispute resolution services, including wider availability of post-order counselling to impart information and to stress responsibilities;
- the appointment of Counsel assisting the court in more complex cases;
- further improvements in the availability of contact handover centres;
- the use of recovery orders to deliver children to contact parents in extreme cases of recurrent breaches; and
- the development of standard orders for use by those drafting contact orders.
On the question of resources the Council's report refers to the need to:
- ... invest funds in the proposals put forward in [the] report on the basis that it will ultimately lead to a more efficient and effective system for dealing with child contact problems.
The Council considered that in the long term the improvements proposed in its report will result in cost savings in both financial and human terms.
DISCUSSION PAPER ON VIOLENCE AND FAMILY LAW - FINANCIAL REMEDIES
Council's discussion paper Violence and the Family Law Act: Financial remedies was released in late August 1998. The paper calls for submissions by 30 November 1998. Copies of the discussion paper are available from the Council's Secretariat - telephone or fax as follows: Cate Wells on 02-6250 6842 (telephone) and 02-6250 5917 (fax). Anyone wishing to discuss the contents of the paper should contact Ms Jenny Degeling on 02-6250 6519.
24 SEPTEMBER 1998 COUNCIL MEETING
Following the retirement of 7 Council members, including the Chairperson Mrs Jennifer Boland, on 30 June 1998 there were 4 new members appointed. Retiring member, Mr Des Semple, was appointed for a further 3 years as Chairperson.
The new Council met in Canberra for a one-day meeting on 24 September 1998. Background briefing and documents on the operation of the Council had earlier been distributed to each of the new members. The one-day meeting served several purposes - clearing some urgent business, getting to know one another and discussing operational matters.
The main item for the new Council was to finalise the 1997-98 annual report. Most of the annual report had been examined by the previous Council, but the statistics material became available for the first time in late August and this was the main focus of Council.
The Council also considered the 1998-99 work program, the composition of Council committees, the 1999 meeting program, the 8th National Family Law Conference in Hobart and a number of other issues.
A number of papers on operational matters were requested for the next meeting, which is due to be held following the 8th National Family Law Conference in Hobart.
The Family Law Council News is a quarterly news sheet which aims at informing persons and organisations about the work of the Family Law Council. The News is produced under the auspices of the Family Law Council but the views expressed are those of the writer or the Editor and not necessarily of any of its members or members of its committees. The purpose of the News is to provide general information and not legal advice. Every care is taken in the preparation of the News but readers are advised to check the detail of any legislation, cases or other material in it. All inquiries about the Family Law Council News should be directed to the Director of Research, Family Law Council, 50 Blackall Street, BARTON. ACT. 2600.
Editor: Jenny Degeling and Bill Hughes Distribution: Cate Wells
Design: Printing & Design Subsection, Attorney-General's Department