Collins Judith: General Debates 
Collins Judith: General Debates 
[Volume:614;Page:10383] 
JUDITH COLLINS (National—Clevedon) 
: 
 This afternoon I want to talk about an issue that should concern the whole House and should be above petty party politics. It is the issue of the secrecy of the Family Court and what is actually going on in the Family Court. I am one of the few people in Parliament who have at any time practised in the Family Court—I think my colleague Dail Jones would probably be the only other person who has—so I would like to talk from experience and also from the position of being a member of the Justice and Electoral Committee. 
At the moment the committee is hearing about the Care of Children Bill. The submissions on the bill are concerned primarily with two things. One is same-sex parents and the other is the secrecy in the Family Court. At the moment about 10000 New Zealand families are separating every year. The Family Court has gone from being solely about trying to resolve disputes to being used to rark up disputes. Legal aid is being abused. I speak from the position of having at one stage been on the Auckland District Law Society’s legal aid subcommittee for family law so I do know from experience that legal aid is being absolutely abused. Domestic violence legislation is being abused the Guardianship Act is being abused—and it is being abused because that is the way to string out the other side and it is being done with the aid of taxpayers’ money. Every year $32 million is being spent by the taxpayers of New Zealand on family legal aid. 
Most disputes about family law have nothing to do with family law; they are about family relationships. Most disputes are quite clear in law. Most matrimonial property issues are quite clear yet the court is being used in that way. Worse than that children are being used in that way. In addition to that the secrecy in the Family Court that allows it to happen and allows it to be seen also stops people speaking about it. Just last week in the select committee a submitter gave evidence to us that when he was in the Family Court he spoke to the judge and said he wanted to come to the select committee to give evidence on the Care of Children Bill. He was warned by the judge that if he did so he could well face prosecution. That was an instance of the Family Court thinking it was above Parliament. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Breach of privilege. 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: It is a breach of privilege—absolutely. What that is doing is usurping Parliament’s position in this country. It is actually usurping the democracy of this country. I happen to know that Family Court judge and I am sure that as a very decent person he thought he was doing the right thing. But he was wrong and a major point of this speech is that the Family Court has become so intertwined with itself—so utterly incestuous; so totally without any shred of light getting in any media attention or anyone else’s attention—that it thinks it is above the law. And that is not good enough. 
I was thinking of naming the judge in Parliament today; however I have decided that because the matter is still in front of the court—as it probably will be for the next 15 years because that is the nature of Family Court proceedings; they tend to go on for ever and ever—I will in fact write to the Chief Justice. I prefer to do that rather than write to the Principal Family Court Judge and I will point out what is going on. 
It is about time that we as a Parliament dealt with this matter and it is about time we stopped having little arguments between ourselves and looked at this as a major issue. The Family Court should be a court of law that deals with legal issues and deals with them quickly and fairly. At the moment we have affidavits upon affidavits going into court everyone wasting their time taxpayers wasting their time and family relationships destroyed beyond any—any—hope of resurrection and it is being done with taxpayers’ money. Mostly it is about legal aid.